The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield - H. W. Brands

Written by H. W. Brands
Read by Richard McGonagle
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield: A Tragedy of the Gilded Age

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: May 31, 2011
Duration: 04:56:15

Even before he was shot dead on the stairway of the fashiolable Grand Central Hotel in 1872, financier James “Jubilee Jim” Fisk, Jr., was a notorious New York City figure. From his audacious attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 to his battle for control of the geographically crucial Erie Railroad, Fisk was a flamboyant exemplar of a new financial era marked by volatile fortunes and unprecedented greed and corruption. But it was his scandalously open affair with a showgirl named Josie Mansfield that ultimately led to his demise.

In this riveting short history, H. W. Brands traces Fisk’s extraordinary downfall, bringing to life New York’s Gilded Age and some of its legendary players, including Boss William Tweed, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the railroad tycoon Jay Gould.

“Railroad magnate Jim Fisk’s rivalry with Ned Stokes over Josie Mansfield eventually took a fatal turn, leading to a trial that was played out in the headlines. Richard McGonagle’s gruff voice captures that quality of sensationalism as he paints an aural picture of a cutthroat age of business. The author covers the legal and business wrangling surrounding Fisk but focuses mainly on the love triangle and the subsequent murder trials. Brands’s account is a little more sensational than the stories of the rivalry told in similar history books, and McGonagle’s reading carries the day.” — AudioFile 2011,