The Artful Josephine

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 20

The Artful Josephine

Amazing Career of Adventuress Who Lived in Splendour —and Debt

- -s— — os EPH IN E o BAKE iv a one of the most beoutb vetVture to < ‘tuj:se.« that she will also go down in the i-rimuial annals of Great Britain as the most picturesque anil amazing versoi.alit} met In the underworld ’of London tot more than a hundred years writes 1 j O'Connor, adventurer, who is relating the storv of his life and lus confessions for “World’s Pictorial Nen s. I met her by accident. At the completion of a term of imprisonment in France, i was escoited the coast and put aboard a steamer bound for home. On the way ovei I - with a man who, for the purposes ot these reminiscences I " ill call j “Steve.” He had. like my sell, been ; using bis wits in a battle against society for several years and tve decided to join forces. He introduced me to “Bill” Davis, a man "lto is now serving a sentence of 1- years penal servitude at Parkhurst an i to the little girl who was his partner. She was a demure, pretty Inti’ thing with the expression of an angel on her fair young face. 1 nat girl was the notorious Josephine O'Dare. Not quite the Josephim O'Dare who subsequently made her name known the world over, but the shadow from which that picturesque little schemer developed. She was young then and had nut ; recently left her country home in Hereford to join Davis. She was naturally ambitious, and within a ver> short time she had reversed the position and had taken Davis’s place as head and brains of the partnership. What is more, she gathered other able criminals about her and used them all to her own ends. Do not think I am complaining. I am merely trying to convey the impression that her amazing personality exercised such a powerful influence on all who came within its orbit that men followed her willingly and were well content to leave the division of the spoils entirely to her.

Cutting A Dash Take, for instance, the case of the butler who served her while she was lording it in a fashionable mansion within a stone’s throw of Park Lane. Pie was a highly respectable man who had served many titled masters to their entire satisfaction and could only with difficulty restrain the horror he felt when he came up in the morning and found the whole crowd of us lying about Ike floor of Josephine’s bedroom sleeping in our clothes. He soon discovered we were not what we pretended to be. and came in time to know that we were a gang of crooks, and yet he stayed on for Josephine’s sake; he 'lent” her his life’s savings, and still insisted on remaining there, not caring whether he drew any pay or not so long as he was able to serve her. But there, I am anticipating. When we first met, Josephine and Bill Davis were in comparatively humble diggings off the Edgeware Read. It was the girl avlio lifted them almost to the top of the social ladder. She realised that the bigger the stir she made the higher game she would be able to aim at with every hope of success, and so she set out to make herself a social success. As a first step in that direction she clad herself in raiment that would have done credit to the Royal enclosure at Ascot, and although it was all obtained on credit by fraudulent misrepresentation it was none the less effective. She certainly excited plenty of attention and admiration then, but an unknown beauty does not always attract the right sort of admirers, and so she bethought herself of another scheme. The result was that a paragraph appeared in some of the Loudon papers announcing that Josephine O’Dare, the famous Irish heiress, had been the recipient of a gift of £IOO in most romantic and mysterious circumstances. She had herself given ! details to the interviewers, and it appeared that the tiling happened while she was driving through the West End with her maid cn a shopping expedition. They had pulled up outside a big store in Oxford Street, and Josephine was just stepping out when a tall, dark, handsome man, whom she had noticed on a previous occasion, moved forward, raised his hat, and handed her a bulky envelope. Then, before she could open her mouth to say a word, he turned, took two hasty strides, and was lost to view amid a crowd of shoppers. She forgot the incident in the excitement of choosing new frocks, but

011 the v.a' home her maid remindert her of ii and she decided to opentt” letter delivered to her in such terious tircumstances. To her s »- prise sh ■ found it contained in Treasury notes. Incidentally, studded that as she had been unablto trace the man who had proSeret this strange gift she proposed to seethe money to some deserving charin' The effect of that paragraph **, remarkable. Other newspapers showed interest in the beautiful Josephine uj in printing their interviews ponrav f . her to a credulous public as a beau, tiful. talented girl already possessed I of considerable means and due : inherit an estate iu Ireland and a ! fortune of almost fabulous dime;: That was all Josephine needed to set her going, and on the day tha paragraph appeared there con meuced the most marvellous ma querade of recent times. She was uiiiversally accepted as the Irisy heiress she had claimed to be. Trademoil fought lor the pleasure of sup plying her with anything she wanted without asking for either cash or references, while some of the bee people iu London readily atk.no*. lodged her as a friend. She ttiok the furnished mansion near l'ark Lane to which 1 have si ready referred, and she entertained there tin the most lavish seal. Gowned divinely, she would hie her--1 self to tlie telephone, invite hail s : dozen people round to dine with he: 1 anil then ring up a cateriug firm an ask them to supply the meal. • Steve" and 1 joined others of the : gang ill playing the small parts in this great comedy. We were waiterbutlers, footmen —anything, in face that might convey the impressioi the I our "Mistress" was a immensely wealthy. We served the meal sent in by th> caterer and poured out the wines obj tained on credit from around tba

corner. We stood by 'while Davis anti Josephine —Davis was one of the hostess’s aristocratic friends—fleeced their guests at cards, and we looked the other way while Josephine wove her spell about some susceptible old gentleman with more money than he knew what to do with. The Funny Side Then we stood at the stately front doors bowing obsequiously while the guests took their departure. What a rollicking farce it was! The daughter of a country labourer lording it over people of quality in one of London's most exclusive districts, with a gang of oft-convicted criminals to lend her support! I often used to chuckle, too. to think of the surprise which would have awaited any of the guests had they come back early in the morning.' It frequently happened that these parties were given at a time when we were all “broke” —given, I believe, because Josephine wanted something to amuse her and could afford no other ferm of entertainment. Such of the servants demanded by the occasion as were not members of the gang were hired; the silver and the cutlery were hired; and the ! crockery all belonged to the caterort with the r€‘sult that the house which had appeared to be so brilliant overnight was a deserted, desolate place i in the morning with the whole of us. pigging it in the kitchen. k really was funny, although many of the people who visited us there faded 1 to appreciate the comic side of it Actually Josephine made thousands upon thousands of pounds out of her amazing masquerade, and 1 think it would be perfectly* true to j say that throughout the whole o£^ that i time she never paid for any of tne j expensive things she employed to imI press and ensnare her victims.