The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-05-15
No PROFIT IN CRIME.
(Continued from page 2, column ~

she conducted swindling operations
which melted her at least sl'ooo'-
900. and not long ago she was az
ros+od because she couldn't pay a
note for a small amount. Ellen Pech
was born in 1929. Crime has oeeh
hor fetich. Her hands, thick velneo'
shrunken things, have delved lnces-
sanity into crime. The fntr1cacles ol
tho, wrinkles on her forehead ana
clustering around her gray eyes anu
her wide, thin Tipped mouth were not
broneht there by the care or the grief
that good mothers know, 1or III tneni
are stamped the record OF almost
fonr decades of scheming and plot
ting and executing sharp and steal
thy crimes. One million dollars III
;11-sotten gains has come TO her
hands She has spent of it lavishly.
h,t of all the proceeds of her
ebrewdness and her boldness she mas
not enough left to keep her decently.
/: This old woman, who was steallng
and swindling long before Mr.. LIN
coin became president, must have
long memories, memories of the hap
nv home of her girlhood in the town
of starbright on the Hudson; OF
devoted husband and a beautl1ul
daughter. In those days Ellen PecA
was a prominent member of churcn
circle. a deaconess, indeed religious
leader. Yet she was secretly orealn-
ing of adventuring after stolen
wealth, secretly laying plans to SWIM
die. secretly arranging to desert
home, husband and daughter, gooo
name-everything that a normal .Wo-
man holds sacred and precious.
Rabbit Her First Victim.
The start of her criminal career
will never be known probably, but II
was. signalized, after minor coups, oy
robbing B. T. Babbitt, soap manu1ac-
turer, of $4,000. She convinced
Mr.. Babbitt that she was detective
and able to recover for him S2oo'ooo
In bonds that had been stolen oy
trusted employee. She enticed Sl9'-
200 from him by clever pretenses OF
expenses incurred in her detective =
work. Escaping prison by success
full assumption of insanity, she soon
rohbed a ieweler named Brady of
$4,000. Franz Meyer, who organ
ized a regiment of volunteers at the
start of the Spanish-American war;
possessed an independent income
prior to meeting Ellen Peck. When
The woman was brought to trial
charged with swindling him of $780,
400 Franz testified that she had re-
dnced him to the straits of shooting
sparrows in his backyard in order to
preyide food for his family. Bogus
real estate deals were her favorlte
halt and one William B. Crinkley lost
100000 through overtrustfulness IN
this regard. There was, too, the Jay
Gould affair. She, whom Jay Gould
never knew in his life, pretended to
he his intimate friend. She made
many believe that. she was and got
i them to give her large SUNS of money
to invest on e*tips" that she told
them came from the lips Of the Wall
street wizard"
These and many other affairs were
! punctuated by long prison sentences
two at Auburn among then1-and
many shorter terms, as well as a pc
: riod when she was detained in jail
merely on suspicion. So great was
the, fear that she inspired that the
police have never ceased to watch
her. Governor Dix pardoned her
from Auburn prison in 1911 on the
theory that she was too old to be
dangerous, but when she got out she
swindled Central American.
Monk Eastman's Testimony.
Monk Eastman, returning from
France the other day with fine mil
itary record, fastened to say that
crime leads only to ruin. The former
gang leader, burglar and terror OF
the police, insists that he is through
with the trade; that the army service
made him a changed man, and that
as long as he lives will walk straight
Well, Edward Eastman is person
of experience whose words may be
studied with unusual care. The bu'
reau of criminal Identification pos
sesses a long list of his violent ex
ploits and a fat envelope stuffed with
!. memoranda, which is detailed his
tory of his bad life. Hear him now:
"There is nothing in crime. There
& is nothing in being a thug. A gang