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Show SHOPLIFTER QUEEN'S CUBEER EPS IN TRAGEDY 30 EMMA OF WOE FAME AS ! THIEF, SUICIDE 7 Woman Dead With Gas, Tube in Mouth; Friend Is Murdered STORY OF EXPLOITS Felice Estimate She Stole I Goods Valued at Million j Dollars I CHICAGO, May 23 The final chapter In the career of Mrs. Kmma Weird, Big Emma" known by a ' score of aliases ln police circles, was j being written today by the police, who discovered the 65-year-old woman j dead, with a gas tube In her mouth, ln the attic of a drab cottage which I had been her home since she re- 'ired" 20 years ftsro. Murder and suicide are believed , by the authorities to have played the i final roles In Big Kmma V life. In I another room In the house, Mrs. Rickey Rick-ey Gunther. 66. Mrs- Weirs Insepar-' Insepar-' able companion for three years, was J found dead with two ribs broken and I numerous body bruises. Threats on Mrs Gunther's life by "Big Emma" were reco Jtittd by several persons to-! to-! day. I KPTXTAfTTIAK TARKFTR. ' BIk Emma" was credited with the I most spectacular career of any wo-I wo-I man ln Chicago police annals Rated i as one of the city's most daring and , successful shoplifters, she came to be known as the "million dollar lifter." For many years she headed the "Weir gang," which practiced systematic thleverv ln large stores with such cleverness that members of the band 1 were seldom caught. In the gang wore her husband, two sisters, and three brothers. POLJOF OlT'UTrTFD. Comparatively little of Emma's stor la In police records. Her IlKht fingered cleverness, police paid, saved h r from detection, time after time, . until In 1910 police had estimated j her plunder at 501,000. They said she had undoubtedly annexed another . half million since. It was Mrs. Wrdr who first Intro-1 I duced the "split skirt" to Chicago' but not for style "Big Emma" used1 the split to reach an underskirt, pro-1 vided with ample pockets to store ! away her loot as alio extracted it J irom store counters. In her palmier days, she was said to have driven up tn Stats street stores In a "four-J In-hand." with a team of blooded horses, and a driver ln llvory. After I loading her voluminous skirts With picked articles 'Big Emma" was a connoiseur of quality as well aa a plunderer of quantity she would rustle out to hef wultlng carriage and j drive serenely away. j oo- |