In Which Senator Sharon Makes Some Poor Romantic Decisions

Sarah Althea HillThat old, old story: “Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy dumps girl.” Whenever I encounter it, I usually shrug and move on. However, present me with a sequel that says, “Girl takes boy to court, practices voodoo curses, with everything ending in a shootout,” and I start to take an interest in the situation.During the 1860s, William Sharon was lucky enough to make a tidy fortune from Virginia City, Nevada, silver mines, wealth that he augmented through shrewd investments in California and Nevada railroads and real estate. Before too many years had passed, Sharon was a multimillionaire. In 1875, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. On a darker note, in that same year, Sharon’s business partner William C. Ralston was found floating in the bay off the coast of San Francisco. Ralston had recently suffered catastrophic business losses, which led his death to be ruled a suicide.Soon after this tragedy, Sharon moved to San Francisco, taking a suite in the Palace Hotel which he…