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Show I THE 'GIRL WITH THE AGATE EYES' I Crime, Violence and Sudden Dealh Mark the Tortuous Path of the Fascinating Mattie Howard Through the H Mazes of Crookdom---Faithful to Her Imprisoned Gangster-Sweetheart, She Utilized Her Transcendent H Physical Charms, Her Extraordinary Perverted Talents and Her Phenomenal Resources of Will- H Po,er to Ensnare Susceptible Young Criminals for Her Own Enterprises. H Dlastrafc i bj Baaraei ( iku m a riB HOWARD -world lYi woman, has Just been locked up In the State penitentiary of Missouri to iserve twelve years for compllcltr In a murder. According to the newspaper." of the Middle West And some of the evidence that came out at her trial, here ts a girl, still In her early twenties, whose brief patli Is atrown wth the wrecks and corpses of men who loved hr and marked with the disasters and deaths of those she lood In turn a siren of i I the xoclal deeps, a criminal Helen. There has IStUrly been I marked rcnasceneo I of the Intereit the fiction and scenario writer have long shown n the "moll." Accordingly. It may be worlh while to look at such a woman In the terms of life, to discover something of the reality that hedges oer. Iu the case of Mattie Howard the apparent facts will be found at least equal In romantic nuallt. to the work of the writing gentlemen. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of her story Ib the account of her compelling hmi'ty and ne havoc played by its apparition in the underworld I have not seen this woman personally. BO that the account of her loveliness and Us power over men must be accepted as second hand. However, certain facts seem to speak in favor of the veracity of the legend The police of Kansas City, where this woman yelgned In lb aubworld, say that not fewer than I ii, i. mi : have been killed because of their connection with Mattie Howard, some of them ensnared en-snared by her and led to assassination, more of them criminals who were shot down by the police while engaged in crimes which Mattie Howard may have suggested or planned. Some M other followed of tier cause and career are in B jb prisons and itlU more 10 jails, waiting to bo H tried for felonies somehow connected with the - n I woman. l There li, H may !. more than a little non- sense in the attribution of all this fatality to this lY young woman Between the police officers and H the newspaper reporters a good deal of inac- curacy and lomancc Is conceived. Dut there can I be no doubt that she did play a surprising part In I the ciiminal life of Kansas City and the sur- rounding territory for several years, that she led i -gangs of desperadoes that she charmed the men of b r dtrk world and bent them to her purpose m. ,, (heir own destruction or that she cams k strangely Into criminal ranks, was strangely hcH ll there and motivated through the heart to eom- fl plet heartlessness H The origin of the girl is not clear. It appears BB certain, however, that she was decently born, odu- mM raletl n a convent and given considerable vocal instruction. These facts have been Inflated by the , jM local newspaper sentimentalists Into that the girl was of superior education and had been pre-H pre-H pared for grand opera a palpable absurdity. It Bj is sufficiently romantic and wonder-waking to or- Wl dlnary Imagination to know that I girl of gentle U 1 blrtn antl well Intended schooling be(ani. a .!? Km .of baudlts. a killer and a felon. The way in EI l which all this came about will seem even more E9 i outrageous to the smug citizen and sage reader 13 of success stories and inspirational twaddle, for KjK ln the outnumbering ranks of these Americans no W .one cares or want to know about the descent E.L and destruction of th,c human spirit. To these good green people a Mattie Howard BBV can be nothing but a horrible and abandoned creature, best forgotten at once and thrown out I HI accounting But there will he an oppoalte opin- HMfl Ion among men who have scanned the human ma- BfiH terlal closely and looked Intently at tho pattern of life. For them I tell here as much of her LPI story as can be picked from the police records and tho uncertain sources of the criminal zone. Some lime in 1916, so far as any record say. balfl there began to bo eeen In some of the north-end haunts of Kansas City a young girl of an excep-IsH excep-IsH tional quality She was of medium size, bril-OssH bril-OssH llantly blonde, with a clear, fair skin anr eyes H which attracted attention wherever she went ' The eyes were light, large, shallow, of a -late-tcl 1 bluo tone and Strangely insi.Tut.niU-. PerLup Bl there is an explanation of the later misdeeds of El this girl In the last detail, for this unreadable ll quality of the eyes, this hiding and evasion in what is normally the most expressive feature of the face is one of the recognized stlgwata of cer-tain cer-tain types of neurotics. Such ees belong to patb--H ologic liars nd klrdred sufferers more common I In the sex. A very largo proportion of all crini- n , Inal women belong to these afflicted. But the Kansas City underworld and Its contiguous strata eaw none of these things In the eyes of this new girl. To those who appraised her in these haunts she was only a strangely beautiful and desirable younK female. Descriptive names soon attached themselves to her. and she became the "Golden Girl" and the "Girl with the Agate Eyes." Stories of her origin began be-gan to bo told. It was said she had been strictly reared in a convent and had run away to Kansas City. There was also tho bruit of her unusual musical musi-cal