THE WORST WOMAN IN EUROPE!

NZ Truth, Issue 120, 5 October 1907, Page 7

THE WORST WOMAN IN EUROPE !

" Chicago May's" Amazing Life Story.

AN IRISH COLLEEN THAT TOOK A CROOKED CAREER.

The Blackmailer of Wealthy Men.

PEACHES ON HER PALS AND ALL ARE IMPRISONED.

Described as the most amazing female criminal of modern times, a notorious European and American adventuress, whose real name is said to be May Churchill, came to grief a couple o' months ago at ihe Old Bailey, London, when, for her many crimes, she was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude. "Chicago May." as the blackmailing and designing female was more commonly called, seems to have reigned as the .Queen of a gang of European and American criminals, who flew onl** at high game. She was described, as a tall, handsome, finely-proportioned figure, with a wealth of red-gold hair, dusk^ eyes and eye-brows. For long she had lured many men to their graves, and now she is a gaolbird. Along with her have gone most of the gang. They were all peached on by May. m other words, "lagged by a moll." The male leader of the gang Is a man named Edward Guerin: He, too, has gone under, and it looks as if May, when the legal shoe pinched, put her pals away. Anyhow, it was through her her information that the gang was gaoled. The London "People" recently gave the life history of this notorious wanton female, and interestine too is the story, which is as follows .—

Less than twenty years ago th« woman who. as Inspector Stockley told Mr Justice Darling, at the Cen tral Criminal Court, is said to have driven five men to suicide by black mail,- was a pretty, innocent, bare footed Irish colleen, living with her parents m a little cabin m the barren, mountainous region of tho Atlantic seaboard of the Emerald Isle.

She has since been "queen" of the smartest swell gangs of Chicago and New York. She was the '^banker" for the smartest jewel thieves suspected by Pinkerton's. We have to pass over how she first became acquainted with Guerin. It is moresftteresting to proceed to the recitaflfny her old one-time associate of some of the methods which kept her the "queen" of the criminal world of the States. Strangely enough, except to the keen criminolicist, "Chicago May" never entered into a crime for the sole sake of the amount of money to be got out of it. Her j greater desire was to be regarded as j '■queen" of whatever gang she was associated with. "MAY" AND THE "FLASH" RINGS. Hers was the splendid figure which first attracted the "flash" rings. Her natural Irish wit and brain did the rest. So long as she was recognised as the "queen" she was happy. It was her ambition. Not many years ago she was staying at a hotel m Bristol. There was also a party ol Yankees "doing" England residing there. They included a millionaire, his wife; two sons, and a daughter. ''May," with her peach complexion, had her beautiful, sheeny hair well mounted. The youngest of the two sons took a great fancy to her. BLACKMAILED MILLIONAIRE'S SON. The youngster succumbed to her eyes and smiles. She dropped her lorgnette. He picked it up and spoke to her on the balcony. She "played" him for three days, and finally invited him to her room. The boy was tempted. There she enticed him to take off his jacket. The moment he had done so she started screaming. Then • she produced one of his blank cheques which she had been clever enough to obtain previously. She forced him to fill it m for £2,000. In the morning she turned him out of the room, and called a gentleman walking m the corridor to explain that the young man "had stolen InTto her room during the night." At breakfast she smiled at the youngster and. let hirm know m a few minutes that. -••« wanted hard cash for the •£2,000 cheque. She told him that if he did not pay up, she "should go to father." The

LAD THREATENED SUICIDE. She went to his parent and told himwhat the situation was. She exhibited the cheque for £2,000, and itold him his son had given it to her.

In the end, the distracted father gave her £1,000 for the cheque. In New York she later "sold" three of the smartest detectives by way of revenge. She had been bribing them until they "came a little too strong." The chief of police knew there was bribery m regard to May, and would have given his head to find out who the men were who were accepting the bribe.. . What she did was to turn traitor on the men she was bribing. She invited the three to her room one night to pay them. There were wines and cigars, and everything went very merry when all at once she jumped up, drew a curtain, and revealed the Chief of Police behind."

"DOPING" HER VICTIMS. "May" was one of the best operators With the opium pipe. English blackmailers are afraid to use the "dope," as the use of the opium is»< called, but May was a past-master m the black art of introducing it throua;h the "hubble-bubble." At the end of the trial at the Central Criminal Court Det.-Insp. Stockley told the judge that it was believed that several men had committed suicide as the result of .May's enterprise as a blackmailer of this type.