Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-08-20
THE CONFIDENCE Queen
Sketch of Mrs. Peck, Who Makes
Bushels Of Trouble.
smart People Are Her Favoritc Prey
She Tackled jay Gould and Only
Luck Saved the WIZARD
Small and Smart.

Small and Smart.
New YORK, Aug. l3-Mrs. Ellen
Peck, who was arrested in Boston a
few days ago for attempting to secure
n valuable house without paying for
ID, is perhaps the most notorious female
criminal hat America ever knew. Al
though her peculier talents have
gained for her the simple and ambigu'
II title Of confidence queen" she is
prominently the most distinguished
rogue with whom the police of n dozeT
cities have ever had TO deal. She pos
scsses the genius Of versatility 10 N
almost suyorhunan degree in the
swindliug Inc and no criminal, male
or female, is feared and respected n
Sic is. Size ranges all over the field o.
dishonesty, from committing petty
crimes to high class real estate swind
ling, and although repeatedly arrested
for hundreds Of crooked transactions
she has SO far managed to escape pun
ishment, except in one instance, and
then she served only a very light sen
tence.
1t is estimated by the police that
Mrs. Peck, or Knight. as she is somc'
times known, has made something like
81, OOO, coo by her schemes. She Is a
trim little. brown-haired woman,
meek and innocent appearing as u
nun, but she has Il very active brain
and u gift of speech that can persuade
au iconoclnst. She lives in brooklyn
when she is at home, is about 30 years
of age and, her n%cighOors say, is q
model housewife. sac also has n hus-
band who at times helps her TO work II
scheme; but all the credit, IL there be
any attached to her exploits, belongs
solely 10 her Superintendent liyrnes,
OF the New lorl. police, says she is
the most s|illlfUl female detective he
ever knew, ana On several occasions
she has rendered valuable aid 10
the professional thief-takers, notably
in trapping Il couutcrfeitcr whose ar
rest the police particularly desired.
She could earn IA big salary by turning
honest and contiuiug her talent TO de-
~.ective work.
AS far as known Ellen Peck has but
one weakness. This is for the daZ-
cling light of the diamonds fash, and
this passion is what has brought her
into the meshes of the laws net She
acquires diamonds us she does real
estate-without paying for them.
Ear,y in her career, which now cx
tends over seventeen years of time and
the whole United States us a'feld, she
swindlcd a broadway jcweler out of a
S4t0 pair Of stones. She pawned then
with the famous simpson and at.
tempted to make the latter give them
back ~ the plea hat they had been
stolen from her. She even produced
Il man who confessed to having robbed
her of them, aud when Simp-
son refused 10 give them up she
brought suit TO o Then the
man from whom she had stolen them
turned up and had her arrested. She
escaped through some tecLnicaiity Of
the law. This is but one instance of
her holiness, but it is typical of her
methods.
Smart people" are her particular
mark, and it is on record that she has
swindled some of the shrewdest men
III the country. Half ii dozen famous
New York lawyers, including Bisscll,
at one time eX-President Cleveland's
partner, are among them She got
$500 out of the latter on a fraudulent
mortgage. Mortgaging Georgia sand
htIis ~""d'h-:-a"n deserts foI suiaS -,rdI
in advance OF their actual value are
accomplishments that vie with the
achievements of Puget sound real es-
tate dcG. as in s.ling lots located in
twenty fathoms of water, yet Mrs
Pack has done this time and again. A
year or two ago she mortgaged her
household furniture to twelve different
money lenders and then proved that
it belonged to somebody else.
The stock brokers in Wall street
rave fallen victims to her wiles and
she has engineered three or four deals
in high-priced stocks, the results of
which were Improbable to everybody
but herself. The gullibility of some
IF the brokers who have been taken in
by her furnishes rich pickings for their
own victims when the results Of q new
raid by Mrs. Peek in II OF her various
roles becomes known. She is credited
with having interested Jay Gould in q
deal by Offering TO secure him the con.
troll OF Il railway feeder for the Unior
Pacific which he very much desired.
The wizard is said To have almost
fallen into her trap and was saved, rs
the story goes, by her being rceog.
nized i'll his Office by IA detective who
had arrested her. lie is also repre-.
sented as having enjoyed her attempt
to swindle him as much rs anybody
else. Gould is the only one of the big
operators She ever tackled. The re
suit of that probably discouraged her,
for she kept out OF the street for over
two years.
Her most famous exploit was il
~swindling j. L. Rabbit, the million
aire soap manufacturer, out Of $40, 0ot
b. pretending to be able to recover
$500, 900. which n Of his employee. |
had stolen. So skillfully did she man
age the affair that Babbitt would no
believe lie had been dupeG
even after she had been OK
posed. When he did awake TO the
real situation he attempted TO recover
his money, but was not only defeated
by n blackInailing scheme but forced
TO give up money. In this she
was assisted by her husband, and the
charges made by the II against the
soap man furnished a sensation.
Rather than fight TO disprove their
Rabbit dropped the matter. but it 1.
said that he never after hat permitted
n woman TO enter his Office unattended
One of the features Of the ease was !
suit for 500, 900 brought by Mrs. Peck, |
husband against Habbitt for trying Il
lead 4 daughter astray. OF cours.
there was no truth in the charge ant
it was never pressed.
Mrs Peck's achievement which go
her into trouble in Eoston was in buy
ing n $50, OCO house with a note ano
mortgaging it TO two or three differen'
persons. Some we'll known Bostor
men are said TO be mixed up in the
affair and 1t is not Improbable thai
s1la witl M enatt f.aA |