COUNTRY GIRL TO "VAMPIRE."

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 90, 16 April 1921, Page 19

COUNTRY GIRL TO "VAMPIRE."

MEN DUFIES LURED INTO ROBBERS' ELANDS. KISS FOR EACH VICTIM. As audacious as she Is attractive, a twicemarried girl of twenty has just been ran to esir-th by the New York police after an amazing series of exploits, in whicsh she played the part of decoy to a gang of Known to the police as "Tap Lure of the Loop,' , Cleopatra Hurtzman lured many men into the clutches of the gang, who stripped them of tbcbr money and valuables, and in some cases even of their clothes. j .She played her desperate frame successfully, largely because, as ehe says, she found that all men were "easy," and married men were the easiest. It took three months for the police to run her down, and she was only captured after she bad fought three policemen, and a fourth had to come to their assistance. 'She declared that it was weight of numbers that had subdued her, adding that if there had not been sso many she would have "vamped her way to freedom." According to the "Central Sews" New York correspondent, Cleopatra spo* frankly of what she had done. Her victims, she said, included some "mashers" who were old, and most of them were married. "I always kissed them once," she went on, "before we left them alone after robbing thorn, tied up in a room in a strange place." She told of her early life, of how when a simple country girl in Marlow, Oklahoma, iher father married neT to a farmer when ."he was only 13. The farmer, according to her, "was not much good," *nd she had to get away to Chicago. .She asserted that all men were " mashers " who hounded her everywhere, but when she met Kurt iHnrtzman she found him different to the others. In spite of the fact that be told her he was a drunkard she married him co that she could look after him. It was in order to secure his freedom when he had been fined £40 that she first, on the suggestion of a male acquaintance, lured a man who epoke to her in the street to a Toom where he was assaulted I and robbed 'by two men. I Two more similar jobs enabled her to get 1 her husband free, and Saving found that money was so easy to obtain he agreed to I work with her. They kept it up because her husband was always getting drunk :and going "broke." I "Two weeks ago," she continued, "we had enough money to quit, when a man I had no intention of luring followed mc and insulted mc. "I made up my mind to punish him. I took him to a place where Knrt beat him almost to a pulp. "This man is married, has a son in the army, and is a grandfather. .He is the superintendent of a Sunday school. When we left I thought Kurt bad killed him, but we didn't take any money from him." "Speaking af her victims whom she met at dances, resrsimtnt.H, theatres and cnbsrets, she said she could remember moet of their names if she wanted to, as she had kept a lot of cards. Some promised her furs, diamonds, and even motors, but she juet langhed to tereelf as she led them into the clutch of the • gang, because all felt how soft a woman was, and all were properly fooled." According to her husband, she had not started to talk. "Ton may," he said, "have got us with the goods, but she has the goods on a .bunch of big men in this town. Just wait till she faces the comI plainants! That kid is clever. I only ! pushed a gun in their faces, took what they i had nnd hauled them away, but she used Ito collect business carde, and she kept a diary, too." Amongst the men who made Charges ;ngainst Cleopatra was one •β-ho alleged that ihe was robbed of f4OO in jewels and stripped of his clothing. He said he could [only identify the gtrl, as the light was out in the flat. The robbers even took his clothes. As he saW this Kurt Hurtzman interposed: "Oh, I don't you remember that when we started to dTag you into the automobile without any clothes on you said you had a cold, and asked us for an undershirt?" The victim agreed, and said that he recognised the man's voice.