accomplishment Here were the other details which gave the woman her special spe-cial quality. She was evidently not of tho same coarse stamp of most women wom-en In her new eu-vironment. Kettle Howardi whose irresistible, shifting eyes DAYS led many a gangster in death r prison. The report, apparently well founded, that Mat-tie Mat-tie Howard had fled from a convent and found asylum in the nether world furnishes more sug-gestivo sug-gestivo detail for the analysis of the woman's character and motive, for it is just such a neurotic neu-rotic and repressed gitl as already suggested who runs away from u strict school or a strict home and comes soon to one or auother abasement Mattie Howard was shortly the constant and inseparable companion of a rough young fellow named Albert Paglc. of whom the police held a vague cognizance. He was. In fact, an obscure young gangster on his way to better criminal rank and, as it happened, to prison. In their own rank il was understood that this lovely young girl was Pagle's and he hers. No one interfered. That is the rule among the abandoned. I believe it Is also the rule of the respectable. The difference seems to be that crooks observe it. How had a girl of some schooling and refinement refine-ment and much beauty, so recently. flown from her convent, landed in the arms of this criminal? Tho ultimate answer will be found again in the nervous makeup of the woman, but ordinary so- cial condition'- and certain commonly understood leaning of romantic women will explain a good deal. The girl who runs away from school and wants to disappear from those who wish to restrain re-strain and correct and punish her is most likely to gravitate toward regions where questions are seldom asked and secrets generally kept. She finds it easier to secrete herself there and easier to make a living Again, the fascination that a bold criminal extrts over some women is the same as that exercised by the soldier. Women love such men as a tribute to valor or the appearance appear-ance of valor. Mattie Howard was happy with her young criminal crim-inal for a year or less. Then he was arrested for highway robbery, eventually tried and finally sent to Jefferson City for five years The girl was desperate, furicus. terrible." She could not change lightly to some other hero of tho deeps and she could not wai for tho years to crawl by. Her state of mind may be glimpsed from statements state-ments she Is supposed to nave made while Pagle was in prison "1 never loved tut one man and that was Albei t SrfeS? Ma,t,v t exert her ill It 111 PHwewH fvrf --v fascinations npon "Spider1 Im'Iirrli Pagle," she is credited with having said at one time. "I did everything for him and I'd gladly go to hell to have his love " Again she Is supposed to have declared. "My heart Is in tbat cell In Jefferson City. When Albert Al-bert Is free I'll reform and be happy." Whether these sentiments are in her exact words seems a little doubtful. At any rate, they exhibit the state of her emotion. She would have, ihs must have this man freed, and she shortly determined de-termined upon shocking expedients. To what extent ex-tent her advisers and most probably some low man of the law was responsible for the things which ensued need: to be considered here. Apparently Ap-parently the girl was led to believe thai if she could get sufficient money there would be no trouble about procuring the release of her lover Such representations nri- commonly made to women in Mnttle Howard's por.ition by certain degenerate de-generate attorneys who feast everywhere upon criminals and their misfortunes. It seems almost certain that she listened to the greedy tempt-lngs tempt-lngs of some such man and set out to kill. One night, after P..gle had been in prison about a year, a man named Joseph Morino. a diamond broker and speculator known to the underworld of Kansas City, took a handsome blond girl to a room in a nether class hotel. Next morning he was found dend there, his skull crushed and his diamonds and money gone The beautiful blonde was traced Enough seven States by the police and eventually caught In Trinidad, Col., and extradited to Kansas City. It was Matt'e Howard With her was a man pamed Sam Tajlor, who was afterward after-ward convicted of killing Morino at Mattie How. ard's behest and sentenced to life in prison. The police theorized that the pair had killed Morino to get money for a trip. Others knew about Pagle in his cell in Jefferson City and understood more clearly. Sam Taylor had been the first criminal whom Mattie Howard had used in her fight to free her lover, and he paid for his submission to the siren with a lifelong term The girl was locked in Jail and held to await trial The Sheriff placed her for convenience, in a cell with another underworld woman, one Mar-joric Mar-joric Dean, a girl bandit and sweehoart of Dale Jones, a notorious Kansas City desperado. In the same Jail there was also held at this time a girl named Eva Lewis, whose brother was a pal of Dale Jones and member of his bandit gang. The Dean und Lewis women looked at Mattie Howard, beheld her fascinating beauty, were captivated by her cleverness and boldness and readily understood under-stood the value of such a recruit. The women soon persuaded their men to g Mattie Howard's bail, a matter arranged through underworld connections con-nections without great difficulty. So Mattie Howard How-ard was fre2 again to continue her campaign, but she had now a second degree murder lndlctmont suspended over her. The Dale Jones gang eidently expected to use Mattie Howard, but she turned the tables