Show adventuress in prison for life bady evelyn most fantastic character in california history san francisco mrs evelyn rosen crantz woman of three husbands four penitentiary terms halt a dozen crimes a dozen or more aliases and a hundred and one adventures Is back home she Is safely domiciled in san penitentiary bud her son Is home too occupying quarters just across the prison yard from his mother whom he appears to have succeeded in imitating not wessly but too well lady evelyn may remain in the old stone house for the rest of her natural life an oakland superior judge shutting his eyes and crossing hla fingers as he did so informed mrs Bosen crantz that under proal alons of the statute that california law makers patterned from new yorks baumes law she will be corn belled to do so as an habitual nal so tar as ta known the first woman to be so sentenced and as a consequence mrs rosen crantz imprisonment in san quentan has become a statewide state wide issue for mra who has lived at san quentin much too frequently for her own peace of mind the question has become her life battle she like the old stone prison nor the project ory on which it sits over looking san francisco bay nor the public servants headed by warden james B holohan who attend her every move judge denounces law mrs one of the most fantastic characters california authorities ever have dealt with declares that it Is all a terrible mistake the habitual criminal law recently enacted by california under which a person convicted four times of a fel ony automatically Is sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole she feels Is a terrible mistake in fact there about her or the sporadic record of crime against her name or names that Is not a terrible mistake on this basis the woman whose son Is a fellow convict with her in san quentan plans to carry her fight against the habitual criminal law to the highest court attacking its con that she will have much public backing Is assured the very judge who sent her back to san quentan ln superior judge fred V wood of oakland assailed the law in passing judg men upon mrs saying it Is manifestly unfair and unjust here Is a woman who in all has ats honestly obtained perhaps and yet under the law she must go to prison for life with no hope of parole while a fiend like antohne Ant olne who bru tally murders his innocent wife likewise goes to prison under a life sen tence but will be eligible to parole in ten years it might be well for the people of california to inquire a little more closely into the working of this habitual criminal law it Is certainly not equal and exact justice to punish this woman guilty though she may be of everything charged against her more severely than we punish criminals of the type of antohne Ant olne arthur antohne Ant olne referred to bad just previously been sentenced tor cutting to pieces the body of his wife so that be might marry a younger woman much married many names it Is against alie background of this question of public policy in dealing with crime that mrs stands in bold relief her life story forming one of the most singular chapters in the history of california crime almost constantly in the tolls of the law since 1915 mrs has figured as a writer a motion picture actress an with a los angeles to flight aa her prospective goal a financial wizard and a love cult devotee she has been married three times and has been the central figure in a suit for breach of promise against william B etker bead of the go called city loss cult a mar aled man with whom she became en adored she has been known as ella lizzie and evelyn barton as edwana evelyn and patricia areld as mrs E P reed as evelyn winifred van donlen evelyn Kosen crantz and mrs W E hiker she has been so difficult to handle in the prison that at one time she was sent to the stockton state asylum after being adjudged insane only to be returned a month later as perfectly normal mrs lays her troubles to a fathers curse given her as an in fant here Is her story patricia areld her true name was born in london in 1887 her mother died when she was born and her father she contends blamed her for this she was shunted into the care of governesses and convents her father being wealthy early in life the girl was brought by her father to canada where he subsequently died there at the age of eighteen she was first mar aled to walter barton strange quirks of fate carried the young woman into india and russia then back to seattle where her son was born the son who now occupies a cell near his mother divorce ended the first marriage the comans womans second husband wa baron van dohlen whom she met in berlin wooed and won in a whirlwind romance that failed to take into con the fact that the baron already had a legal wife the two spent several years mrs relates in dodging the true wife 1 I knew he was married she says but I 1 loved him love Is more am than laws joins mountain love cult later figured in the a william von trial dur ing the world war and it was bre that mrs first met jim holobar Ho loban then united states lial now warden at san Quent ln then came her first crime 1 I pleaded guilty to passing a bal check all I 1 did was overdraw my ac count but my lawyer said if I 1 fought we case I 1 would only draw attention to van dohlen I 1 was framed by van doulens Doh lens wife given probation pro elded I 1 never saw him again I 1 was found with him later of course and sent to san quentan ln after san quentan liberty and R new marriage there being no lawful marriage to van dohlen there was no divorce she married and the les said of him the better he was of no great consequence we divorced then san quentan again in may 1919 when she was sent from san diego for passing fictitious checks release came in 1920 when a court order granted her a new trial periodical tilts with the law followed on january 0 1923 mrs ro sen crantz went back to san quentan again she was at home this time for four years for the passing of a spurious check for hereafter followed perhaps the most spectacular period of mrs ro sen crantz very vivid career on the tip of san quentan cell mates she turned to the strange cult at holy city in the heart of the santa cruz mountains fifty five miles south of here as a haven of refuge A few months later mrs a announced as secretary to william E alker ling of the strange cult which had become known for its tree oe sponsorship planned to fly to rome alien january 1928 the scene had shifted to hollywood where mrs bad gone to take up avla alon and to prepare herself for a role in which she was to be starred in a motion picture by alker as the per feet woman this film was to ex pound the holy city religious phy it seemed that fate was more kindly to this lady of troubles but then A suit for damages chang ing breach of promise was filed in the los angeles superior court by mrs against alker the suit was sensational in the ex it told of a love cottage and of the strange rites by which alker had inducted her into the holy city cult it charged that alker disavowing his love for his wife mother lucalle of the cult had promised to marry her it charged that she and bilker lived as man and wife at holy city that it nas there he promulgated plans for her proposed flight to rome in a plane patterned after lendbergh s spirit of st louis all the ramlal of the holy city cult deded into and laid bare the suit having its climax in the assertion that alker s love later grew cold und that he left mrs fleeing to the refuge of holy city till suit Is still pending lents leading up to mrs rosen crantz s present predicament came in rapid sequence a trail of bad checks leading from san jose to oakland and thence to fresno where on february 5 the nas arrested with 0 A ander son young oakland youth with whom slie had fled after passing a fictitious check on his father a garage owner of oakland son shot by police charges standing against mrs ro sen crantz in san jose were temporarily upheld and she was returned to oakland where she was tried by a jury and convicted on the charge of passing the spurious check against the elder anderson judge woods arbitrary sentence under the habitual criminal act followed mrs laid her ties in the last instance to alker whom she charged with having tailed 10 place money her credit in a long beich bank after promising to do so the jury did not believe her it was while mrs was awaiting trial in oakland that her son clarence eighteen was shot down by police and captured in the same city he had been sought by federal au les and police officials on alous check charges and endeavored to escape when ambushed in an oak land residence young was convicted shortly after bis mother and followed her across the bay to san quentan now the mother Is spending much time upon her knees in her prison pell guards say she has become extremely confident that she will be freed 1 I hae faith she says my faith convinces me that I 1 shall not die in prison and in the meantime her attorneys with financial backing from some where are proceeding alth their legal fight for her freedom |