"Boss" Tweed : the story of a grim generation / by Denis Tilden Lynch.

180 "Boss" Tweed
Here the crowd, which had increased in numbers, resumed
their threats, and cries of "Give Mary Applegate her child!"
All afternoon the mob remained in front of the house, milling
to and fro. The noisiest of the lot were a number of ragged
boys. At any moment the citizens could have rushed the police
and overpowered them. But the sex of the object of their
wrath prevented them. Madame Restell continued in business,
unmolested, for another year.
In the summer of 1848 she was indicted for manslaughter.
She had killed an unborn child and its mother, a young girl
of sixteen named Maria Bodine, of Walden, New York. The
public now demanded that justice be meted out to Madame
Restell. The trial lasted eighteen days and proved a cause
c&lbre. A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury. The
case proved expensive for Madame, who spent $100,000 in
counsel fees, suborning witnesses, and in largesse to court
officials and others. The public expected that she would receive a long term in Sing Sing. Instead, she escaped with the
light sentence of a year in the County Penitentiary.
But Madame, thanks to her bountiful purse, was not placed
in a cell. The principal keeper on Blackwell's Island, Jacob
Acker, surrendered his quarters to her. She was permitted to
receive her husband and her friends at any hour of the day or
night. For these special privileges the prisoner parted with
another fortune. All these facts were brought out by an Aldermanic investigating committee, all save what was given to Acker
in return for the favors shown Madame Restell.
While in prison Madame purchased a large house at 162
Chambers Street, and had it converted into a hospital. Here
she moved on completing her sentence.
At the beginning of Mayor Wood's first administration
Madame Restell's stepchild, then a young woman of thirty,
was married. This was one of the happiest days in Madame's
life. She knew she was accursed of Hera and never could have
children of her own. But on this wedding day she prayed, and
wept as she prayed, for she loved this daughter of her first
husband with all the affection of a mother. And in her prayer
she pleaded that her hopes of a lifetime be realized. She wanted