AN UNTAMABLE WOMAN

Evening Star, Issue 19044, 12 September 1925, Page 18

AN UNTAMABLE WOMAN

WAYWARD GIRL WITH EVIL SPELL robbed the rich to aid the poor [By Vixckxt IV a at in the ‘ Sunday Chronicle.] “There is a woman who might have sealed the heights of Olympia, but who is wallowing in tho murky depths of tho Styx.” _ The speaker, a prominent detective, pointed to a brown-eyed, dark-haired woman, who was sitting in a night clnh which has since been closed. She was the Clara Whitley who has just been convicted at the London Sessions for the theft of a wallet which contained 100 guineas. Never, surely, has there been a, move terrible story' of a_ wasted life and neglected opportunities. I heard from mv detective friend a great deal of the woman’s history*. She was the daughter of parents of undoubted respectability and considerable wealth. It was quiio sucldoulr that sho caino irito London life. Always a war ward girl, sho took iho journey to London, fascinated In- the stories she had heard of its life and gaiety. It was not long before she drifted into the underworld of vice. FVSCTNATTNG AND UNSCRUPULOUS. She professed to ho married, and, to confidential friends, mentioned as her husband tho name of a scion of noble iamilv. Jailer, when she came into the hands of the police she varied tins story and told of another man who had wooed her, ill-treated her, and then vanished with all the jewellery she had possessed. The woman was fascinating as was Chicago May. And she had in addition the graces which aro provided by education and the circumstances of a decent home hie. Lot mo again rpioto from my detective friend. “Clara Whitley had every chance in life.. But she lured -drls to their undoing. She toyed with men as though they were tho merest puppets. She was absolutely without scruple.” She had then served a sentence ot imprisonment for theft, from a diamond broker of Hatton Gardens. Tins was one of the most sensational robberies of tbc time. Posing as a lady of title-, using the cultured voice which was her own, she obtained the consent of the Hatton Garden merchant to bring a packet of loose diamonds —worth £3,000 —to a flat which she was then occupying. He came, she asked him to wait in a room, locked him inside, and then vanished . Then she went to Ireland and buried the gems in a pardon outside Dublin. she o-jivo this information to the police it was disbelieved. Bnf her seemingly fantastic talc was ultimately confirmed. "WEAVING THE SPELL. I ffiid a chat with her afterwards. There could bo no question about her beauty or about the spell she was able to weave around those whom she encountered. Sho turned her dark eyes upon me, talked in a droning, contralto voice, and I could not help noticing tho Egyptian bangles which dangled on her shapely arms. “My people want me to go home, she said, “they have been here to try to take mo; hut that is impossible, I am like the tiger—untamable. 1 was married once, but the union became irksome and it was dissolved. Sho was greeted by many who know and admired her. And I saw her slip coins into the bands of many girls, who bad apparently pleaded the stress of poverty. She had a reputation for; generosity—a reputation she bad won by many an act of grace and mercy. I aiu told that none ever appealed to her in vain, and that she bad been known to share her last shillings with a girl who was an utter stranger and who was absolutely destitute. THE PARADOX. It was probably one of those whom she bad helped who rosofrom her seat in the court when the judge remitted her to Holloway with the remark that ho would postpone sentence upon her so that arrangements might he made for her to be sent to South Africa, and burst into tears and cried in an ecstasy of nnassumed agony, “ Oh, my lord, give her a chance—just one chance.’ I have been in contact with many criminals of both sexes. T have seen women callous and hardened, with lips which shut tight like a, rat-trap. 1 have watched them, like Jessie Thompson, when they were full of life, vivacious, and, apparently, careless of overvtluim but tho excitement of the moment. I have looked at the melancholy procession of women of tho darkest Underworld of all as it has marched to and from the clock at Marlborough street Police Court. But I have never known an instance so utterly a paradox as is presented by I] io beautiful, gifted, and generoushearted Clara Whiteley. T do not know any character in fiction that quite describes licr._ Probably tho Into George R. Sims approached the most nearly to it, in a letter which ho addressed to mo, and in which he was alluding to a, girl whom wo both knew and who had gone woefully astrav. Lot me quote Ins words:' “ Sho has a _ twofold personality. She has conflicting influences, Sho does not appreciate responsibility. Sho loves the flowerv paths of sin, and hopes to find salvation by giving and thus plunging herself into tho wilderness of poverty.” NOT A SUCCESSFUL CRIMINAL. In one of the statements Clara Whitclcv made she says that life to her is crowded with interest, and that she never had any idea of wrong,. _ The fact is, that sho has merely drifted, allowing the evil in her nature to conquer. Nor has sho made a, success of her ventures into crime. Tho theft of tho diamonds led to her arrest, and, I believe, tho whole of the spoil was recovered. “ I am not a had woman,” she said to one policeman who arrested her. “I am good of heart and mean well.’ Yet, if one inquires of some who know her they would reply that Clara Whiteley is a Delilah ready to shear the locks from any Samson who may happen to fall into her clutches. And she lias had many victims. Those who wore despoiled wore reputed to be rich, and, like Claude Duval, sho often distributed among tho poor and needy the spoil she had taken from those who came under .tho fascination of her romantic beauty. A missionary who has vainly tried to reclaim Clara. Whiteley stated to me that she is a psychological problem. “ There is much in her of supreme interest,” lie declared. “ I once talked with her and tbs tears rolled down her cheeks. She promised to reform.” Again she used the sentence I have already quoted, “ I am not a bad woman.” REFORMATION STRUGGLE. There was a sense in which tin’s was true. Sho was not had, hut sho was determined that evil should he her irod. For a while she lived a respectable life. She tried to resist the baser instincts of her nature. But the struggle was in vairu The dice seemed loaded against her. Sho reverted to tho old career. “I have had many women of tho Underworld in my caro,” said the missioncr, “ hut none quite the same as tliis misguided girl. In her breast there are always at war tho evil and tho good.” It will not ho until tho next sessions that Clara Whiteley will again come before the judge, 'illon it is hoped that she will have changed her mood and be contented to go hack to her parents, who even, to-day. aro willing

to forget the past and help her to enter up*m a new and better future. Meanwhile, she is in Holloway gaol. Itmay bo that this beautiful Delilah —this woman who has penetrated the deepest depths of the Underworld—will in time to come rise from tbo ashes of her weary past and conquer the evil that is in her.