The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-04-03
The Queen Of shOp.LlNers.


The New York Mercury says Among
the females now domiciled at the city's ex-
peuse in the work-house on Blaokwell's
Island is Martha Hargreaves, whose name
has figured prominently in some of fthe
great crimes committed in this city. She
is widely known to the detective police as
having been for many years one of the
most expert thieves that has ever operated
here. Her history is one OF, strange adven-
lures and vicisstudes. During the last
fifteen years she has operated as a conf
dence woman, shop-lifter, pick-pocket,
queer-shover," forger's assistant and
''fence" for thieves. Her skill in the dark
and various ways of crime made her great
favorite among the big professionals of the
Eighth and Fifteenth Wards where she
reigned like queen. Dan Noble, the
Lord bond robber, who is serving long
sentence in an Austrian prison; I'D utch'
Heinrich, the Aliens, and Sharlsey, the fu-
gitive murderer, trusted her with their
secrets. She is the wife of "Phil'' Har-
greaves, who was mixed up in iracas with
the late George Hill, otherwise "Cooly
Keys" She came to New York from
Liverpool with Hargreaves in 1851, and
soon afterwards turned to shop-lifting and
pocket-picking AS shop-lifter she had
great success. She made many rich haul
from the dry goods and millinery stores
along Broadway, hardly one of which she
has not visited. With ready conversational
powers and good address she found it easy
TO beguile dull or careless statesmen, and
almost always purloined some valuable ar
ticle without detection. 1t is thought that
she has made over two hundred thousand
dollars in her time, but she spent all her
ill-gotten gains for drink. She has fire.
quently been known to give some valuable
articles, worth four or five hundred dollars,
for glass of liquor. In 1879 the men
who committed the two million dollar bond
forgeries in this city trusted her with two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars of forg-
cd Chicago and Northwestern Railroad
bonds to take to London and deliver to
Walter Sheridan, alias Raston. She sailed
in the steamer Adriatic, and Roberts and
Gleason, who are now in Ludlow street
Jail, were present at her departure. Roberts
was arrested on the wharf by Detective
McDougall, under the habitual criminals
act. The arrest was the first made under
the act Martha delivered the bonds to
Sheridan in London, and he gave them to
a noted American burglar for safe keeping
until he found an opportunity to put them
on the British market. Chapman had to
get out of the way very suddenly, and he
gave the bonds to the care of man who
kept a hotel in London which was resorted
90 by American fug:tives. This man
afterward said that the police made visit
to the hotel and that he burned the bonds.
Sheridan, to whom Martha was sent, is
under conviction for forgery, and is in the
Tombs awaiting sentence. Martha was ar
rested by officer hIaher of the Eldridge
street police few days ago, while helpless
ly intoxicated in the street. Judge Wan
dell sent her to the Island for ten days.
She says that her maiden name is Walsh,
and that she is fifty years of age, and was
born in Ireland. She talks with strong
Cockney accent. The thieves discarded
her when they found that she was too old
to be of any further service to them in
their operations