San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-18
BIG BERTHA.
HER RETURN TO SAN FRAN
CISCO, CAL.
What the Frisco Papers Say Of the
Confidence Queen--Full
Particulars and
Trial, Etc,

Particulars anu
Trial, Etc.
The following excerpts in the case
of Big Bertha Newman, so recently
confined in the Bexar county Jail, are
culled from the San Francisco EXAM
liner of a recent date:
Hundreds of people satisfied their
curiosity by gazing at the confidence
queen Of America as she came across
the bay ON the boat yesterday morn
ing, and dozens of others visited the
city prison during the day to see the
woman whose clever impOsitions on
Rabbi Messing and his friends had
been town talk two months ago. AS
Jewish society has been particularly
interested in her, most of the callers
on "Eig Bertha" were believers in the
faith, including many men about
town, who have laughed over
the affair since it first became public.
Bertha was put in one of the screen
ed cells for females, near the prison
entrance, as Chief Crowley knew that
many people would want to see her,
and this place was more convenient
than the tanks, where Willie, whom
she claims is her stepson, was incar-
cerated. 1t is besides more adapted
than the tanks for occupancy by a
woman. Bertha had bath and a
meal soon after she came, and felt APP
parently, in good humor.
The pair had been conveyed to the
station from the ferry in hack,
which, in order to avoid the crowd,
had been driven in on the inclosed
portion of the wharf up TO the boat.
Officers Gillin and Parrott, who
went to San Antonio for the
couple, and who accompanied them
on their return trip, were known, how
ever, to people on board, and the news
that the 25O-pound woman was Zig
Bertha and the slender little fellow
with the handouts on his wrists was
her accOmplice was soon passed from
mouth to mouth. The mob stared at
them as they were hurried into the
carriage and gazed after it when it
was driven away.
Bertha was treated considerably ON
the journey, no handouts being put on
her. She and Willie, for people with
such large possessions in Illinois as
they have asserted ownership of, were
in remarkably good spirits from the
time San Antonio was left until San
Francisco was reached, and in the Jail
they showed not the least trace of de-
lection.
Both abandoned the Discrimination
to converse with newspaper represen-
tatives which they had shown when
intercepted in Texas on March 29th,
and both proved adept in speech"
After stating the stragety in which
they were taken from the BeXar cOun-
t. Jail, their route was eXplained:
1.-THE officers took the nOrth-bound
train, and on the following day were
in Indian Territory. Had they gone
by the other route they would have
passed through Ell Paso, where her
lawyer lived, and been two days and
a night reaching the boundary line.
The party stopped over night at Par
sons, Kansas, and also stayed day
at Denver.
Bertha persists that she is Mrs.
Stanley; that she came here from La
Sale, ILL.,, and that her husband died
there about three years ago. leaving
her large estate. Notwithstanding
on Willie's relationship to the obese
married his father % years ago in La
Sale, and that Willie, whose mother
was Mr.. Stanley's first wife, was then
three months old. On these points
they agreed exactly.
Mrs. Stanley. however, when asked
what Mr.. StanIey's business was, said
that he was dry goods merchant and
that her brother, Benas Schlessinger,
was engaged with him in the buying
and selling of fabrics, while Willie re-
piled that his father was a contractor
and mason who built smelting-works
Willie denied with laugh that he
had ever gone by any other name
than Willie Stanley.
This affable, frank smile of his is of
constant service to him in making the
music of his tongue more seductive.
He is glib talker; he has a fluency in
the use of words. and without mani
Testing any effort picks his expressions
with care. Occasionally, however, he
can be surprised into the use of COLO
quialisms and even slang.
A sight of Bertha is necessary to let
one perceive how woman with so
much flesh, and whose appearance
has been often referred to as homely,
could attract the attention and win
the confidence of men. Her power lies
in her eyes. They are brown, but OF
such a dark color that one would at
first think them black, and they are
bright enough to light up her entire
countenance. She is not handsome,
but she is not bad looking either, and
accounts that have been given of her
visage have been overdrawn.
There are two little moles on her
RIGHT cheek one undar her ripht