Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-30
A DANGEROUS. woMAM-
All interesting Incident from the Lire NJ
q Secret Service Detective,

a" interesting Incident from the Life ~
q Secret Service Detective,
In January, 1868, the Secretary Of
the Treasury was notified that a new
ana dangerous counterfeit on a Cincin-
natl National bank had been put afloat
IN Boston. The Detective Bureau being
notified in turn I was detailed on the
ease and lett for Boston the SAM day.
ABOUT $4,000 of the queer had been
noated in one day, and the work had
been done by a woman. At one place
she had purchased 5000 worth of dia-
monds; at another a $3.50 gold watch:
at another a diamond bracelet. The
goods in all cases were such articles az
could be sold again for at least half
their value.
Each victimized party described her
differently. At the first place she was
blonde, plainly dressed. At the next
She was a brown-haired woman in
mourning; at the third she had black
hair, was showily dressed and claimed
relationship to a well-known family.
After a day spent in taking notes and
making deductions [ came to the con-
ciuslon that there was only one woman
IN the case and that she had assumed
DISCUSSES. Boston was thoroughly
searched fol- her and 1 had not vet
found a clue when the chief telegraphed
me that she had appeared in Philadel-
phla. l reached that city to find that
she had purchased 81, 600 worth of dia-
monds at one place and $500 worth at
another, paying, of course, in the
terfeit bills. The first ieweler described
her as a snowy woman with gold in her
upper fropt teeth. The second jeweler
describedhe e as very plain and demure
n he was sure that she had no gold
in her teeth.
l had set out under the belief that I
had only n woman to deal with, and
| would not admit there was two.
| looked Philadelphia high and low for
females bearing the description, and at
the end ct four days received another
telegram from headquarters. She had
appeared in Pittsburgh, where she had
made three different purchases of
jewelers. l fastened to the Smoky City
as soon as possible, and 10! the three
descriptions given were SO entirely diff
terent that n was almost sure there
wero three women at work floating off
the counterfeits.
One jeweler had been mashed on his
customer, and had therefore taken par
tN:ular notice that her eyes were blue,
her hair brownand her height medium.
She had gold in her upper front teeth,
and was affected in her ways and
speech. The second jeweler wasn't
mashed, but he was an old detective,
and he noticed that she had brown
eyes, dark hair, a mole on her chin and
plain, white teeth. There wa nothing
affected about her. The third jeweler
could swear she had black hair, gold in
her lower teeth, a slight squint to one
eye and stammered a bit as she talked.
l hunted Pittsburgh for three days,
but met with no success. Believing
she would next turn up at Indianapolis,
l started for that city without orders,
taking u sleeping a on a night train.
1t was a woman who had the lower
berth next to mine. and as I looked
her over 1 made up my mind that she
wa q school teacher and an old maid.
She had red hair, dressed plainly, and
paid not the slightest attention to any
one. When the porter came to make
her berth he placed a rather bulky
sachel belonging to her on the seat at
my feet, and she found a temporary
seat at the other end of the car. The
jar of the cars jostled the sachel to the
floor after a bit, and, as | stopped over
to pick it up, l found the floor covered
with wigs, cosmetics, small brushes,
pieces of crayon and false teeth. There
were three wigs of different colors, and
two upper and two under sets of teeth.
I'm one the gold was in the upper; in
the other it was in the lower.
Well, you may believe that with my
mind full of the mysterious woman and
her disguise, [ was not long in con-
Guiding that L had stumbled upon the
person wanted. l replaced the articles
in the sachel and walked over to her
and made known my errand. She gave
me a terrible tongue-lashing and called
on the passengers for protection, but
when l revealed my identity and
emptied the contents of the sachel on a
seat, she gave in. We got off at Steu-
benvillc, and, when 1 had her searched,
over $4,000 in the counterfeits was
brought to light, but her purchases
were not to be found, she having
shipped them to confederates. She
was the wife of the notorious "Black
Dam and the pair were the most dan
gerous couple il. America at that time.
We got her husband in a week Or two,
and, while he got n sentence of twenty
two years, she got off with seven
Detroit Free Press.