A CAREER OF CRIME.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2644, 22 June 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CAREER OF CRIME.

A welt, dressed woman, who gave her name as Madam de A 7 arney, was arrested last July on a charge of pocket picking in the Champs Elysees. She protested against the imputation, but was, nevertheless, incarcerated at St Lazare. M. Merie, the examining magistrate, who instituted an enquiry into her case, learned from the prisoner that she was living as a boarder at Neuilly with the family of M. Fabre, a former police commissary. All those who had made Madame de Varney's acquaintance at that boarding house., and M. Fabre himself, said it was impossible she could have been guilty of the act imputed to her. Moreover she was a woman wdio had plenty of money, and whose delicate sense of honour was vouched for by twenty people. Madame de Varney stated that she was an American, and accordingly the American Legation interceded for her, obtained her release and she left France, where she declared it was impossible for an honest woman to get into a tram-car without running the risk of being mistaken and arrested as a thief. M. Goron, the chief of the detective force, believed his men had not been mistaken, and sent a photograph of the woman to Mr Byrne, chief of the New York police. M. Goron has just received from the American official the report of the result of his long and searching enquiry. It turns out that Madame de Varney, who is about thirty years of age, is one of the most celebrated criminals of America. Her parents, her sisters, and her two husbands were all professional thieves, and she herself has always lived by robbery. Her father who was an adroit shoplifter, trained her to that specialty of crime. At the age of twelve she was au adept at it. When sixteen years old she married a thief named Harris, who was arrested during his honeymoon, and what has become of him is unknown. She got away, and continued her nefarious operations elsewhere. In her wanderings she met a clever robber named Ned Lyons, whom she married, and in a few years made a fortune by their robberies. Ned Lyons, then thought- the time had come to live like honest people ; so the couple settled down, and for a time lived on their illgotten wealth. Mrs Lyons, however, could not resist tho temptation to steal, and one day stole something in a shop, when she was caught, and scut to gaol for five years. Ned Lynns, being rich bribed the prison warders, and soon enabled his wife to regain her liberty. They fled to Canada, where they purchased a country house, and lived so as to win the esteem of all who knew them. They had four children—one boy and three girls. But this quiet life was not the taste of Mrs Lyon'. One day she arrived in a carriage at the door of a New York bsnk, at an hour when she knew there were'only two clerks in the establishment. She sent in word that, being lame and unable to leave her carriage, she would be greatly obliged if a clerk would come out and speak with her. She kept him talking a long time, during which her accomplices pillaged the bank. At another time she was in a bank where a gentleman war counting a large sum of money. She dropped her pockethandkerchiof close to Ijim, and asked him to pick it up. He politely did so, and, meanwhile, Mrs Lyons' accomplices had made off with seven hundred dollars. At length it became perilous for her to remain longer in America, and she abandoned her husband and children. He died shortly alter, and her son, who became a thief also, died in prison. Her daughters were taken care of by some charitable people, \\ ho placed them in a convent at Montreal, where they are still. As for Mrs Lyons she has been travelling about Europe, never leaving a country till she found it too hot to hold her. It was after visiting, with profit, England, Germany, Austria, and Russia, that Mrs Lyons, under the name of Madame do Varney, uime to Paris; but it was not long after her cirecr here was cut short by the ChampsElysees incident. The police of a large number of countries of Europe and America would like to know her present address.