The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-04-27
HELEN BOYLES LIFE READS LIKE
ADVENTUROUS FICTION

lSVI her companion was IN JalA
longer, and 1t was en-
tirely due to Anna McDermott's
loyal efforts that Parker again Sc
cured his freedom.
Prosecutor Lininger also receiv-
ed from Detective Schauffler a re-
port Of another transaction in Kan
sas City in which Anna McDer-
mott, as Mrs. Parker, figured.
She advertised for a loan of 5000.
A loan agent who appeared found
her, he says, draped in widows
weeds and weeping bitterly. He
was SO impressed with her story
that he loaned her the money with
out security, and is one Of the VIC
Tins left behind in Kansas City by
Parker and his crowd.
The police of Kansas City say
that Anna McDermott' is deeply in
love with Frank A. Parker. 1t is
one of those attachments not un-
commonly found in the criminal
world where a woman will go
through any privation for the man
she acknowledges her master.
Kansas City was becoming en-
tirely too hot for Frank Parker and
Anna McDermott. They left as
quickly as he was released from
jail, and stopping a day or two at
Joplin, Mo-, made their way to st.
Louis.
From st. Louis and East st.
Louis they operated until August
30, 1907, when Parker, under the
name of Frank A. Minor, was ar
rested on another forgery charge,
and was sentenced on a plea of
guilty December 16, 1907, to the
Missouri state prison for two years.
1t was in the summer months of
1907 that the St. Louis police were
perplexed by series Of robberies
Of residences. The thefts were all
attributed to servant girls. The
police concluded after a long in
vestigation that trio of people
a man and two women who had
been advertising for maids for
housework, but who never hired
any Of the applicants-were at the
bottom Of these thefts.
A maid who would answer the
advertisement of these people
would be asked to give references.
and would leave list of her places
Of former employment.
The police theory in st. Louis is
that one of the women who insert
ed these advertisements would
then pass herself as a maid and
apply for work at the home of
wealthy people who were adver-
Using.
The bogus applicant would give
the list of references obtained by
fraud from some innocent girl, and
taking that girls name would Sc
cure place and within a few days
make way with the family Jewels.
Frank Parker was arrested Aug
ust 80, 1907, The following month
Mrs. H. Chouteau Dyer, the wife of
st. Louis lawyer. employed a girl
who gave her name as Clara STRAIT
ton. She was hired on Thursday
and left the following Monday, TAX
ing $4,000 of jewels.
Mr.. and Mrs. Dyer had made
practically an Identification Of Mrs.
Boyle as Clara Stratton in her cell
here in Mercer.
The only point Of the identified
ton in doubt was the color of Mrs.
Boyle's hair. The Dyers remember
the Stratton girls hair as dark.
When Mrs. Boyle was arrested her
hair was a light reddish color, but
since has been growing gradually
darker
There was living in East st.
Louis at the time that Anna Nc
Dermott came from Kansas City
with Parker, young man named
James Boyle. He had been In East
st. Louis for at least three years.
He had come there from his fam
lily home at Sharon, Pa.
He was a quiet and fairly steady
young workman. He had never
shown any criminal tendencies. He
wrote to his home folks frequently,
and never got entirely away from
the old home connections at
Sharon.
About one year before his meet
ing with Anna McDermott he re-
turned to Sharon and paid his old
mother a visit.
A brother of Boyle says that he
never saw Boyle In the company
Of woman until he met Anna Nc
Dermott. Just when and where
and how the McDermott woman
and Boyle first met the state does
not know.
In the early part of 1908 they
lived together in East st. Louis,
and Boyle spoke of Anna McDeN
mott to his associates as Helene.
They lived in a room in East St
Louis.
II also knows that this girl of 20
who only little more than year
before ran away from her home IN