The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-13

was elected to the State Senate. served
a term with some ability, ran for Con-
gress and was defeated, and then tried
his hand in the wheat pit Of Chicago.
1t won't do to say that unlucky wheat
speculation and the wiles of opponents
drove Whitman into crime when his
money was swept away, for there was
something askew inside his head. His
progress downward is interesting.
Wiped out at the Chicago Board of
Trade in 1898, he became a bookmaker
on Western and Eastern tracks and
for time did pretty well. He once
bet $4,000 TO win $1,000. making the
wager with the late Davy johnson on
the old Monmouth Park track, and
won the bet. Pierre Lorillards mare
Wanda just managing to get her pretty
nose in front of the thoroughbred that
imperilled Whitmans $4,000. Even
tually, within a year or So he had to
Quit as a bookmaker because his money
was gone and his credit was no good.
What next? Plain forgery. He
forged a check somewhere out West
and was convicted. When he came out
Of prison he tried little more chirog-
raphy. The outcome was the same
Year after year his name occurs in the
record Of arrests and convictions. AT
times his loot was big and he wriggled
out of the laws grip, but in the long
run there were always manacles on his
slender wrists and his feet were always
headed for some States penitentiary.
The last heard of him was that he was
ri nf n nhin--a n
he is more than co, nearing the end of
his life without dollar and sure to be
harried by the police of every city once
he shows his face.
Notorious Ellen Peck.
Did you ever hear OF Ellen Peck?
In her day she was the most cele-
brated woman crook in the world. The
police called her the wickedest woman
in the world. For fifty years she con-
Quoted swindling operations Which
netted her at least 100000, and not
| long ago she was arrested because she
couldn't pay a note for a small amount.
Ellen Peck was born in 1929. Crime
has been her fetch. Her hands, thick
veined. shrunken things. have delved
| necessarily into crime. The intricacies
of the wrinkles on her forehead and
clustering around her gray eyes and
J her wide, thin Tipped mouth were not
brought there by the care or the grief
that good mothers know, for in them
are stamped the record of almost four
decades of scheming and plotting and
executing sharp and stealthy crimes.
! one million dollars in Ill gotten gains
has come to her hands. She has spent
of it lavishly. But of all the proceeds
of her shrewdness and her boldness
she has not enough left to keep her
decently.
| This old woman, who was stealing
and swindling long before Mr.. Lincoln
became President. must have long
memories, memories of the happy
home of her girlhood in the town OF
Starbright on the Hudson; of de-
voted husband and a beautiful daugh-
ter. In those days Ellen Peck was a
prominent member of a church circle
a deaconess, indeed, a religious leader
Yet she was secretly dreaming Of .ad-
venturing after stolen wealth, secretly
laying plans to swindle. secretly ar
ranging to desert home, husband and
lcaughter, soou name-eVerything thal
a normal woman holds sacred and
precious.
Rabbit Her First Victim.
The start OF her criminal career
win never be known probably, but 1,
was signalized, after minor coups, BY
robbing B. T. Babbitt, soap manu-.
facturer. Of $4,000. She convinced
Mr.. Babbitt that she was a detective
able to recover for him 100000 il
bonds that had been stolen by 9
trusted employee. She enticed SIS. OOt