In a widely reported crime of the time known as the "sensation of the day,"[4] Fish was murdered while leaving a New York City bar.

Senator from New York from 1851 to 1857 and the Secretary of State under Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes from 1869 until his retirement in 1877.

He returned to New York City in 1887 and became a member of the banking firm of Harriman & Co. at 120 Broadway, of which his brother Stuyvesant was the President.

[6] Fish was fatally assaulted in New York City on September 16, 1902, after spending several hours in the company of two women at the Ehrhard Brothers saloon at 265 West 34th Street, off of Eighth Avenue.

They live in West Thirty-fourth Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and are usually accompanied by two men, one a salesman of jewelry.

[17][18] Thomas J. Sharkey was convicted of manslaughter and subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison.