The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-02-24
"CHICAGO MAY"
She and Her Gang Had Pocket Pick
ing Down to a Science.

If May Williams, one of the two
| young women charged with dexter
| ously abducting $4,000 from the
| wallet of Banker Van Norden, is the
Chicago woman of that name-as
seems probable-the Chicago police
can easily understand how the money
| was removed The New York Off
GERS, and most citizens who read of
the robbery, have been wondering
how on earth the women could have
got Van Norden's bank roll-if she
really got it. Easy, dead easy, if the
prisoner is the Chicago May Will
Jams.
May Williams, of Chicago
sumably the prisoner in the Van Nor
den case-was one of the last sur
vivors of a band which included May
Keating, Dora Donegan and May
Williams, besides half dozen minor
satellites. They operated in Chicago
| for several seasons, and the band
finally dwindled by retirement, of
some to married life, Of others to
the seclusion of "the stir" Joliet, and
of the remainder to other cities. All
of the women were big, good look
ing and finely dressed. They worked,
as a rule, in pairs, but never hesitat-
ed to operate alone, fearlessness be-
ing one of the characteristics Of every
woman in the crowd.
Versatile and ingenious, the only
thing about their work that could be
classed as coarse" was the way In
which they let themselves be cap
tured after every little affair they
brought off. They did not hesitate
to return to the scene of robbery,
and never objected to a pinch"
while their game in Court was to
demand continuances, time and
again, until the plaintiff would be
utterly worried and give up the pros
ecution. Ruralties, of course, could
not spare the time or money to keep
| coming in from the woods in this
fashion, and thus the women usually
won out in the end.
These young women had some
clever tricks, and May Williams, of
Chicago, ranked as one Of the clever
est. They would coax man into
dark hallway, "just for talk" and
inside of three minutes they would
have his watch and wallet. They
were expert dips (pickpockets,) and
could bite diamond out Of a stud
without hurting their teeth or arous-
ing suspicion. As to the trick which
Van Norden says was played on him
the lightning removal of his money
and the replacing of his pocketbook
that would be easy for May Will
Jams or any of the crowd. Talk
about the hand being swifter than
the eye-those women could clean
up a wallet and replace it in so short
a period that an ordinary individual
could hardly have opened the pocket
book for inspection.
During Worlds Fair year, and for
some time after, few of these
women ran panel houses" and it
was asserted by the Chicago police
| that 100000 had been stolen, main
ly from cattlemen, in one, only one,
of these places. It is on record that
a cattleman who had closed one OF
the biggest sales on record, was lured
into this place one evening. His wal
let, duly appropriated, was found to
contain $4,000 in $500 and $1,000
bills. The sight of such fortune
actually frightened the women, and,
instead of dividing the plunder, they
skinned off $500, put back the rest,
and slipped it into the ranchman's
pocket.
Belle Davis-no relation to the
colored singer-was the handsomest
Of these women, and there have, per-
haps been few brunette girls as beau
tiful. Belle, one night cleaned up
the pockets of Count Toulouse Lau-
tree, the adventurer who was, for
single day, King Of Bulgaria, and
afterwards became the greatest of
international swindlers. Lautree
had Belle arrested, but, admiring
her nerve as we'll as her beauty, did
not prosecute her, allowing her to
get away with some $4,000.
The strongest of these women, ply
sically, was Della Mahoney, six
foot Amazon, with form that would
have made a sculptor rave with JOY.
Della was a single-handed footpad
and held up people with small and
usually empty pistol. Dora Donegan
and May Williams, however, were the