Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

A SMILING PRETENDER.

ATTRACTIVE WOMAN THIEF,

OPERATIONS IN SYDNEY.

Known as “The iSmiler” of her disarming smile, an attrac-

tivo .young woman has led the police of many Sydney suburbs a longchase.

This young woman was in her early twenties, gracious and wellspoken, expensively dressed, and — according to many of her victims — “most interesting.” She stole hundreds of pounds.,worth of clothing, jewellery, and personal effects from the numerous boarding houses where she resided ifofr Ibrief periods. '['hefts were committed at Bondi, Co ogee, Concord, North Sydney, Chatswood, (Newtown, Marrickville and other suburbs, and the police, although always close behind the young woman coidd not catch up with her rapid movements from suburb to suburb. Once or twice they only missed her by less than half an hour, but she disappeared, only to reappear, with annoying regularity, at some distant locality. The woman’s methods were most ingenious. ‘She would call at a religious institution, usually a convent, and, after explaining that she was a school teacher on vacation from the country, would ask to be directed to a refined and comfortable boarding house. iSometimes she varied her method of approach by stating that she was a telephone attendant from a country centre on holidays. Her smile was so attractive that she was given every assistance, and upon being recommended to a boarding bouse she would make a false, hut convincing show, of gratitude. “How can I thank you,” she would say, and —still smiling'—would depart. At the boarding house, being so well recommended by the religious institutions, the neKv arrival was shown more than usual attention and courtesy, and once or twice, when she. was wandering aimlessly around certain passages, i|t was believed that this was only due to her confusion at being translated from a small country home to a more populous. boarding establishment.

Being too shy to ask anyone for directions this woman Avould wander around the corridors trying to find her own room. Her refined timidity served another purpose; it led other boarders to endeavour to entertain her, and she was able to find out when certain rooms would lie unoccupied during the day.

The woman was a favourite where-ever she went. She smiled herself into everyone’s confidence. But disillusionment always came when she disappeared ‘with some of the valued possessions of the other boarders or of the proprietress. In some cases her victims refused to suspect that there was any connection between her sudden departure and the loss of their property. They wercl convinced that ‘‘The Smiler” had become homesick and had gone back to the country. ’The theft, they agreed, was a coincidence, but a coincidence and nothing morg.

•The police subsequently arrested a beautifully-dressed woman on suspicion.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19291001.2.33

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4004, 1 October 1929, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
452

A SMILING PRETENDER. Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4004, 1 October 1929, Page 4

A SMILING PRETENDER. Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 4004, 1 October 1929, Page 4

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert