Read Online The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie MAnsfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age by H. W. Brands - Free Book Online Page A

speculations. I don’t, of course, think that he supported me. I did not understand it so. It was not done with that intention at all.”
    The audience listens closely and, by the dubious looks on many faces, disbelievingly as the kept woman denies her keeping.
    Spencer articulates the room’s doubts. “Do I understand you to say that when you were at this clubhouse you were supported through money received from stock operations conducted on your behalf by Colonel Fisk?”
    “Yes, it was to that effect.”
    “What were these stock operations?”
    “They were some entered into by a mutual friend of ours—Mr. Marston.”
    “Who furnished Marston money for the operation?”
    “I don’t know who furnished him with the money. I suppose it was his own.”
    “Did you ever receive money from Marston or Fisk as the proceeds of that stock operation?”
    “Yes, sir, two or three hundred dollars a month.”
    Heads in the audience wag.
    Spencer pursues the narrative. “Where did I understand you to say you moved from the clubhouse?”
    “To Jersey City.”
    The audience stirs with anticipation at this reference to the notorious flight of the Erie directors.
    “And you mentioned you were there with Fisk for nine weeks?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he not support and maintain you during that time?”
    “I don’t think so, directly. The money, I suppose, came from the Erie Railway. I went to Jersey on that occasion with the officers of the Erie company, and the railroad paid all the expense.”
    “Where were you staying in Jersey City?”
    “Taylor’s Hotel, where I occupied a suite of rooms.”
    “Did anybody occupy them with you?”
    “All the time, do you mean?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Mr. Fisk did, sometimes.”
    “Anybody else?”
    “During the day it was used as a sort of rendezvous by the officers.”
    “During the night only by yourself and Colonel Fisk?”
    “Yes.”
    Spencer lets this picture—of Josie and Fisk on the lam in Taylor’s Hotel—sink in. He then asks for details about the stock operations from which Josie received her income. “Did you see any of them?”
    “It was not necessary for me to see them personally.”
    “Then the money you supposed came from these operations came to you from Fisk personally?”
    “Yes.”
    Spencer asks about Josie’s house. “You changed your residence to your present dwelling at what time?”
    “1868, I think.”
    “Where did you get the means to purchase the house?”
    “Out of my stock speculations.”
    “And through the same process and in the same way you describe?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “What was the difference?”
    “From the money I made out of the stock speculations I bought government bonds and held these some time.”
    “Who got these bonds?”
    “I think Mr. Fisk’s clerk bought them for me.”
    “Who furnished money to buy these bonds?”
    “It was furnished out of these stock speculations.”
    “Did you get the money personally and give it for these bonds, or did not Mr. Fisk furnish all these moneys?”
    “He did not. I held the money given for the bonds in my hands before the bonds were bought.”
    “Where did you get that money?”
    “From Fisk.”
    Spencer nods as if to underline these words: “From Fisk.” He consults his papers. He walks across the courtroom and back.
    He asks about the letters Fisk has written her. Did she ever give the letters to anyone else?
    “I never did.”
    “Did you supply them to Mr. Stokes?”
    The audience buzzes. Josie realizes she has stumbled. She answers slowly: “I gave them to him, to the number of about seventy-five.”
    “They were the original letters that Colonel Fisk had written to you during your intimacy with him?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you gave them to Mr. Stokes for what purpose?”
    “Because he told me it would benefit him in the case that was pending between him and Mr. Fisk at the time.”
    “You furnished these letters to Mr. Stokes at his request, he saying to