on them and again forced hardened criminals to her will. She employed this gang as she had used Sam Taylor to get money for Albert Pagle's liberation. libera-tion. Her powers of fascination cannot have been negligible, for she drove the gang to the most desperate encount-crs. and within the year every member was dead save only Eva Lewis, who was sent to prison for a long term. Dale Jones and Marjorie Doan were killed by the police in Lo9 Angeles; "Blackle" Lancastor. another member of the gang, was shot down by detectives In Kansas Kan-sas City; Fr.ink Lewis and another gang follower were killed In a battle with officers in Colorado. But through all this reign of bloodshed Mattie Howard had not got sufficient money to free Pagle. She was caught in her own mazes and compelled to go on with her task or abandon her Mattie Howard exerted her fascinations upon ''Spider" Kelly a local bandit Kelly was shortly shot to death in a fight with the police when he attempted to hold up the cashier of a drug store j In downtown Kansas City. According to a later finding of the police, she had waited for hei band.t in an nutomoolle nearby, but had driven off in safety when she saw Kelly fall. A holdup man named Tony Cruye was the next associate or this terrible girl. Ho was shot to death soon after he became her recognized part- " nei ben b attempted to hold up a gambling game. The connection between bim and Mattie Howard is d-finlte oniy a week before his death the police had ohscrvtd the pair trying to get the "layout" of i bank. They were frightened Immediately afterward George Evans, a local gunman, was killed by officers as he attempted a holdup job Ho too had become the doer of M ittle Howard s bidding just before his cmi Hat r v,v. after years of wasted effort, Mattl Howard saw thai Pagle. her friend and steadfast lover. an about to be released through the pas-Bage pas-Bage of Urn" and tho application of good conduct 1 1 id lotions from his sentence. She settled down 11 and waited for his release. Pagle hurried back to her in Kansas City -?nd there wns a joyrul re- union Hut three weeks later Pagle too was The complote detail of this final incident Is not I nt hand, b'lt its apparent outlines have been traced by the police. Pagle was shot and mortally mor-tally WOUhded in a holdup attack on a bank Just outside Kansas City, the cashier of tho bank hav- II Ing first been shot and killed by the bandit Desperately Des-perately wounded as he was. Pagle yet man- I aged to make his escape from the bank, and he was later arrested at the home of another crlm-inal. crlm-inal. where he was hiding. It g said, and perhaps per-haps established that Mattie Howard accompa-Died accompa-Died Pagle on 'bis fatal bank raid and that ft was she who took him to his placo of concealment in a motor car. When Pagle was found and dragged to a hos- ! pltal bj the police, the news had not reached tho papers before Mattie Howard, defying the officers offi-cers who were (searching for her, dashed to his bedside and refused to leave the hospital for food or sleep tin tho struggle was at an end. When Pagle died she fainted and was carried away to he revived. TJ e funeral which followed was perhaps tbe most striking episode of all Mattie Howard arranged for the ceremony, paid the undertaker, supervised the dressing of the dead and then lay for half a day sobbing over the coffin where it stood in the chapel. She finally mastered hor-self, hor-self, had the room banked with flowers, selected the p;.llbearers from i baractera of the under- ' world and made the most lavish provisions. I Dozens of w reaths and floral pieces came to tho undertaker's chapel from men and women in the forbidden life of tho city, and scores of mourners mourn-ers from tho same dark regions appeared for the funeral ceremony. Mattie Howard selected the Biblical text and Mattie Howard sang the funeral funer-al hymns in that voice that had been trained in the convent At tho grave she threw herself upon the new made mound and lay sobbing for hours, crying I out again In that curious mixture of sentiment and Savagery that characterized her: "My heart lies burled here. Damn those cops!" It Is notable that through all this public dis-lay dis-lay of her grief she was not arrested, and ranger still to recall that in all this time she had not been brought to trial for the murder of Morino. Evidently Mattlo Howard had fascinated fascina-ted others, of whom there is nnowledge and record and evidently one or some of these bad power and influence to get her ! Is constantly postponed and her ball extended. I the funeral of Pagle his grieving woman I disappeared. Now tho police became suddenly j interested in her again, for she was under bond I of $20,000 and her bondsmen complained After much searching and theorizing a woman was i alien in chargo at Memphis, Tenn , as a "suspicious "sus-picious character." She was promptly identified as Mattie Howard admitted freely that she was the hunted woman and went voluntarily back to Kansas City to be tried and sent to prison for twelve years. When she was not grieving for Pagle she was laughing coldly at the proceedings. Nothing mattered to her. She made no fight and put up no defense. It is said she laughed and sang when the prison gates were closed upon her. Perhap she had learned to scoff at disaster. It is not possible to catch and record much of the important detail of this woman's life, all of tho scheming and intriguing that must have been a most vital part of her history, but tho outlines of what Bho did and what sho felt ere here tho actual etory of a Moll. |