The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-21
Most Skillful Criminal in Her
Line Known to the Police.
HER FUNERAL IN CHICAGO
More Than Two Thousand People At
tended-Only One Conviction Ever
Found Against Her-Exhibi-
tons of Her Skill.

fewer than 1000 persons. 1t was a
gathering in which 40 mans watcn
was safe. Most of the expert hold-up
men, s~econd-story thieves, ~pickpockets,
confidence men, counIerfeiters. shop
lifhters and general crooks who infesI
Chicago were present at the inal cere-
monies over one who had been the peer
of the best-or worst-of them in CRIME.
Not only the police. but the fraternity
or crooks themselves, say that IInnl
DAILY had the lightest finger and the
coolest nerve OF any man or woman
who ever made a living in this country
by the art of the gentle touch"-in
other words. that she was tne most
skillful ~pickpocket in the American an
nails of crime.
From what circumstances Minnie
Daily descended TO her career is not
clearly known, for she who was 50
ready to talk of her exploits maintained
an unbroken silence as TO her origin
and early life. IL is said mat she VAS
the unacknowledged child of a we'll
known gambler. n a still better
known actress, and that her eaI,y
childhood vas carefully looked after
until she developed evil traits. Ger
tainly she had some education ami
was more delicate in her tastes than
those with whom she consorJed, but
just as certainly she was a born crlmi-
nal. Her nrst appearance upon me
criminal records was in 1883, when she
could not have been more than 10
years old. 1t was lhe nrst and last
time in a career of varied risks that
she was fairly caught at her business
of picking a pocket as To make a con-
viction possible.
Il was young at it then" she used
to say of this episode. Just as L nal
the ticker u my elbow turned and
the guy had me by the wrist with his
chain hanging from my hand"
The guy was a merchant of whom
she had been asking directions at a
railroad station. one year in Joliet
penitentiary was her sentence for this
job, and she came out eager to resume
her shifty trade. Unfortunately. Min
ME has left no AUTOBIOGRAPHY, so de-
tails of her rise in the profession are
to be had only from the general lore of
crime, and ii is silent as to the course
of her life during the year following.
One thing is known-that she did not
join a "mob"-one of those associa-
tions of pickpockets who work from
city to city in some degree of conuI-
vance, n in cases of arrest stand by
to furnish bail, provide legal aid. or
even corrupt a jury in the interest of
their companion. At that time women
were not highly though of as mob
members, and it is more than likely
that the girl, even with her growing
reputation, would have been unable t.
JOIN such an organization had she de-
sired TO do so, anu there is no reason
from her later course to believe that
she had leanIngs IN that direction.
Where she got the money to start in
life anew after her release from Joliet
is another dark point, though her name
Nn~n. "a NInH 90 N. ono
politician of evil repute. At any rate
she returned to Chicago, set up a quiet
little establishment OF her own, dressed
well, went to the theaters and other
places of amusement and carried her
self so c~ircumspectly that her landlord
supposed her TO be a WelI-pald emplOye
of a department store and a most re-
spectacle young person. Some knowl-
edge of the great stores she had, for
much of her work was done in them,
and she was not above adding to her re-
sources by an occasional dab at shop
lifting, though she always said that the
returns in hat line were Inadequate to
the risks. Every store detective in the
city came to know her as a crook; not
one of them ever succeeded in catching
her. 1t was a cash girl who came near
est to getting her, but the pickpocket's
ready wit saved her then as il did
many times thereafter. She had substi-
tuted her own p~ocketbook for that of
a woman who had laid one on the coun-
ter while making a purchase. and the
little cash girl saw her do it. All in
excitement she ran forward; the GRIM
inal saw her and held out the stolen
purse to its owner.
Pardon me-" she said calmly, I
think l took your purse in mistake for
my own"
That was all there was to it. The cash
girl vehemently declared hat it was a
case of theft. but there was no proof
and nothing could be done. Thereafter
when Minnie Daily visited that store a
detective followed her about everywhere,
and this gave her great delight, so much
SO that she made a practice of doing
her shopping at that place. Her pres
ence of mind in embarrassing situations
was powerfully assisted by her appear
ance. OF her as she looked at that
time a Chicago police officer says:
Il have seldom seen a more frank ex-
preston or a more honest face than
hers. 1t was the finest outfit imagina-
BILE for a crook. She mad light brown
hair, w,de clear blu eyes, a rather
square but decidedly pretty face and a
certain style of her own In dress and APP
pearance. See her out on the street and
you'd take her for a respectable girl Of
good circumstances She never looked
fast, and l guess for a woman who was
on the roo she kept herself pretty
particular. i don't know how many
times we've arrested her, IA We never
could get evidence to convict her, 80 we
finally let her alone"
In 1891 Minnie Daily took to attending
public dances OF a decent character.
such as balls given by the political as
sOciations, and it was an Oft night with
her when she did not bring back with
her at least one diamond, usually a stud.
1t was her boast that she could unscrew
a stud from a mans shirt front while
she was talking to him and not give
him a suspicion Of what was going on
literally under his very nose. a young
sport Of a somewhat prominent family
who met her at one Of these dances and
aacnrfaA har hnnna af-arnara I'D H.