The Checkered Life and Sudden Death of Colonel James Fisk, Jr

Good evening. This is crime classics. I am Thomas Highland. I'm going to tell you another true crime story Listen the man who just fell down the stairs is Colonel James Fisk Jr Although the Colonel is a man given to the consumption of dozens of blue point oysters and bottles of heady wine at a sitting

His friends were given to pointing him out as a man inordinately steady on his feet So why did he tumble down the stairs? And in New York's Grand Central Hotel, no less, where stair tumbling was frowned upon.

The Colonel didn't slip. He wasn't pushed. He was shot. The sudden presence of two bullets in him had upset his equilibrium. The man who was running away is the man who just shot the Colonel.

His name, Edward S. Stokes. Until recently the Colonel's very dear friend. There he goes. And tonight my report to you on the checkered life and sudden death of Colonel James Fisk Union. Crime Classics A series of true crime stories taken from the records and newspapers of every land from every time.

Your host each week, Mr. Thomas Island, connoisseur of crime, student of violence, and teller of murders. Now once again Thomas Island. General Fisk lay at the bottom of the stairs, a few minutes before four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, January the 6th, 1872. He was dying, his life was coming to an end, and he would

be sorely missed. By his family Mrs. Fisk and the children, and whom were J. Gould, Boss tweed and the heavier stockholders of the day. A man dying, and I know the precise instant when his dying began. It started some months ago in a rather ornate house in Washington Square. Two women were talking, and the younger one said,