REMARKABLE FEMALE SWINDLER. UNIQUE IN COLONIAL CRIMINOLOGY.

Evening Post, Volume LXV, Issue 64, 17 March 1903, Page 5

REMARKABLE FEMALE SWINDLER. UNIQUE IN COLONIAL CRIMINOLOGY.

There recently, ptused within the walls of the Terrace Gaol to serve a' xtihslantial sentence a woman vho, though still young in ycuis, hus left a ivmurknblo imprewi on the criminal lecords of tho colony. Her naino is — but it is ieally of no significance to this narrative, for klio has passed under many nnnie.s 'lhc outstanding fact is that in New Zealand, perhaps in Australasia, this woman stands supremo in cleverness over other femalo criminals, and in her own particular lino her position is probnbly unique. ' Born in Victoria in 1861, sho arrived hero from that colony in 1884, nothing up to that date having been s known against her. Sho soon got to work in Now Zealand, for sho was in troublo with the law in 1885. Sho came of respectable well-to-do parentage, was educated and accomplished, had. been a school teacher in Victoria, aud wrote a splendid hand — in fact, two or three hands. All of which things wero great factors in her criminal success. The young girl of 23 brought an amazing .inventiveness into her line, which was "confidence" trickery, backed up sometimes with forgery. Her itories lacked nothing in plausibility, and ehe imported into them that wealth of natural detail for which Defoo is noted in his own particular branch of literature. This, however, was not altogether an advantage, us her work wan so peculiarly her own that tho police could generally recognise it. Thus, as is not uncommon with great artists, sho sometimes suffered through her task being too well done. • For the most part sho traded on tho credulity of htr own sox. Her youth, accomplishments, Bocitil gifts, and knowledge of the world were used to ingraliuto herself with symputhotic and sometimes admiring sisters. No case is known of her using theso gifts to gain her end by mentis of entering into an intriguo with a man. At any rate, her subsequent committal to tho Home nt Mount Mugdula, Christ church, m ;\s in no way duo ,to such a cause. Sim under«tood both men and women, but tho latter wero of most use to her. m Tho stnrting point wa3 generally, to bocomo a lodger in n respect able board- i ing-houfte, and: inako friends with tho •proprietress and family and with all their friends. Somo money having been wheedled from a member of the family, it was tisually liquidnted in presents to tho friends, and formed the basis 'of subsequent hauls from them. In fact, tho money wns mostly spent not on tho adventuress herself, but with tho evident object to keep tho ball rolling. Which indic'atos that profit was notythe motive, but that the crime wns a nftuiin. and a disease. Ono of her recent victims, to tho extent of over £30, was a lady whoso friend (also a lady) tho adventuress hud met in a boarding-houso in another city. Sometimes tho proposition advanced by her to her victims was n splendid investment for which the proposer would find the bulk of tho money if the victim would find just a little. Tho "just at little" wus generally forthcoming. In such a case this wonderful woman would supply exact figure's of capital and interest, terms of mortgago and repayment, etc., with as much minuteness of detail ns a London financier would display in a rose-tinted prospectus. To buttress her position sho 'would write letters to herself as coming from two or three different people, each in a different hand. Once, having courteously volunteered, she was left by a charmed family alono in charge of tho house while tho iumates were away .on a holiday. Their absence was briof,' but long enough to allow her to havo a monoylender in and raise a large sum on tho furniture. For onco ut any raUJ a moneylender "fell in" badly when tho washing-up came. Her masterpiece was n bold imaginative feat. She knew the namo^f a widow lady living in n country township who had a son in tho local bank ; sho knew tho namo of a Wellington tradesman who was a friend of tho widow ; nnd sho thought out the rest. Ono day a lady attirod in a noat habit rode up to the door of tho tradesman, handed him a letter, nnd said exoitedly, "It is important — I know whnt it is about." Sho barely restrained her impatience while he perused it. Tho. letter purported to como from the widow, and to state that her son waß involved in his bank accounts, that sho could find all tho missing money except £120, and would Mr. kindly send that »uuv by boarer? Mr. - — paid the £20 at onco to tho bonier, who rodo gracefully away with it. The letter was a forgery. Mr. ~— — was so sohsitivo about tlio way ho had been taken in that ho never prosecuted for this offonce. This reticence of victims for somo timo protected the femalo- swindler in her career. Her first punishment was a- short committal to Caversham Industrial School in 1885. Ono of her typical feats earned her a month's imprisonment in 1886, and she served various sentences up to 1894 or 1895. Then came tho committal to Mount Magdaln, which wius mado at tho instance of sympathetic ladies in Dunodin, and which was generally looked upon as a very temporary check to a criminal career! But in tho Homo sho remained five years, and for nonrly two years after sho left it nothing was known against her, until this latest lapse. So tho Magdala period really cwts this terrible career in two, and 1903 has marked a fresh start. x In her last, as in her other falls, stio was a fatalist, regarding her failing as a disease "It is something to have kept good for seven years" — sho is reported to have remarked — "aud what can you oxpect? It's in tho blood." And there can be scarcely a doubt that this statement is absolutely true.