AMAZING DOUBLE LIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1924, Page 9

AMAZING DOUBLE LIFE.

YOUNG WOMAN'S LAPSE. GOOD HOUSEWIFE BY DAY. DARING BURGLAR BY NIGHT. (f J.q r ■ •It is doubtful whether the annals of crime contain a more remarkable case of a woman leading a double life than that of Bertha Crouch, the young West Hampstead woman, who was recentHy sentenced in London to 14 months’ imprieonment. She was arrested at midnight in a large house at Golders Green, and subsequent inquiries and her own confession showed that she had carried, out no fewer than ten d’aring burglaries in the district. :

The burglaries were of such a character that they puzzled the police, who never dreamed that the petpetrator was a comparative beginner in crime, and expected to find ultimately that they were the work of some expert criminal. As a matter of fact, not long ago, when an experienced thief was captured, it was assumed that the burglaries would cease, but they still went on, until at last Bertha Crouch was caugnu redhanded, and the mystery was solved.

Not without reason has the *26-year-old woman who stood demurely before Sir Montagu Sharpe been likened to Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the famous dual personality created by Robert Louis Stevenson. By day a devoted mother to her two children —’aged 1 3| and 2 years respectively —she would set out a night with a bag containing a small home in the small hours of the morning hammer and a table knife, and return laden with loot. METHOD OF ROBBERIES. The woman’s method was to wander along quiet avenues during the time that many householders are enjoying an evening's entertainment, select a house temporarily left unattended, and begin her burglarious operations. One tap with her hammer on the small pane of glass near a window-cat-ch, and the rest was easy. Mrs. Crouch had a discriminating taste, and always selected jewellery, expensive clothing or curios which she knew she could readily convert into money. So successful was Mrs. Crouch that before she fell into the hands of the police she had stolen articles worth about £lBOO. She always worked alone, and, contrary to what happens in so many cases, she devoted the proceeds of her ’ lawless exploits to legitimate ends. During file previous two months she had been living at Shepherd’s Bush, where she su]>eriintended a sweet and tobacco business bought out of the proceeds of burglary.

Everyone in the Court listened in amazement \\hile Detective-Sergeant Luxton told the story of -the woman’s exploits. Young, good-looking and smartly dressed. she appeared quite unconcerned, and she received her sentence with a coolness which one usually associated with the experienced professional criminal and gaol-bird. The woman’s capture was effected in

dramatic circumstances. Returning to her home at Golders Green, late at night, Mrs. Fosgard was startled to see that the lights were on in the front part of the house. This is situated in a select and rather lonely neighbourhood, and Mrs. Fosgard at once concluded that something was amiss. CAUGHT RED-HANDED. Mrs. Fosgard sought the assistance of (feptain Hay, wlw lives near, and he decided to go carefully, in the hope of giving whoever was in the house a surprise. Accordingly, he went round to the back, and, finding the French windows open, quietly entered, closing them behind him. and switched on the light. In the drawing room he was astonished to find a young, handsome woman just preparing to leave with valuables worth at least £lOO. She made no attempt to get away, but pleaded that she should be allowed to go, promising never to do anything of the kind again. By this time, however, the police had been called by telephone, and she was soon speeding in a motorcar to the police station. It was not until the police began to make inquiries that the detectives had any idea of the importance of the capture they had made. Articles stolen months before were traced to pawnshops in the West Encl, and, as the result of the woman’s arrest, a housebreaking epidemic which had lasted' for months was terminated. A search at Mrs. Crouch's home, at Shepherd’s Bush, revealed a costly collection of miscellaneous goods. There were pawn tickets relating to valuable property, while fur coats and expensive costumes were found securely packed in bags and parcels. Her exploits in the Golders Green districts inehided eight thefts of jewellery, clothing, and other property, on various dates, between ■ September, 1023, and July of this year,

A PASSION FOR DRESS. Before and after her marriage Mrs. Crouch had lived at West Hampstead, and at the time of her arrest she had a card in her possession indicating her membership of a local Wesleyan Churdh. Indeed, until her arrest it is safe to say that none of Mrs. Crouch’s acquaintances ever dreamed that she could be guilty of crime. Of respectable parentage, she lived in comfortable conditions, and had none of the fondness for luxurious living which too often leads to the undoing of young people. Although Mrs. Crondh’s husband—fe hard-working and self-respecting man, fond of his children and with a .great admiration for his wife —was frequently uneasy about her absences from home,, he did not suspect the real reason for these late outings. Whenever he ventured to ask where she had been she would silence him by telling him that she had spent a long evening with friends, and her arrest came as a great shock and surprise to him. Before her marriage she was employed for some time as a barmaid, but, as far as is known, her conduct, then was above reipyoacih. Mrs. Crouch’s one weakness was a passion for dress, which she indulged to the full. When taken to The police station she was wearing clothing worth a Considerable sum. Her own explanation of her lapse into crime was given to the prison doctor, and is in keeping with the strange obliquity of her perjsonality. “When my first child was I born,” she said, “I had a longing for [flowers. During the last six months I have been seized with » keirins, f«» r other thiruau”