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Jane Blankman
Wikipedia -Public Domain
She was born Jane Augusta Funk on March 23 1823. Her father Jacob, was a German immigrant and along with his wife Jane (they named their eldest daughter Jane) were farmers. Jane Augusta's mother died when she was 8 years old. Her father died in 1847. As a young girl she was described as "unusually handsome, both in form and feature". As with most young ladies in antebellum America, she had a basic education and a love for books. She was able to play the piano and write poetry.
At some point in her life, she was "seduced and abandoned" and consequently shunned by society. Her reputation was ruined for she would never find a "respectable" husband (or so was the belief of that day). She moved to New York City with the hope of living with her brother John, but he would have nothing to do with her. Life was not kind to Jane and she would eventually find work in the oldest profession in the world. To protect her family name, she became known as Miss Fanny White.
Within 4 years she was managing her own brothel. Fanny turned out to be a shrewd businesswoman, and her clientele would include some of the most prestigious and wealthiest gentlemen in New York City. At the time of her death her wealth was (in today's dollars) anywhere between 1-2 million and some estimate "add in another million or so".
Her Most Famous Client
Most on this site know her through her association with future Union General Daniel Sickles. He began his relationship with Miss Fanny in 1847 and it would continue until 1854.
Dan Sickles was quite taken with Fanny. "He almost certainly arranged the mortgage on White's brothel, using the name of his friend and future father-in-law Antonio Bagioli". {2} Their antics is the stuff of legends, to the point where they were both arrested while attending a costume party, Miss Fanny went dressed as a man, which was illegal at the time; the price they paid was a night in jail. She famously accompanied Sickles to England, where is was reported she "curtseyed" to Queen Victoria.
By 1854 it appears she left Dan Sickles, toured Europe and returned to New York to be curried by another New York Society gentlemen. From her clients she received lavish gifts and money. She was sued when one of her wealthy gentlemen callers declared bankruptcy and tried to get back the gifts of an annuity and house he had given her. The annuity was cancelled but she kept the house.
Miss Fanny Becomes Mrs. Blankman
In 1959, Miss Fanny would marry and she never would be known as Miss Fanny White again. Edmon Blankman was a well known New York City criminal attorney, 7 years younger than his new wife. It was said that Mrs. Blankman changed her life after her marriage, never to return to her brothels. She regularly attended church, and began to be "very generous" to her family including paying school costs for her niece. She bought a home for her widowed sister, but as I said she was a smart woman, and when pressured by her husband to sign over her home to him, she refused. Rumor had it that Mr. Blankman had tried to seduce her niece.
On October 11, 1960, Mrs. Blankman was staying at a New York Hotel and watched a procession in honor of the future Kind Edward VII (then the Prince of Wales) as it passed below her hotel window. On the 12th, she got up and had breakfast with her husband, niece, and a family friend that was staying with her. Shortly afterwards, she complained of feeling dizzy. She saw her husband off to work and went upstairs to make her bed. Later as a servant was going upstairs to check on her, he found her kneeling beside the bed, but there was no need to call for help for she was dead.
Was She Murdered?
By this time in her life, Mrs. Jane Blankman was a woman of great worth. Her family immediately looked to her husband, as they thought him most capable to getting "rid of her" to inherit her money. An autopsy, ordered by her brother, showed, Mrs. Blankman died as a result of bleeding on her brain. It would satisfy her family, for now, and she was buried in the Blankman family plot in Brooklyn.
Of course, the story does not end here! She may have been a "lost soul" at one time in New York, but marriage to a well known attorney and her accumulated wealth had made her a media figure. Rumors are heard to rumble that she may have poisoned. An anonymous note was sent to the coroner's office claiming that her death was not "natural". It was eventually discovered that the original autopsy was not a complete and full procedure. The doctors had only examined her from her neck up, and when they saw the blood on her brain they declared the cause of death.
The courts order another complete and full autopsy, her body is ordered exhumed and an inquest is held. During this autopsy they discovered her body showed evidence of tuberculosis, syphilis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, in addition to bleeding in her brain. At the inquest, her husband testified she had an accident the day before her death. He claimed while she was watching the Prince of Wales procession in the hotel room, "a window roller and shade had fallen on her head". This incident was confirmed by her 12 year old niece (could not confirm if this was the niece Edmond had tried to seduce). It was officially declared there had been no foul play.
The Next Court Fight
The story still does not end. Now there is the matter of her will. She left most of her estate to her husband. Her relatives dispute her signature on the will, yet in the end despite the family's attempt to prove the signature forged, the will was declared valid.
In October 1861, Edmon Blankman sold Miss Fanny's possessions. They were listed as "a magnificent house holds furniture, rich French plate pierand mantel mirrors, superbly carved rosewood pianoforte, sterling silver plate, etc.
Thus ended the story of Miss Fanny White, dying with the name she was born with "Jane Augusta" Blankman on October 12, 1860 at 37 years of age. Although she would not live to see any of the Civil War, she certainly was one of the colorful characters that would always be associated with the controversial and flamboyant Union General Daniel Sickles.
Edmon Blankman died at 65 years of age in 1895. He was married at the time of his death to Annie Boyce, and they all were buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
The news of her death as reported in "The Brooklyn Daily Eagle" October 18, 1860.
Was she murdered for her money or died from her ill-health? I will leave that decision to you.
Sources
1. "Scarlet Women" "New York Madam - Fanny White" by Ian Graham.
2. https://todayinhistory.blog/2017/04/26/april-26-1859-dan-sickles/
3. Wikipedia - Fanny White
4. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19037163/the_brooklyn_daily_eagle/
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