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Show HE WASSH0T DEAD. .Jragio End of a California Theatrical Manager Who Was Killed in the Street. SAN FBANOISOO CAPITALIST'S FATE He Prefeired Self-IrflioUd Death to th's World of Bin and Sorrow and Woe, A sensational career came to an end the other day when John D. Fisko, the speculator specu-lator and theatrical manager, was shot dead on the streets of San Francisco by Joseph Jo-seph T. Btillman, an inventor. The assassin assas-sin claimed that Fiske had tried to ruin him and had attempted blackmail. John D. Fiske In bis way was one of the most noted men on the Pacific coast. At the time of his death be was trying to secure se-cure a divorce from his third wife, alleging Infidelity. His two previous spouses had procured severance of the marital tie on the ground of extreme cruelty. He was almost constantly engaged in litigation, and among theatrical people bore the name of "Water Tank" Fiske. The reason for this title lay in tho fact that be would bind traveling companies x hv contract to rjlav at towns out in the desert, where no one but the station agent and possibly a few other people lived. When the actors struck such places they generally gener-ally found but one man waiting for thorn. Ho had not como to see the show particularly; his mission appeared ap-peared later. Tho rat J0H5 D. FIfiKE. ception practiced upon them, and would pock up and get ready to leave. Just about this time the lonesome man's mission mis-sion would appear. He was a deputy sheriff, armed with a writ of attachment for anywhere from $100 to $600, and he would levy on the baKgago. The actors conld not, of course, cancel their dates ahead and stay to fight the case In the courts. They simply had to swear and pay. Sometimes the lonesome man ,did not show up. This indicated that Mr. Fisko was biding his time. Some day the company would pass through Fresno, and be would swoop down with his writ. One company got the best of him by telegraphing telegraph-ing for tents and blanket, and then getting get-ting out on the desert in the moonlight and going through their whole performance perform-ance according to contract. But In most cases Fiske's scheme worked to perfection, and his income from his water tank circuit was estimated at one time to be over $000 a month clear of sheriffs' fees. The dead manager left an estate valued at $300,000. |