QUESTION: Thank you. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve a few questions for the record, since you and I have not had an opportunity to speak before now. You emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1903 and spent your first two years in this country in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Is that correct?

ANSWER: Yes. Nearly the first two years. Not quite that.

QUESTION: So you were nineteen when you emigrated?

ANSWER: Yes. So why is it you and I have not spoken before? Has the other detective moved away?

QUESTION: No, Detective Morris is still on the case. I was brought in only recently. I’m a U.S. marshal.

ANSWER: I don’t know what that is, sir.

QUESTION: United States marshals serve at the federal level of law enforcement rather than local.

ANSWER: Oh. So . . . so you are also a detective, then?

QUESTION: I investigate federal crimes, yes. May we continue?

ANSWER: Yes.

QUESTION: Can you confirm for me that you married one Martin Hocking on March 10, 1905, at the courthouse here in San Francisco?

ANSWER: Yes. Yes, I did. Do you have news of my husband? Is that why you’ve called me in?

QUESTION: Possibly. Again, for the record, did you report your husband, Martin Hocking, missing six weeks after the earthquake that occurred on April 18 of this year?

ANSWER: I did, yes.

QUESTION: Can you tell me why you waited six weeks to notify the police that your husband was missing?

ANSWER: He travels for his job. I didn’t know for sure he was missing at first.

QUESTION: You’ve stated previously you fled your home on Polk Street with your stepdaughter, Katharine Hocking, in the minutes following the earthquake. Is that correct?

ANSWER: Yes.

QUESTION: And the house on Polk Street was still standing when you left?

ANSWER: It . . . everything was broken and shattered inside, and the chimney had fallen off, but, yes, it was still standing.

QUESTION: And when you returned six weeks later was it still standing then?

ANSWER: I told the police before. It had burned. Every house on the street had burned. Every house in our neighborhood burned. Beggin’ your pardon, sir, but do you not know what happened in this city? Have you not looked around?

QUESTION: I assure you, I’m not here to mock the loss of your home, Mrs. Hocking. I am only establishing the facts for the record. My record. I apologize for asking questions you have already answered. But I must ask them. You returned to your home six weeks after the earthquake and found it had burned? There was nothing left of it?

ANSWER: Nothing but ashes.

QUESTION: And you would have no way of knowing if Mr. Hocking returned to the house after the earthquake but before it burned?

ANSWER: How could I? I was not there.

QUESTION: Yes. Now, if we may go back to the day of the earthquake. You have said that you and Katharine found your way to the refugee camp at Golden Gate Park when the fires began. Do I have that right?