The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-05-12
CECILIA CO0VEY
HAS HAD NO
CHANGE
Girl Goes ID Auburn. 10 Expiate
Crime Of Her
Parents
BY MlARGERY REX,

NEW YORK. May 1O.-Lilies
have grown in mud, but few hui.
man flowers have bloomed in moral
fifth.
Poverty. when extreme and vii
tul. is an enemy of purity.
Evil environment creates bob.
haired bandits, and Queens Of this
underworld" are impelled to crime
~ forces bred in the cellars of
ignorance where poisonous growtAns,
but never flowers, thrive.
Cecilia COoney, notorious bob.
haired bandit, has gone to Auburn
prison for q term of ten to twenty
years.
q Her Parentk' Sin.
She will expiate the sins OF her
parents who reared her, after u
fashion, In a dirty cellar, permitted
her at q, tender, age to encounter
ample she was keen. to follow, since
no other pattern of conduct ever
came her way.
Cecilia Cooney. child Of crime
and sQualOr, could not but be at
1ected by the unhealthy influences
that Swallowed her growing years.
Sister. under the skin of sin, to
Cecilia, was Sophie Lyons Burke,
whose recent death in Detroit, at
the age of seventy-six, recalls her
vivid career of crime in this coun.
try and Europe, interrupted at in.
teryals by prison sentences.
Sophie attained the lurid honor
Or being called Queen of Grim.
mails. She married Ned Lyons
Who proved himself worthy OF her
love by robbing q bank of one mil
lion dollars.
Both Sophie Lyons and Cecilia
CO0ney were born In squaIOr- and
reared IN crime. Sophie was the
daughter Of a shoplifting mother
and HOUSEKEEPING father. She IN.
herited her mothers talent and
was amazingly successful. But
forty years ago, when released
from a, house Of correction In De-
troit, Sophie decided to 'go
Sorry When Caught.
Cecilia Cooney, facing prison, says
crime is a mistake.
But IL Cecilia and Sophie had to
I'VE NE over again with the samo
BEGINNINGS, il Is doubtful IL they
would consider crime q mistake
until the moment Of capture.
POVERTY alone is not a cause of
Justice Franklin c. Hoyt,, Of the
children's court. says rs per cent
OF delinquency is caused by envir-
Onfnent. -,
BY environment, mean all out
sids influences that affect the
Ctiiu nome, assoctate environ
IN h.
ADVERSE living conditions infure
Q child mentally and physically.
abnormal and depforable con-
ditions are the fault Of the
parents
Judge Hoyt. who has saved many
MONIES from wreckage and directed
thousands Of children on the way
70 helpful lives, states as his be.
sDestitution and disease in n
nome have serious effect on the
future of children, reared there.
People live In dirty cellars be
cause they are too ignorant to get
while rs per cent Of del,nouency
IL caused by environment, IS per
cent is due to inherent personal
defects. Stunted mentality always
results in succumbing to tempta-
lions. The maladjusted child can
be properly adjusted. When he is
not It can be narrowed down to the
parents fault"
Poverty alone did not make the
bObbed- hair bandit.
The environment that causes rs
per cent of delinquency was aug.
mented in her case by the inherent
personal defect that foster the
other. 25 per cent.
Cecilia CoOney, SO far IN life. has
had no chance to be upright. It n
barely possible that some time She
may follow the example Of her su.
perior in banditry, the late Sophie
Lyons" and reform.