The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-05-27
A Dangerous Woman.

In January, 1868, the Secretary of the
Treasury was notified that new and
dangerous counterfeit on Cincinnati
National bank had been put afloat in
Boston. The Detective Bureau being
notified in turn 1 was detailed on the case
and left for Boston the same day. About
$4,000 of the queer had been Aoated in
one day, and the work had been done by
woman. At one place she had pur-
chased 5000 worth of diamonds; at an
other $3.50 gold watch at another
diamond bracelet. The goods in all cases
were such articles as 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 well;known family. After day
spent in taking notes and making deduc.
tions came TO the conclusion that there
was only one woman in the case, and
that she had assumed disguises. Boston
was thoroughly searched for her, and |
had not yet found clue when the chief
telegraphed me that she had appeared in
Philadelphia. I reached that city to find
that she had purchased $1,000 worth of
diamonds at one place and $500 worth at
another, paying, Of course, in the coun-
terfeit bills. TIE first jeweler described
her as snowy woman with gold in her
upper front teeth. The second jeweler
described her as very plain and demure,
aud he was sure that she had no gold in
her teeth.
I had set out under the belief that l
had only one woman to deal with, and [
would not now admit there were too. l
looked Philadelphia high and low for
females bearing the description, and at
the end of four days received another
telegram from headquarters. She had
appeared in Pittsburg, where she had
made three different purchases. I
hastened to the Smoky City as soon as
possible, and 10 the three descriptions
given were so entirely different that one
was almost sure there were three women
at work floating off the counterfeits.
One jeweler had been mashed on his
customer, and had therefore taken par
ticular 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 jeweler wasn't mashed, but
he was an old detective, and he noticed
that she had brown eyes, dark hair, q
mole on her chin, and plain, white teeth
There was nothing affected about her.
The third jeweler could swear that she
had black hair, gold in her lower teeth, a
slight squint to one eye, and stammered a
bit as she talked.
I hunted Pittsburg for three days, but
met with no success. Believing she
would next turn up at Indianapolis, l
started for that city without orders, TAX
ing sleeping car on night train. 1t
was woman who had tho lower berth
next to mine, and as I looked her over 1
made up my mind that she was 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 rather bulky satchel belonging
to her on the seat at my feet, and she
found temporary seat at the other end
of the car. The jar cf the cars jostled
the satchel to the floor after bit, and,
as I stopped over to pick it up, I 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 concluding
that 1 had stumbled upon the person
wanted. I replaced the articles in the
satchel and walked over to her and made
known my errand. She gave me terri
BILE tongue-lashing and called on the
passengers for protection, but when l
revealed my identity and emptied the
contents of The satchel on seat, she gave
in. We got off at Steubenville, and,
when had her searched, over 81 600 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
Dan," and the pair were the most danger
GUS couple in America at that time. We
got her husband in week or two, and,
while he got a sentence of twenty-five
years, she got off with seven.-Detroa