The Washington times., 1912-06-06
NOTORIOUS WOMAN
CRIMINAL IS BACK
At INSANE ASYLUM
Ada Cross, Veteran of Three
Penitentiaries, Returned
to ST.. Elizabeth's.

Ada Cross, alias Ada Gray, one of
the mCst notorious woman criminals
ever taken in custody by the Washing
ton police, Is back in the Government
Hospital for the Insane, after having
been confined In three Federal pentl-
tentaries during the last seventeen
years.
From petit thieving to murder, the
woman has scaled every round of the
ladder of crime, and in the three peni-
tentiaries - Albany, Moundsville, and
Leavenworth-as we'll as st. Elizabeths g.
where she was previously an inmate,
Ada Cross is regarded as the most un-
desirable and troublesome prisoner with
whom the officials of these institutions
have had to deal.
During the last year the woman had
been In the Leavenworth penitentiary.
In May she caused so much trouble In
the prison that the warden refused to
put up with her any longer, and ar
rangements were made to have her sent
BACK to the Government Hospital as an
insane criminal. She arrived at St.
Elizabeth's en- May 81.
On February IL, 1907, while serving a
twenty-year term In the Moundsville
CIV: Va) penitentiary, the Cross woman
stabbed Lottie Hoffman, another colored
prisoner, to death with a pair of scis-
sors. The murder was committed in the
sewing room OF the pententiary where
poth women were employed. 1t was
with the greatest difficulty that the
guards oyerpowered the woman and
pr evented her from attacking the other
women.
After the killing of the Hoffman
woman, Ada Cross was sent to St
Elizabeth's. the prison physicians having
pronounced her insane. A year ago
alienists decided she was sane and had
her committed to the penitentiary at
Leavenworth, Kans.
The womans. police record runs back
| as far as 1895, when she was sentenced
| 20 nine years In the Albany, N. Y,
penitentiary. She Is known to the police
as servant girl thief-that is. her
speciality in crime was to rob places
where she was employed as a domestic
In Albany the woman gave the Of
hcials OF the prison a great deal OF
! trouble. She was released, however, be.
| lore her term was up and in 1901 she
was back In Washington. She had only
been here a few days when she was
| again arrested for grand larceny and
sent to Moundsville. Released from
Moundsville, she returned to the Dis.
twenty years in Moundsville for house
| breaking.
1t was while she was serving this
term that she killed the Hoffman
woman, Two months later she was sem
to the insane asylum.
About ten years ago Ada Cross pre-
ferred sensational charges against Of
ficials OF the District Jail. where she
was held awaiting trial. The charge.
| resulted in scandal, and Judge
| Pritchard severely criticised the Jail of
| fcials for their alleged conduct. The
matter was taken up by the grand jury
but nothing further came of it. Every
| one at the Jail who was named by tho
| Cross woman in her charges emphati
cally denied that there was any grount
for the reports.
The woman has been almost con
| stantly in trouble with the other in
| mates, and the officials of the insti
tuition in which she has been confined
since she was first arrested seven
! teen years ago.