| Show o fl a o J J w a o 0 o 0 1 How the Law Has Put Safely Behind iq I i iI Prison I Raymonde Ma- Ma the the Young beautiful Span ish girl who be became tamer came the leader Criminals mho for of a notorious band of Paris Apaches Months Have F O Been A 4 Terrorizing Europe 9 With Their 1 x ng Deeds 2 I 1 RETTY Peggy Travers ers was a ruth ruth- ruthless ruthless PRETTY P less and efficient captain of ban ban- bandits bandits bandits and the despair of Scotland Yard until she fell in love ove with the worthless fellow who vho first battened upon her unlawful plunder and ultimately caused her betrayal betra al and her downfall That is typical of how the old order changes in this and other western Eu Eu- European European European capitals and beautiful but pre pre- predatory predator predatory take their places dator young oung women as leaders of the criminal host that wars upon society The police say Look for the man now now meaning meaning the parasitic lover of the female outlaw quite as they used to re re- remark remark remark mark f femme Peggys Peggy's case is typical t in another way of course for fOl Peggy Pegy was caught in the end and now is serving her prison term So the fair lir but frail ones who are lured by love of adventure false ro romance ro- ro romance romance mance cupidity or downright lawless lawless- lawlessness lawlessness ness into the paths of crime are learn learn- learning learning learning ing at first first hand the old age-old lesson of the law which is that crime does not pay pa She is only one of a dozen or more women wom bandit chiefs to fall into the hands of the authorities in the last six or eight weeks London has had its Christine Lewis the eyed brown Welsh lass whose terri territory territory territory tory was the residential section of Hampstead its Vera Walker its Nell Gardiner its Lillian Coote and its Muriel Mu Mu- Muriel Muriel riel Shields who combined the confidence confidence confidence dence game with robbery Paris has had its amazing Raymonde the fiery Spanish girl who dominated a vicious tribe of Apaches and did not stop at strangling when she needed money Berlin Derlin has had its Martha Franke Frankc known in the drawing rooms as an angel angel- faced kid who was an excellent dancing partner and in the grimy underworld of the German capital capita as one of the most reckless reck Ie and merciless outlaws of modern times All these young oung women and as many more were until arrested real aristo aristo- aristocrats aristocrats aristocrats of crime real leaders of the bands with which they were affiliated confused with the They The are arc not to be Frankie and Marion Stanleys Stanleyg and other weak loving clinging girls who are decoyed deco ed into crime by their lov lov- lovers lovers lovers ers and are always Va al s 's referred to in the police reports as women accomplices of the prisoner Their depredations reached a peak about five months ago when the police of Paris London Brussels Berlin Derlin Glas Glas- Glasgow Glasgow Glasgow gow and Liverpool were being made to look foolish by the gangs inspired and directed by these bold bad beauties What effect the subsequent series of ar arrests ar- ar arrests rests will have on the crop of lady bandits Scotland Yard doesn't know But Dut the Yard is hoping it will discourage age embryo criminals in skirts to find 1 out that the inclination to deal gently with girls who break the law has disappeared Peggy Travers stood out among them all by reason of her daring her initia Initia- initiative Initiative initiative tive her beauty and her impressive if temporary triumphs eyed Blue haired dark-haired a graceful dancer and an amusing conversational conversational- conversationalist she came up from the provinces when she was sixteen determined to wrest an easy living from the city of her dreams Like several of these women crim criminals criminals she had scruples against selling her beauty in the London pace market and apparently held men at arms arm's length throughout her wild career I. I til tit t I II I Pi 1 i iI it B p yo f 1 i jQ Ii t w I Jj 1 1 I B t t ii I t Y i t. t f r C. C i ilk I I f rl f 1 I ml tf I 1 JP p l. l I jb ft Peggy Peggy Travers who W hied 0 led a band of f Eng Eng- English English lish I. I IS h girl crooks cro and is IS now n ow serving ser serving v- v vIS ing a long prison term A girl must live Jive however and Peggy born plain Gladys Smith had little cash She began to steal small sums at first then large sums still playing pla-ing a lone hand At last the idea of a bandit band occurred to her and she formed it from among the women of the mush mush- mushroom mushroom mushroom room night clubs of Soho where she was wass spending s her money mone as it came The climax of her career arrived when she engineered and directed five big rob rob- robberies robberies robberies only a few days apart and took well over a hundred thousand pounds to split among her followers She brought disaster upon herself as has been said by falling in love with Derek Bond Dond a worthless fellow of the lounge lizard type who soon learned she had money and determined to share it He asked her to marry him before he understood the source of her riches and when she rashly told him how she made her money he withdrew the offer The lover turned blackmailer He lie threatened to expose her to her respect respect- respectable respectable respectable able friends the people of the small northern village where she was corn and the police In desperation the girl gave him vast sums and took even bigger chances than before in the effort to meet the drain Her lIer ventures began to turn out badly Two of her accomplices were caught on a bank job The demands of Derek Bond Dond became more unreasonable She was down to her last cent Then Bond Dond demanded that she give him her her- herself self that self that she become his mistress Rather than do that and md seeing ex ex- exposure exposure ex- ex exposure at hand the captain of bandits went vent voluntarily to Scotland Yard and told her story She did not implicate one of her woman followers Christine Lewis the Welsh girl specialized specialized specialized in house robberies and had turned off scores when she was caught red handed in a flat fiat She used men and women accomplices impartially she admitted