Arlington started her life as a prostitute at 17β18 years old as a means to support her family. Josie retired from the business in and sold her assets off to Tom Anderson.
She began working as a prostitute in , supporting her family on her earnings, [ 1 ] and opened a brothel at Customhouse Street prior to the murder of her brother Peter Deubler in November Phillip Lobrano for professional purposes.
She had been with Lobrano since the age of 16 when he had offered her protection. Lobrano and Peter Deubler had a drunken verbal altercation, and Peter had followed Lobrano from a bar to the Custom street premises. While the witness accounts were disputed for years, Phillip Lobrano claimed that he shot Peter Deubler in the face in front of his sister Josie in self-defense.
Peter died December 9, , ten days after being shot. On March 31, , Phillip Lobrano was acquitted after a second trial. In the meantime Josie had cut all business and romantic dealings with Lobrano, and had sought to become more respectable. Josie's decisions helped her business-wise. In the four or five years from her brother's death, she had shed her former reputation. She and Brady had visited the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas and she witnessed first hand a luxurious lifestyle and resolved to emulate it back at her brothel.
She changed the name to the "Chateau Lobrano d'Arlington" and began to hire foreign girls to increase the appeal to upscale customers. At this point, she began making business deals with Tom Anderson who operated a nearby restaurant which he renamed the Arlington.
