Mrs. Chadwick certainly displayed a very masculine ability in her criminal exploits. It was a stroke of genius to carry a bunch of important-looking papers to one of the leading banks, and hire a special safe by the year, for the rent of which she obtained a receipt. Armed with this she was able to persuade quite a number of rich and fashionable Americans that she had a million pounds worth of securities in the safe which she did not wish to dispose of because the markets were low, and to sell out would have been to invite a heavy loss. She varied her story as occasion demanded, one of her favourite yarns being that the securities were bequeathed to her on the condition that she did not sell them outright. She could, however, promise very large interest to those who trusted her, and it was an offer to pay twenty per cent that induced one millionaire to hand her his cheque for two hundred thousand dollars and not ask for anything more than a written receipt.
Her swindle was, of course, only a copy of the Humbert fraud, and, considering that she put it into operation a year after the sentence on the famous Madame Humbert, it is extraordinary that she should have been able to find victims. The only explanation that has been advanced is that of hypnotism. Mrs. Chadwick had undoubtedly "hypnotic eyes," but it is doubtful if they alone charmed nearly a million out of some of the most astute business men the land of dollars has produced.
But her story of a vast fortune in a bank safe was generally believed. When she informed a keen-witted New York millionaire that if he advanced her twenty-five thousand dollars she would repay him twice as much within the year—the safe, she declared, was to be opened on a certain date, and the contents distributed as she decided—he actually took her word, and parted with the money he was never to see again. And this did not happen long ago. The date of the transaction was 1904, and that same man must have read all about Madame Humbert's trial and conviction less than twelve months previously.
It is not necessary to give further particulars of this "safe" fraud. Mrs. Chadwick simply took the cash, and had a "high old time," and day and night her mansion was filled with guests. Her tradespeople were delighted. The fact that she paid them cash, and that most of them were too wary to take "shares" in the "safe" exploit, proved that some people at any rate ultimately benefited by the woman's amazing imposture.
One of her most fiendish exploits was to invite a well-known financier to dine with her and a few friends. This gentleman had declined to advance money on the strength of the mythical securities, and she had resolved to get even with him. She therefore retained friendly relations with him and unsuspectingly he accepted her invitation. When he arrived Mrs. Chadwick's only other guest was a pretty young girl, the daughter of a New York physician.
The dinner was a pleasant affair, but towards the close the financier became sleepy, greatly to his surprise, as he did not suspect that his hostess had purposely drugged both him and her only other guest. Anyhow, in the early morning, when he woke up, he found himself stretched on the floor, and a moment later Mrs. Chadwick appeared, and tearfully explained that in his "excited condition"—she meant intoxicated, but refrained from using that vulgar word—he had grossly insulted her girl friend. The long and the short of it was that he had to pay ten thousand dollars in blackmail, and of this sum the woman gave her girl confederate two hundred.
But at last the morning dawned when a certain victim of hers set out for the Wade National Bank in Cleveland, and presented the manager's receipt for the hire of the safe, together with the key and a written order from Mrs. Chadwick that the bearer was to be permitted to open the safe and take from it the valuable securities she had deposited there. Her emissary was a creditor to the extent of eighty thousand dollars, and he was naturally very anxious to recoup himself for his outlay. Mrs. Chadwick had instructed him to select sufficient stocks and shares to realize his account plus twenty thousand dollars for interest, and then to send the rest to a firm of stockbrokers in New York with instructions to realize.
It must have been a very dramatic moment when the credulous creditor turned the key in the lock and the safe door opened on its hinges, and he must have felt pleased with himself when he saw the pile of important-looking documents which seemed to him to be valuable share certificates. But a moment later he realized that he had been grossly swindled, for the papers proved to be worthless.
The bubble had burst! Mrs. Chadwick was from that moment known as the Madame Humbert of America. How her creditors howled! How they were chaffed and ridiculed! A few would not reveal themselves once they guessed that there could be no redress. Nevertheless, stern measures were adopted, and a warrant was issued for the impostor's arrest.
Mrs. Chadwick had taken up her quarters in an expensive hotel in the early part of December, 1904. She intended to pass Christmas there, and the management had already consulted her as to her ideas of a really Christmasy entertainment. She was paying one hundred dollars a week for her rooms, and she had arrived with a fortune in jewels, and half a dozen personal servants. She was the uncrowned queen of the hotel, where the other visitors stood in groups and discussed her wonderful personality in awed accents.