Pretty Woman is Daring Burglar

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 26

Pretty Woman is Daring Burglar

LONG LIST OF CRIMES METHODS OF “GOLDEN-HAIRED CHRISSIE” Known to the police as “Golden haired Chrissie,” and by three or four other names, a woman with a long career of “Raffles” exploits, carried out with the coolest daring, has been sent back to prison for a 15-months' | term. It was at the London sessions—a familiar haunt to her, I am afraid — that this sentence was passed upon her after the brief details of her recent exploits had been laid before the court (writes an English crime reporter). It was related how she had broken into a flat in Baker Street, getting away with over £IOO worth of property, and how she had then broken into the premises of a West End beauty specialist and stolen articles ; worth £55. The pretty little woman in the dock, who stood with down-bent bead and fingers which nervously clasped the handkerchief with which she dabbed | her eyes from time to time, pleaded guilty to both charges. Female Raffles j The story of Christine Lewis, or Chrissie Dearden, or Christina Reid. I as she is variously known to Scotland Yard, is that of a female Raffles. A pretty, auburn-haired woman, with large, innocent-looking eyes, and always fashionably dressed, there is little in her appearance to suggest that she one of the most daring of housebreakers, and has a long prison record behind her. She was only a child, comparatively

speaking, when she became a crook, and ever since she has been in the hands of the police, and always on the same charges—housebreaking and i burglary. Her methods are simple enough, but ; ; remarkably effective, and although ! for the best part she usually works alone, there are occasions when she has had another woman to help her. ! . She is a woman with a loyalty rare among thieves, for when, on a previous occasion, she appeared at the Lon ! don sessions, another woman was accused of having partnered her in her i crimes, she resolutely refused to give : her accomplice away, or even indicate who she was, preferring to suffer alone. It is her custom when setting out on I a house or flat-breaking expedition to ■ carry a small jemmy and an attache ; case. Always well dressed, she is not ; likely to arouse suspicions in the I minds of any of the people who chance j | to see her entering a block of flats. Empty Flats Sometimes she has a look at the names in the entrance hall to the' block, and then goes out to the near- | e’st tube station and rings up the ’ occupants. If there is no answer, she I knows that the place is empty, and l hurries round. She forces the door i with the jemmy, or removes one of | the small leaded panes of glass from , the panel of the door, and, inserting her hand, opens the door from the inside. At other times she adopts what is known in criminal siting as the “pounding” method. That is, she pounds on the door of the selected flat, and if the door is opened she will represent that she is a wardrobe dealer, and ask whether the occupant has any old clothes for sale. This pretty woman is now only 31 years of age, and looks even less. It was back in 1908 when she was but a little girl of ten that she fell foul of the police in connection with the theft of some money. From Montrose Sheriff Court she was sent to an industrial school for three years, and i she has always declared that she learned more about crime during those three years than ever since.