The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-12
MRS. ANNIE THE PENWOMAN.
SKILFUL POST OFFICE MONEY
ORDER FORGER REARRESTED.


and Banks IN VaFfous quarters Cherish
Annie sharpley. who. reigns supreme in
her own little corner Of crime, walked out
Of the Pennsylvania Eastern Penitentiary
! yesterday In the new clothes OF released
lag and right into a new arrest. lnspeo-
tons Meyer and Jacobs Of the New York
Post once force were waiting for her with
q warrant. II they keep on aTresting her
In this manner after every release, the au-
thorities say they may keep her In various
penltentlAries for a good many years, since
In a short but lively summer campaign two
years ago the queen Of the postotice
forgers' piled up q whole cabinetfui OF
charges.
Something over four years ago Mrs,
Annie Sharpley was the respectable wife Of
q Philadelphia man who owned a small
trucking business. It was plain 20 be seen
that she was English by birth and her ac-
cent was that Of a gentlewoman and she
never dropped her his.
Her husband died in 1909. She went on
with the business. Her husband had left
II In very bad shape. Creditors even talked
Of closing her out. but they hesitated because
they rather had faith in the ability Of the
Plucky widow to pull through.
She settled the matter for them In sud
den and uneXpected way. One day, the
Philadelphia police say she passed series
Of bad checks on nearly every firm with
which she had done business. When the
checks came back marked IN. G. the po-
lice came down on her. She was gone.
It was part Of the audaoity which she
showed In her subsequent operations that
she should begin her postoffioe game in
Philadelphia. The scheme Is simple. She
bought a post office order for q sum under
a Enthusiastically rs cents. Then she In
serted a sum In dollars behind the figures.
So. for example, she raised several orders
nically excellent, and IL Ia believed that she
did il all herself. The inspectors have never
found anything TO show that she had con-
federates. She got the orders cashed by
banks OF tradesmen with whom she dealt
and then she moved on.
On May 20, 1905 a woman with an attrac-
lively shrinking manner and in plain but
elegant dress went into the Bank OF the
Metropolis, Seventeenth street and Union
Square this city. and cashed an order for
t25.25 drawn 70 Mrs. F.. A. Masen, a regular
depositor The order had been raised
from twenty-five cents. All that summer
she kept the local inspectors chasing. She
always got away with the cash. family
hotel in 10th street was stung for tl002S.
The Getty House at Yonkers lost the same
amount Newark and jersey City were
visited and the hotels there yielded with
ease. The description was always the
same, and even the worldly wise hotel
clerks Of jersey remarked that they could
scarcely believe 1t Of her
II was in August, 1903 that she appeared
at a hotel at Bath Beach and registered.
She told the clerk that she was a teacher
In young ladies seminary in Philadelphia
and would like TO know IL they would make
special terms for twenty young ladies
whom she would be showing over New
York later in the month. The manager
was called. He stated his terms, and he
was quite charmed with the combined
business sense and refinement which his
guest showed.
The next morning the new guest sp-
preached the clerk and said
most Of my money Is tied up in this
post ofice order. ! suppose IL would be
too much for me to asst you TO cash itiS'
The clerk hesitated. II seemed a pity
to turn her down-and yet there were the
rules.
she said. 1t would be inconvenient for
me to 60 to New York to-day. Suppose
you deposit it in the bank and pay me
after they have presented it?'
The clerk should have fallen for II right
there and handed over the whole 1907
but ne dion I. ne salo lhat IL was good
plan, and meanwhile he would be pleased
TO advance her $40 TO cover immediate
needs. She thanked him very prettily.
The manager went TO New York later
in the day, carrying the post office order,
which he Intended to deposit. II happened
that he wanted some ready money and the
post offioe being nearer than the bank he
bethought himself Of the order. In FIVE
minutes he found that its actual value
was Is cents.
The inspectors were notified forthwith
and started hot foot for Bath Beach. But
madam had just gone.
Il was thought that she would be likely
TO get mail while she was in New York;
90 letters addressed TO her by all her aliases
were put in the general delivery, the window
clerks were notified and the inspectors
waited hard by. Two days later when a
tailor made gown enclosing an attractive
woman stepped up TO the window the clerk
made a signal and the inspectors closed in
She had given the name Of Susie Laurens,
one Of Annie Sharpley's aliases. Her lady
like horror and indignation at her arrest
were something really fine.
The Philadelphia charge seemed the best
chance Of securing a conviction, so she was
railroAded back there. The Philadelphia
authorities had looked into MIS-. Annie
Sharpley's past little. They found things
which led them 10 believe that she had
got the beginnings Of her education in
specialized penmAnship from an old forger
Of the London underworld. That fact,
taken with her accent and her manners,
gives food to the imagination.
She got two years on the Philadelphia
charge. Having received the maximum
good conduct allowance, she was released
yesterday. The inspectors were waiting
FOR her at the prison gate with a bench
warrant on the Bank Of the Metropolis
charge.