"TIGER" GIRL OF CHICAGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

"TIGER" GIRL OF CHICAGO.

DEATH THREAT TO POLICE. HARD AS NAILS, YET TENDER AND LOVING — A HUMAN ENIGMA — YOUNG WOMAN WHO SURRENDERED TO SEE HER BABY — GUILTY OF MURDER. (Specially Written for the "Star.")

Among the women the world over who have been in trouble with the lawwomen who have been put behind the bars for crime—Helen Mallotte, "The Tiger Girl," was one of the most unique. Hard as nails, yet tender and loving, she was an enigma to the authorities. She looked and acted hard enough to have committed many crimes besides the one for which she was sentenced. She threatened to kill the, "coppers" who tried to arrest her, she beat her own husband with a fury that knew no bounds, yet she gave herself up because she wanted to see her baby. And that time she was charged with murder and she knew that it might mean her own death. Helen was a bandit girl, .one of that peculiar species which has flourished in Chicago as well as in other cities. Like many of the others who have shot to kill, Helen was pretty, with raven black hair. Only 19, but quite sophisticated, she wore handsome clothes, had a trim little figure, and was generally attractive. Her coal black eyes sparkled out of a white face that seldom smiled except when she was with her baby. Helen came of a decent, law-abiding family, and at seven years of age she .was put to school. But when she had reached a certain standard she was taken out and put to work. She rebelled against this, but the parents felt that in their position too much education was a useless waste. This embittered Helen, even at that early age, and she hated men. Men, she said,\always seemed to get the better of everything; the world was made for the men. True, later she married one and lived with another, but neither of them was loved by her, and for good reasons. After Helen was taken out of school she went to work in a factory. The factory was in a poor . neighbourhood in Chicago, her home was in a poorer, and she did not get much fun out of life. She was fifteen when she was married to a factory hand named George Holtman. But George wasn't much of a husband. He often grew angry with her and called her ugly names. She grew to hate him also. Finally she left her husband, some little time after her baby was born, and went to live with Frederick Mallotte. Thereafter she took the name of Helen Mallotte. r ' A Hardened Criminal. Now Frederick was 'some ten years older'than Helen and a hardened criminal. Helen knew this, but .she did not care. She even helped him. On a certain November night Helen went out with Frederick and a man named Nick Gorween to "pull a job." It was a neighbourhood store. Helen, as usual, kept watch, and the. burglary was successful, the robbers getting goods worth 1000 dollars. They disposed of their loot and went to try another robbery. This time their quarry was a factory. Nick Gorween was driving the car, while Helen and Frederick sat in the back. The car stopped in front of the factory. Helen and Frederick got out, with their pistols in hand, and sneaked down the alley, intending to break into the back door. ■• But they were surprised. A watchman,. Stendhall by name, was making his rounds.- With him was a youth named Billy Graham, only eighteen years old, a friend of the watchman". Billy was simply keeping tbf? old man company on his rounds. The Mallottes in the alley saw the watchman and his companion. ■ Shooting started, Billy fell, mortally wounded. Heleh and Frederick ran for the car. Gorween saw them coming and started the motor. Helen. stumbled and Frederick dumped her in the car. She had been shot, presumably by a poorly aimed or deflected bullet. :It was only a scalp wound, they discovered later, ancf

Frederick cut Helen's hair and bandaged up the wound the best he could. At least they were home and safe, they thought. But a few days later Frederick was arrested. After some grilling he confessed his part in the crime, but ungallantly put the blame for the actual shooting on Helen. The police also wormed out of him where she lived. They , immediately went to the house and found Helen there, but they did not know it was she. She opened the door, saw who they were, told them Helen was not there and slammed the door, locking it. Then, while they were trying to gain entrance, Helen, and a man who was with her at the time, slipped out by the back door. Surrendered to See Baby. Again she was free! The police locked high and low for her, but could not find her. Then on the night of November 28, more than three weeks after the murder, Helen walked calmly into a police station, sauntered up to the sergeant and said: "Do you want me? I'm Mrs. Mallotte. I wanted to see my baby." The police rushed her to the State Attorney's office. She admitted being with Frederick and Gorween the night of the murder, but denied that she fired the fatal shot. In due time Frederick, Helen and Gorween were indicted for the murder and brought to trial. On the .first day of her arraignment Frederick walked over to her in the Courtroom and started to kiss her. Helen's fist shot out and caught Frederick on the jaw. Bailiffs separated them. "I did not want to kiss him," she stormed angrily. As she sat in the Courtroom and heard the witnesses, she was as calm as anyone. "I am not scared a bit," she said in response to a question. When the State Attorney began to qualify jurors, asking each one if he believed in the death penalty, Helen laughed. "Hang me? That is a joke," she sneered. The trial went on, with Helen quite calm. Once only did it affect her. The_ State called a girl named Ethel Boyier, a former friend of Helen's. She had seen her in a boardinghouse and noticed the scar on Helen's head. Ethel went on to testify that Helen had told her that the scar was obtained while she and her husband were robbing s factory. Sim also testified that Helen always had a pistol. As this point was brought out, Helen fainted. Guilty of Murder. But the next day she sat up straight and square in the dock, her nervousness gone. In her own testimony she repudiated her former confession, and made up a new story, but it did her no good. After the evidence was given, and the lawyers had debated, the jury retired to deliberate. They were only out an hour. When they came back they declared in their verdict that they believed Helen guilty of murder and fixed her punishment at life in the penitentiary. As she heard the verdict Helen' again became the "tiger" girl. She flew into a rage, waved her arms and tossed her head --about. When the bailiffs came near she shouted to them to stay away, then she fainted. When she was back in her cell she recovered consciousness. Two weeks later Helen came up before the judge for sentence. Frederick and Gorween had pleaded guilty to the murder and were also there for sentence. The judge pronounced sentence / upon both Helen and her husband, ordering them to the-penitentiary for life. Gorween was given 14 days. This time Helen took the jolt calmly enough, explaining that the reason for her faint the week before was because she was happy not to be hanged. Six months after her last hold-up she was taken down to the penitentiary, and the iron gates clanged as she was taken into the dismal prison, surrounded by cold grey walls. The bolt of the gate was shot on another gun-girl who had tried to beat the law.—(Anglo-American N.S. Copyright.)