VERSATILE VERA-CON WOMAN AND PEN WOMAN

NZ Truth, Issue 998, 10 January 1925, Page 1

VERSATILE VERA-CON WOMAN AND PEN WOMAN

- Servant Girl Who Became

Vera (writes "Truth's" Sydney rep.) is m her thirties now, but, like many of her friends and associates, she retains a certain youthful frolicsomeness, a certain devilish impishness, and a love of sheer fun.

That explains why every time a policeman or detective decides it's time that she called at a police station to make another Court bow she invents a new name, a new place of birth, and finds that she owns to a new set of summers and winters.

Police records are not to be believed — not with Vera anyhow. If they were to be believed explicitly, then Vera's that rara avis, a miracle. She must have been born half a dozen different times, and m half a dozen different places.

■ She has stated that she was born m France, Victoria, and New South Wales, selecting a new suburb, and a new town, each time. And she's, stated every year from 1890 to 1895 as the" year of her birth. Far From France. . But Vera, with an eye to business, named' Fiance as the best of these, and consistently maintains that she's "la Belle Parisienne." But that's only for business. The Sydney suburb of Marrickville can probably lay claim to. having been the place where she first saw the light of day, and that event more likely than not occurred m 1892 or 1893. Certain j it is that it was m. Sydney and not ■ Par : is;S\-^,> ...■—^.^;.'-- ■■■.^'■■?. -'- r i ;-&p

And as with her names and birthplaces, Vera varies her occupation from tinie to time. To-day it's "domestic duties," yesterday 'twas "nursing," tomorrow 'twill be "clerk."

Getting down to facts, however, Vera was born of respectable parents. Most criminals, strangely enough, are, and as with them its something of a poser to discover how she slipped into crime. .

When a young girl, Vera turned waitress, and being pretty, comely, and generally quick, she found a job m a well-known and prominent restaurant, the resort of the near- social set. That was Vera's undoing. It turn- ; ed her head, developed a mental kink, and ever since Vera has aped Society girls and sought to taste of the fruits of the really wellknown. ' \ She has certainly won success, and to-day she's well-known,- decidedly so, though not m the direction, perhaps, that she hoped.

Until you have met Vera La Bruce you have not met one of the most notable members of Sydney's underworld. And it's quite possible that you already know this gentle lady, especially if yo'u're a parson or doctor. Her names are numerous and varied-— you could make a country telephone book' out of them, and have every letter well represented— and she has a penchant for introducing her alluring self to clergymen and medicoes. Confidence trickster, thief, impostor I—that's1 — that's the versatile Vera's record. - But there's much behind her bare official record that the world knows nothing of, and particularly her ability to write. In that role Vera has never yet publicly figured. Her gift has remained a secret.

Career Commences. Her official career commenced on January 30, 1912. . . Oh that day she made, her Court debut. .It was not a very- auspicious one, but the' four months' hard labor awarded her satisfied her at least for a time. The charge was one of larceny. that fateful day Vera has come to know Courts well. She should be an expert m procedure, and she must have a wonderful knowledge concerning many Courts and Court officials.

Moree, Manly, Paddington, Balmain, Newtown, Central, Katoomba, Moss Vale, Wollongong, Darlirighurst, Orange — Vera's figured m the dock m a leading role m all these Courts. The majority of the charges brought against her have been for false pretences. , Vera loves to pose as a Society girl, or the daughter of a cjergyman or doctor. She willrun into a doctor's' surgery or a parson's study and tearfully explain that she is Miss Everybody, the daughter of Moneybags Everybody, Esq., of Moree or Bathurst, and that she: { has lost her handbag.

It is most unfortunate, as until she is 1 able to communicate with her parents she is penniless and without even her' tram fare to the boarding house or hotel where she is staying. Then follows a request for a loan, and more often than not it is complied with, and. a few crisp notes exchange hands. Not Beautiful. Like many other famous women impostors, Vera exercises some magnetic charm over her dupes-. ■ She is neither beautiful nor pretty, but, on the contrary, rather plain. Her jaw is a trifle loose and weak, her mouth somewhat tight, and her nose is not of the type to make connoisseurs m women enthuse. Yet, m spite of her lack of individuality, Vera succeeds m putting . it over nine times out of ten, and her Society, airs and rather haughty attitude more than make 1 up for her lack of beauty. Not infrequently she poses as a Frenchwoman, and then livens up as far as is possible, trying to be vivacious and smiling. Her broken English, with its typical French "zes" and

Crook and Daring Adventuress

"zats," is good, but speak real French to Vera and she becomes dumb.

Vera is no more French' than the King of England or the Prime Minister of AAustraliaa — a good deal less perhaps. If she's anything she's IrishrAustralian. •

Memory Miracle. But there is one thing where you've got to hand it to Vera. She possesses a miraculous memory. Although the world knows it not, Vera is an excellent pen -woman. She will write half-a-dozen signatures on different slips of paper or on one foolscap sheet, and not one of these signatures will look alike to the casual glance.

Each has its own distinctions. This one is scrawly, that one has flourishes, a third is small arid neat, a fourth large, a fifth backhand. They all differ, and as a rule the differences are material. This is where her memory comes m. For each of the names she gives the police she has a different signature, And she never forgets which signature goes with each name! That m itself is no small feat when it is remembered that Vera's aliases could only be numbered on the "hands of three or four men. Vera's spells of liberty are generally short. No sooner is she out of prison than she is up to her old tricks, and it is- not very long before her name appears, on the' wanted list. •.' ;: And when she is' run to earth- she surrenders with the real graciousness of a lady. She goes along with her captors cheerfully and readily, and smilingly admits all. In May of 1924 she was handed a "sixer" at Newtown for imposition. And the other day: she was run to earth at Orange, and given twelve months' light labor at Bathurst Gaol. So for a while this remarkable woman impostor, this victim of a mental kink, disappears from public sight. But she'll walk back on to the crowded stage of life again — that is a certainty.