Jane Augusta Blankman (née Funk; March 22, 1823 – October 12, 1860), better known as Fanny White, was one of the most successful courtesans of ante-bellum New York City.

Known for her beauty, wit, and business acumen, White accumulated a significant fortune over the course of her career, married a middle-class lawyer in her thirties, and died suddenly a year later.

[6] Seduction reportedly was the third most common "cause" of prostitution in New York in the early 1800s, after economic motives and "inclination,"[7] and was viewed as a social problem by moral reformers.

A few months after starting work at 120 Church Street, White moved up to Julia Brown's brothel on West Broadway, near the National Theater.

[20] A prostitute's paramour did not normally pay for her attention, although Sickles did give White generous gifts of jewelry and money.

After Sickles was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1847, he brought White to his hotel in Albany, where he introduced her around the breakfast table to the dismayed guests.

[17] Sickles almost certainly arranged the mortgage on White's Mercer Street brothel, using the name of his friend (and future father-in-law) Antonio Bagioli.

[29] Most sources agree that White made her curtsey to Queen Victoria at a reception at Buckingham Palace, where Sickles introduced her as "Miss Bennett of New York.

[27] Back in New York, White established a second brothel behind the St. Nicholas Hotel[27] and also resumed management of 119 Mercer Street.

[38] At the time of her marriage, "it was said she owned several houses in the city, which were allegedly gifts from suitors, as well as a $5,000 annuity and a real-estate lot reportedly given to her by a male friend.

[9] Blankman contributed half the money to purchase a Funk family lot at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

[36] When a friend asked her why not, Blankman allegedly replied that "she was not such a fool," and "that ever since her suspicions had been aroused with regard to [Edmon] trying to have intimacy with her niece, she had lost all confidence in him.

Her brother arranged for an autopsy to be conducted by Doctors Finnell and Sands, who concluded that Blankman had died of apoplexy (a stroke).

[9] But on October 16, motivated by continued rumors of poisoning, city Coroner Schirmer and District Attorney Waterbury ordered that Blankman's remains be re-examined at Bellevue Hospital.

[9] The "total value of her property at the time of her death was variously estimated at from $50,000 to $100,000"[43] – or $1 to $2 million U.S. as of 2010[update] – but that may have been a significant underestimate of its real value.

[45] On June 26, 1861, after months of acrimonious testimony, Surrogate William H. Freeland ruled in favor of Edmon Blankman.