The herald., 1896-10-18

ranked as the cleverest thief the world
over. This woman is Sophie Lyons. She
has a dozen other names, but it is not
worth while to enumerate them. Sophie
Lyons she is officially and by that name
Is known to the chiefs of police in every
great city In the world.
Just now she is in New York, where
she was arrested a few days ago on a
charge of carrying burglars tools This
sounds formidable When the police
magistrate before whom she was ar
raigned, asked the detective where the
burglars tools were, he held up a wo-
mans skirt, in which was sewed an or
dinary, old-fashioned shoplifter's bag.
This latter comprised the sum total of
the burglars tools. Ordinarily the de-
tective would have had weak case and
the prisoner would have been discharged.
But the linking together of Sophie Ly
Ons and the shopifter's bag meant Susi-
ness. So she was lie d fer the grand jury.
Sophie is now iii her iiftieth year; she
has lived in several penitentiaries, but
she does not look her age. Most people
would put her down for forty, and the
leniently inclined at thirty-five or thirty
eight. But in few months she will pass
the half century mark and she takes sat
isfaction in the thought that she has
lived every year of her life.
Criminologists, if they could induce
Sophie to talk solmenly, would find
much of interest in study of her. She
Is striking example of the force of her.
edity in crime, more so than any criminal
in or out of Jail today. AS hinted in the
opening paragraph, her grandfather was
officially interested in crime. Her father
was house breaker and her mother a
shoplifter. Her son died in Auburn
prison.
A BREAK IN THE THEORY.
Up to this point there is no break in
of 1xro t,xr
some criminologists. But now for the
break and the strangest part of it. So
phie has two daughters. One of these is
30 years old, the other o. They are nuns
In Montreal convent, giving up their
lives to a furtherance of the manifold
teachings of religion.
How is this to be accounted for?
The theorists in criminal heredity may
say: But the father of these young
women5 he must be considered as well
as the mother. His honesty may have
been stronger than her criminality."
Ned Lyons was the father. Ask any
detective of note, or look into any stand
ard work on American criminals, for
Information about Ned Lyons. AS an all
round crook he ranked pref eminent He
gathered In $150000 during the war
being the most reckless and persistent
bounty jumper of them all. In one month
he enlisted and deserted eighteen times
With accomplices he robbed one bank
of $1,000.000 in cash. Numerous other
banks he robbed of sums ranging from
$4,000 to quarter of million-always
n cash. This was the father of the boy
VINO died in Auburn prison, an1 of the
two nuns in the Montreal convent.
dereolty doesn't explain this diver
gence In the children, but environment
does. BY one of her strange whims So
nhie Lyons decided that her two daugh-
ters should grow up to be honest, pure
women, and by another strange whim
she hoped that her son would be credit
20 the record of his maternal grand
parents and of his parents. So she kept
her son with her and sent her daughters
- the convent. The son had the infiu-
ence OF the mother and the daughters
the goodly teachings of the nuns. II
6hts had been reversed the daughters
might have turned out differently and
the son might now be alive, an honest
man.
A LIFELONG CRIMINAL
0ophia Lyons has been . criminal 70.