The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-01-12
BREAK UP|
GANG OF CROOKS,
SAY POLICE
Pair of Convicted Women shopliften
and Men Posing as Hubbies Are
Alleged Advance Guard Of
Organized Band.
Quartet Also Involved in Marital.
Complications That Have Their Set
tings On Two Continents.

The strange case of Rosie Berman
and Leah Hochberg. shoplifters. con-
victed In Judge Phelan's court, Tues
day. presents to the police and fed
eral authorities manifold raminca-,
tions and endless complications.
These two women, who now take
their conviction with stolid lndiffer-
ence, are the stellar performers In q
drama, the settings OF which were
staged upon two continents. A tragic
denouement, which is being viewed
with intense interest by detectives
and federal officials all over the land,
Is now being enacted In Detroit.
The authorities say that the con-
viction OF Rosie Berman and Leah
Hochberg is the first step In the
breaking up OF clever band or
crooks, male and female. whose opera.
tions are countrywide. II the two men.
who pose as the husbands OF these
women, are deported-and the federal
authorizes sincerely hope they can ar
range the deportation-this will pc
the second step.
Into this crime drama, there en-
ters all the elements Of human
passion-love. hate. revenge-even
comedy.
From Philadelphia has come Mrs.
Kate Willis, legal wife of the man
who now calls himself Bennie Ber-
man. husband OF Rosie Berman. She
gives the lie direct to her husband and
in the county Jail she spit In Rosie
Bermans face in token OF her anger
and her contempt.
Rosie denies not Kate Willis prior
claim TO the affections OF Ike" Will
lis. alias Bennie Berman.
To add to the complexity OF the
situation, while Bennie Berman boasts
of surplus wife, Leah Hochburg.
Rosie Berman's companion In crime, 10
struggling to disprove the claim that
she is encumbered with one too many
bubbles.
Leah says she married Sam Lewis
I'm Russia. Lewis, with Willis. alias
Berman, Is now in the county JAIL
But over In London, Eng, Is Moscha
Hochburg. Impassioned letters have
come to Leah from across the At
lantic.
Moscha, in total ignorance of the
fact that she has another husband
and blind TO the life she has been
leading, pleads in eloquent languages
that she return to/him.
As an evidence of the vast import
ance with which the federal authors
ties regard the entire matter, the ".
s. immigration bureau Is now taking
steps to bring to America, Moscha
Hochburg, that he may confouno
Leah by his very presence.
Rosie and Leah. with ike" Wills
and Sam Lewis, all four Of whom now
occupy compartments In the county
iail arrived In Detroit, Nov. IL last.
The police say they we're the advance
guard of an organized band OF shop
lifters and pickpockets.
They came on here to feel out the
holiday situation i'm Detroit. IL the
field looked good. they were TO report
accordingly and Detroit would have
been the scene OF grand influx.
Detectives Sullivan and SteinheDeis
who have secured considerable infor-
nation on the case. say that when
Miss Nellie Connors, house detectve
for Crowley, Miner & Co. nabDed the
two women in the act OF ,purloining
silk waists, she saved the police q
whole lot of trouble. Miss Connor
performed this service Nov. 19, TWO
days after the quartet landed here.
In the mbarital adventures OF the
quartet the old world and the new
are involved and many men and wom-
EN- play signal roles.
The immigration authorities say
that Sam Lewis, first husDand OF
CONTINUED On Page Two.)