Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
A Veritable She-Devil.


They have queer young woman in the
lookup over in Newark. Her married name
Is Ray. She Is twenty-three years Of age,
well educated. singularly handsome in the
brunette style. and even now, behind the
bars, she trradicates a gracious cheerful
ness and an unbroken good nature that
stupefy her keepers
Yet this woman has more than once
proven herself to be an utter devil Her
latest performance which promises to be
her last In a state of freedom, was the
cruel slaughtering of her husbands tot of a
four-year-old orphaned niece. The woman
broke every bone of the child 8 body in fit
OF ungovernable rage. and then tossed the
young one down a couple of flights of stairs.
The child died. Of course and the woman is
going to be indicted for murder in the first
degree.
1t is almost impossible to talk with this
really remarkably lovely young woman and
believe the extraordinary tales that are told
OF her; yet the tales are part Of the Grim
inal annals of Newark
When she was sixteen years old q strong,
strapping girl, going to high school, she got
into temper with her father one day Her
father. a man in the prime of life, had re-
proved her mildly for a bit Of misconduct,
and she jumped at him like a tigress.
He was absolutely no match for her and
she punched and pummeled and clawed him
into complete insensibility, winding up by
kicking him In the face with her heavy
school boots and disdguring him for life.
He had her put into a house of refuge
She devoted all Of her time at the house OF
refuge to developing her remarkable
strength. dazzling the other incorrigible
girls with her feats on trapeze. horizontal
bars and her ability to put one punching
bag after another out Of business The day
was bound to come when she was to weary
OF the confinement Of the house of refuge
when that day arrived she picked one Of
the keepers up and tossed him over one of
the walls and gained her freedom,
She went back to her fathers house. He
was SO cowed by her that he feared to sur
render her to the authorities. They traced
her, however. and when they reached the
house she locked herself in her room and
dared them to break down the door, They
thought her dare only bluff especially as
she called out that she would jump out of
the window II they tried to effect an en-
trance. They broke in the door and she
rushed to the window and jumped through
the glass, taking the sash with her.
She Took to the Meadows.
They rushed to the yard below, expecting
to find her mangled body. but she had gone.
Clad only in her night dress. and in freez-
ing weather. she took to the meadows on
the outskirts of Newark and remained there
thirty-six hours without food. but with no
idea whatever of giving herself up, before
they found her and returned her to the
house of refuge
She signalized her return to that insti-
tuition by knocking four keepers into in
senstbility. after which she settled. down
and was good until young fellow of de-
cent life came along and wanted to marry
her. whereupon she was turned loose at the
age of seventeen.
These were only few of her exploits. 1t
Is said that she has macerated her hug
banda pretty husky and handy chap him
self-to a pulp time and again since he took
her for better or worse-oh, so very much
worse-from the institution for incorrigible
girls, yet he has chung to her and helped
her out Of scrapes innumerable, all due to
a fendish temper which she seems never to
have made any effort to curb, during all of
the years since her incarceration.
And now she IL peering through the bars
Of the Newark Jail. cheerful and debonair
as Merimeeis cigarette girl. singing to her
self, asking her keepers for Emersons es-
says and Browning's poems to while away
her hours. talking in a sweetly modulated
voice and with tasteful and correct Ian
guage with her visitors-and the little Or
phaned girl that she ruthlessly slaughtered.
with slow and deliberate intentness, sleep
ing her last sleep out yonder under the
snow! One wonders what the "alienists''
will have to say about a woman like that
one.