The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-12
MOST REMARKABLE Thief
Woman Defied Scotland Yard For Thirteen Years
as Burglar, and Had Young Ladies
Robbing Seminary.

. DHrTef6Q even MS 4llSiL uCIAoIiS e1440 7OCAi
became an expert.
In a few months Mason and Annie
| Morgan had stolen enough from the
West End fashionable shops to enable
them 10 lease a SUBURBAN villa in North
| London and to furnish it luxuriously.
Then Annie wanted a carriage and
horses. with liveried servants. Shop
lifting alone would not supply them.
And so after midnight one night she
Joined Mason in her first burglary.
Dressing herself in male attire she en-
tered a fashionable house in Judd
street, Euston road. They made a rich
haul of diamonds and silver plate and
Annie Morgan had her carriage and
pair within the month.
The carriage and pair added to Annie
Morgan's facilities for committing
crime Faultlessly dressed, she would
drive through fashionable streets pros
pecting'' for houses that offered alluring
invitation for burglarious visits. The
house once spotted, would be entered
the next night, the fashionable carriage
being left standing by the curb a block
away. If the alarm was raised, Annie
Morgan had only to hurry to her car
riage, conceal her plumber and drive
slowly away. The appearance of a
smart carriage and pair, with a hand
somely goWned young woman resting
languidly in the cushions, would never
be suspected by constable or police.
Annie entered upon her career as
burglar with all the enthusiasm of
youth. She craved excitement and bur-
glary supplied it. In one summer,
while occupying villa in Vale road,
Harringay, she robbed SO wealthy
homes within radius of five miles
and was not even suspected by the
scores of Scotland Yard men brought
down from London.
But i'm time even the delights of bur-
glary palled on Annie Morgan's taste.
She wanted a new diversion. To graft
fly her longing she established what
might be called Young Ladies and
Gentlemen's Fashionable School for
Crime" She advertised in provincial
papers offering comforta BILE home to
a good looking girl as companion. If
the girl who answered the advertise
ment was handsome, with a stylish
figure. Annie Morgan engaged her, and
it was a strong willed girl indeed who
escaped from her clutches. Generally
the girls offered feeble resistance, and
once under the influence of Annie Nor
gan became apt pupils.
These girls were not only taught to
pick pockets and to steal jewelry, laces,
silks and the thousand and one odds
and ends from Londons west end
shops but they were sent out in open
carriages, each with a demure maid
| to ride in the parks. A chance ac-
! quaintance with rich man would end
! in an invitation to call at the villa.
| The rich man, once in Annie Morgans
| home. rarely escaped with anything
but his life and the coat on his back.
! AS the young girls were taught to
| be shoplifters, the young men who at
4 tended Annie Morgan's school for
crime We're taught to be burglars. II
Mason was too busy Annie herself
would don male attire and instruct her
pupil in the art of saving bars, cutting
glass, picking locks and opening safes.
For Is years Annie Morgan bafled the
skill of the ablest detectives in London
! and continued her amazing career
without even a suspicion attaching it
self to her name. But there came an
end to it all, and through her own
jealousy. In all thea years George
Mason had been to her an ideal. He
had made her fit companion for Sat
an. He had trampled upon every in
stinct of her wonlanhood But she low
ed him, blindly and devotedly One
day, however, she discovered that Ma
son had transferred his affections to
one of the girls that Annie Morgan
herself had educated to be a common
thief. With all the fury Of a woman
scorned she went to the police with in
formation that led to the crest of Ma
son and the other girl Mason was
easily convicted and sentenced to IS
months in prison.
Then the police began to wonder why
Annie Morgan happened to know SO
much about George Mason. They pick