before they sent her away but preferred the women because they didn't make love to her When she appeared for sentence she wore the best of clothes a snappy fur coat and did not look her twenty-nine twenty years by at least nine or ten Vera Walker and Nell Gardiner began as automobile thieves and store looters and ended by staging a mail van rob rob- robbery robber robbery bery ber without a bit of aid from any member of the so-called so sterner sex Vera was known to the profession as Lil Lii and her two-girl two gang was the despair of the tho police of the whole south of England until she became ambitious and took up mail robbery The van was attacked on a lonely road about thirty miles from London The girls wore masks and carried pistols in both hands The driver clerk and guard thought it was a joke A warning shot in the air convinced d them it was not and they climbed down and stood and de de- delivered delivered delivered livered as submissively as if they were being held up by Dick Turpin himself Tampering with the mails is not one of the safe and healthful amusements in England however and an army of de de- detectives detectives de- de detectives began a hunt which eventually led to a neat little London flat and the arrest and confessions of Lil and her admiring lieutenant They admitted then that they had robbed more than twenty stores and stolen fifty automobiles some of them at pistol point Their crime being the most serious they got the stiffest sentences of any of the female outlaws yet caught in Britain or elsewhere in western Europe Muriel Shields m kno in London so society so- so society society as The Beautiful was a few rounds higher on the ladder of crime than these gun Her regular dodge was confidence stuff stud although althou h she would stoop to down down- downright downright downright right robbery and sometimes carried a agun gun ht 1927 A i R A I 1 r i f fI fr fA I r A Muriel the Peach now doing time in inan inan a fir fira an English E n g lis h F prison after a career of crime Appearing from nowhere she told London she was the daughter of a min min- mining minIng mining ing man who had been murdered in Montana and that when she came into her full fortune she would be worth many millions In the meantime she said she was allowed 1000 a week from the estate as spending money Every day she rode in the Row she kept an expensive auto negotiated for a country estate known as Court and ran up dressmakers' dressmakers bills for thousands of pounds All the time she confessed when caught she was engaged in various swindles and confidence games in fa one of which she relieved a Mr Horsman of America of about Martha Franke Berlins Berlin's bandit queen was wa perhaps the most original and the most persuasive of all her tribe Where she came from nobody knows not even now v when it is all over Like the others she appeared like a. a a comet and assumed proud position among am n the reckless war the pleasure seekers of Berlin Half her time she spent in drawing drawing- rooms where she was called Angel Anel Face and was remarkable for her un un- unassailable unassailable unassailable assailable virtue and her demureness 07 7 lot 1 Q r The faced angel kid who was so much In de demand t mand as a dancing part partner y ner In fashionable drawing rooms was r known In the city's underworld as one of the most reckless and merciless out outlaws outLaws laws of modern times C- C 5 Et f v Y t R itI 5 y e Martha Franke Fr who posed as a member of fash fash- fashionable fashionable society in Paris and Berlin while white direct direct- directing directing as asing ing the activities of a group of men and women criminals The rest of the time she passed in the underworld of the German capital than capital than which there is none grimmer or more sinister Denying herself to cavalry colonels and barons she gave herself to toa toa toa a lover who was a leader in that world without the law Jaw Once she he became friendly with a stodgy German banker knowing that he was going out on a business trip to the Argentine No sooner had he taken ship than she appeared at his house with a retinue of servants Of course Franz asked me to use his house while he was away awa she told the curious She entertained enter enter- entertained entertained royally both her aristocratic friends and the bad boys and girls from her own grim background When the banker returned he found holes burned in priceless hangings and carpets the marks of the heels of Lard hard hardworking working thugs and story second-story men on expensive tables and cabinets worst of all about worth of gold and silver plato was missing Marthas Martha's arrest was not long delayed Giving her pedigree she would only say she was two twenty-two years old There is reason to believe she is the daughter of ofa a respectable commercial family in East Prussia But that secret she carried with her behind the prison walls Raymonde the contribution tion of Paris Jo to the annals of female criminals was born of well-to-do well Spanish parents who preferred to live in th the French capital At first she saw the Apaches as she I went on slumming expeditions expeditions- Then she began to meet them in a n social way in the under cover clubs and cafes she started to visit Always a lover of jewelry and unable to get from her father all that she wished she saw her herway herway way clear to satisfy her desire Selecting an bodied able-bodied but weak weak- willed Apache who had the standing of leader in a band working in Montmartre she made him her willing slave His gang became hers her's and she inspired and supervised a number of daring and profitable house burglaries Then she made the desperate decision to kill an anold anold anold old man for his valuables She made her confederates do the strong-arm strong work while she was the lure Decoying the old codger into his own garden at night she gave the signal and her accomplices leaped upon him and tried to strangle him with the girls girl's beautiful and distinctive Spanish scarf Old as he was the victim fought fou ht back got clear of his assailants and shouted for help The Apaches ran Raymonde with the others But Dut they left the scarf behind And that was the end of f that young womans woman's career for everyone everone in io Montmartre knew that scarf R |
