SWINDLING TRICKS OF PRETTY WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 377, 30 April 1910, Page 10

SWINDLING TRICKS OF PRETTY WOMEN.

ADVENTURESSES WHO MADE BIG FORTUNES. The public interest which has been aroused in a recent case in the Old Country recalls the sensation created seven years ago, when M. and Mme. Humbert were condemned to five years' solitary confinement for perpetrating a gigantic fraud which involved something like £BOO,OOO.

Mme. Humbert weaved a skilful story of an immense fortune which was locked in a safe, which could not be opened until a certain date, and on the strength of this story was able to borrow hundreds of thousands of pounds. Three years ago an Italian woman was placed upon trial for a series of frauds which closely resembled the Humbert case. Posing as the Mareioness Vcnezia, and one of the elite of Rome, this woman ran up large bills with dressmakers and other people, borrowed valuable jewellery and quickly substituted paste for the real diamonds, and obtained thousanas on the pretext of prosecuting a lawsuit against "cruel relatives." Another similar case to that of Mme. Humbert was that of Bertha Heymann, who, spreading the report in Canada that she possessed a fortune of 8,000,000 dollars, lived in great style; and, by exercising her fascinations on shrewd financiers, was able to obtain almost unlimited loans until the bubble burst.

It is a common trick by the lady swindler to pose as a titled personage, particularly in America, and, after living in the most extravagant style, suddenly disappear, leaving a trail of unpaid bills and bad cheques behind. One of the most remarkable of these cases was that of a young Englishwoman who went to New York three years ago, and, representing herself as the Hon. Eva FoxStrangways, daughter of Lord Ilchester, wormed her way into the ranks of the "Four Hundred,'' stayed at the best hotels, got unlimited credit from the stores by representing herself as a friend of the Astors and Vanderbilts, and altogether had a very gay time for a period of twelve months at other people's expense.

The three- most notable female swindlers even known in England were Mrs. Gordon-Baillie, Mary Moders, and a woman who called herself Baroness Menckwitz. The latter had a line house in Portman Square, secured pictures, sculptures, tapestries, and other valuable works of art on credit and sold them for cash.

Both Mary Moders and Mrs. GordonBaillie started life in humble circumstances. The former was the daughter of a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral, while the latter, in her girlhood, worked in a jute mill at Dundee. Before she was twenty, however, Mary Moders was known as a clever swindler. She lied to the Continent, and ultimately returned to England as a German princess, pretending to have large wealth. She was undeniably beautiful and marvellously fascinating. She chose only rich men for her dupes, and with several of them went through the form of marriage. For a time she lived in great style, for she squandered with utter recklessness the large sums she obtained. Poverty followed exposure, and she attempted to swindle tradesmen, for which she was transported to Jamaica. She escaped from that colony only to end her evil career on the gallows.

Posing as a universal philanthropist, Mrs. Gordon-Baillie obtained gifts of thousands of pounds for the furtherance of her philanthropic work, but which really found their way into her own pocket. When England and Scotland were exhausted she went to Australia, and actually secured from the Government of Victoria a. grant of 70,000 acres of land whereon to found a settlement for the needy. Ultimately, however, suspicions were aroused, investigations followed, and this clever lady swindler was sent to penal servitude for five years.