Her husband, however, charged with the same crime, was convicted speedily and sent to prison for nineteen years. It seems to be an impossible task nowadays to convict a woman of crime, provided she has plenty of money and can secure the services of a good lawyer who can play on the “feelings” of the jury. In nearly every case judge and jury are more lenient and extend more mercy to them.
Another woman who received a good deal of notoriety in those days was a Mrs. V——, who hailed from Philadelphia. She was charged with passing forged checks. She was ably defended on both trials. On her last trial her accomplishments counted for a good deal. She had winning ways about her, was well dressed, and to secure sympathy could drop a tear at the proper time. During the few weeks they were in the Tombs Mrs. M—— and Mrs. V—— spent most of their time on the tier or in the corridor—refusing to mix with the other (naughty) female prisoners or to have any dealings with them whatever. Their meals were sent to them from without and with the select company which they received daily were seldom lonely or disconsolate.
The case of Miss Fanny T——, who spent several months in the Tombs during the summer of 1903, is indeed sad and should be a warning to all young girls who at first are admired for their beauty, then betrayed, seduced and cast off by the so-called manly sex and finally disgraced.
She was confidential clerk in a large corporation. Finally she was charged with stealing $37,000 belonging to the firm. This she stoutly denied and showed that it was a conspiracy to save certain men in the office who were the guilty ones.
Several male scoundrels made her sign checks, cash them and turn the money over to them. As she had nothing to show for the money she gave them, she was found guilty and sent to Auburn Prison for several years. What mean cowards! To put a poor woman into such a trap and then gloat over her downfall!
Mabel P—— is another woman of this class. She is what the world calls “smart” and is educated to a certain extent but not cultured. She was brought up in a convent in this state, but left it to become the wife of her present husband, who is a graduate of Elmira Reformatory. She is said to be an expert forger and is able to imitate any handwriting. This was proved at her two trials by a Central Office detective who got into her graces by representing that he was a “pal” of her husband who was then in the Tombs.
These are the best representatives of their class and are remarkable for their adroitness and power to ingratiate themselves into the affections of matrons and missionaries. Mabel is also a habitue of the Tenderloin, where she knows all the resorts, in which she has been a frequent visitor for the past two years. She has refused positively to leave her husband or to abandon her evil life.
But the most dangerous of all women are the panel thieves. They go in pairs—male and female—two of a kind. The Courts are very severe on such people, and give them all the law allows.
The woman who attends strictly to the panel or badger business must have a male side partner, she doing the decoy work before her make-believe husband appears as offended innocence.
Such people seem to be very successful, as they have many victims who meekly submit to their losses rather than “howl” or expose themselves in a Police Court. The panel woman still walks Broadway and Fifth Avenue as a “decoy,” dressed in the fashions of the day, in search of “suckers,” and it is needless to say she finds many of them.