Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-05-07
a DANGEROUS WOMAN.
An Interesting Incident from tho Llfe Of
q Secret Service Detective.

An Interesting Incident from tho Lilo Of
q Secret Service Detective,
In January, 1868, the Secretary Of
the Treasury was notified that a new
n dangerous counterfeit on a Cincin-
natl National bank had been put atloat
IN Boston. The Detective Bureau being
notified in turn 1 was detailed ON tho
case and left for Boston the same day.
About $4,000 of the queer had been
f1oated in day, and the work had
been done by a woman. At II place
she had purchased 5000 worth of dia-
monds; at another q $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
a 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 l came to the con
clusion that there was only one woman
in the case and that she had assumed
DISCUSSES. Boston was thoroughly
searched for her and l had not vet
POUNDS clue when the chief telegraphed
me that she had appeared in Fhiladel-
phia. l reached that city to find that
she had purchased 81, 600 worth of dia-
monds at n place and $500 worth at
another, paying, of course, in the coun-
terfeit bills. The first jeweler described
her as a Snowy woman with gold in her
upper front teeth. The second jeweler
described her as very plain and demure
and he was sure that she had no gold
in her teeth.
l had set out under the belief that I
had only IL woman to deal with, and
would not nov admit there was two.
| looked Philadelphia high and low for
females bearing the description, and at
the end cl four days received another
telegram from headquarters. She had
appeared in Pittsburgh, where she had
made three different purchases of
jewelers.. 1 fastened to the Smoky City
as soon as possible, and 10! the three
descriptions given were so entirely diff
ferent that one was almost sure there
wero three women at work floating off
the counterfeits.
One jewclcr had been mashed on his
customer, and had therefore taken par
tinular notice that her eyes were blue,
her hair brown and her height medium.
She had gold in her upper front teeth,
and was affected in her ways and
speech. The second jewelcr 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 was nothing
affected about her. The third jeweler
! could swear she had black hair, gold in
her lower teeth, a slight squirt to one
! eye and stammercd a bit as she talked.
I hunted Pittsburgh for three days,
but met with no success. Believing
she would next turn up at Indianapolis,
I started for that city without orders,
taking a sleeping car on a night train.
1t was a woman who had the lower
berth next to mine. and as l looked
her owe l made up my mind that she
was a 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 u 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 l stopped over
to pick it up, | 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.
In 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 [ had stumbled upon the
person wanted. REPLACED the articles
and made known my GRAND. She gave
me a terrible tongue-lashing and called
on the passengers for protection, but
when 1 revealed my identity and
emptied the contents of the sachel on a
seat, she gave in. We got off at Steu-
benville, and, when l had her searched,
over 81, ZOO 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 a sentence of twenty
two years, she got off with seven.-
Detroit Free Press.