Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-04-09
A DANGEROUS WOMAN.
Her Faculty of Changing Her Appear
ance While SHOWING the Queer"
Secret Service Detective in Detroit Free
Press

In January, 1863, the Secretary
of the Treasury was notified that a
new and dangerous counterfeit ON
a Cincinnati National Bank had
been put ahoat in Boston. The De
tective Bureau being notified in
turn | was detailed on the case and
LETT for Boston the same day.
About $1,000 Of the queer mad been
llOated in one day, and the work
had been done by woman. AT
one place she had purchased 5000
worth Of diamonds; at another a
$3.50 gold watch at another a dia'
mond 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 a blonde, plainly dressed.
AT the next she wasa brOwn-halred
woman in morning; at the third
she had black hair, was SLOWLY
dressed and claimed relationship
to well-knOwn family. After "A
day spent in taking notes and max
ing deduction i came to the con
clusiOn that there was only one
woman in the case, and that she
assumed DISCUSSES. Boston was
thoroughly searched for her, and /
had not yet found a clew when the
chief telegraphed me that she had
appeared in Philadelphia. Ireach.
ed that city to find she had pur.
chased 81 600 worth of diamonds
at one place and $500 worth at an.
other, paying, OF course, in the
counterfeit bills. The first jeweler
described her 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.
| had set out under the belief
that | had only one woman TO deal
with, and | would not now admit
there were two. | looked Phila-
delphia 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 pur-
chases of jewellers. | FASTENED to
the Smoky City as soon as possible,
and 10 the three descriptions Civ
en- 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 mad therefore
taken particular 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 hid brown eyes,
dark hair, mole on her chin and
plain white teeth. There was moth
ing affected about her. The third
jewelcr could swear that she had
black hair, gold in her lower
teeth, slight squint to ore eye,
and stammered bit as she talked.
HUNTED Plttsburg for three days,
but met with no success. BELIEF
ing she would next turn up at IN
dianapOlis, started for that city
without orders, taking a sleeping
car on night train. 1t was a
woman who had the lower berth
next to mine, and as looked her
over | 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 satchel be-
longing 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 satch-
el to the floor after a bit, and, as |
stopped over to pick it up, found
the floor covered with wigs, cos
metics, 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 1t was in
the lower.
Well, you may believe that with
my mind full Of the mysterious wO-
man and her disguise, | was not
long in concluding that | had stun
bled upon the person wanted. |
replaced the articles in the satchel
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 | revealed my identity
and emptied the contents of the
satchel on seat, she gave in
We got of at SteubenyilIe, and,
when | had her searched, over
$1,000 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 Dan," and the pair were the
most dangerous couple in America
at that time. We got her husband
IN a week or two, and, while he got
a sentence of twenty-five years, she
got off with seven.
- >-----
The Palm Family.
Who Senator Jones's Would be Faith