Burke - Why Crime Does Not Pay

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dust jacket

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Sophia Lyons

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title page

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WHY CRIME
DOES NOT PAY.

BY
SOPHIE LYONS
Queen of the Underworld.

decoration

New York
J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING CO.
57 Rose Street

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Copyright, 1913, by
THE STAR COMPANY

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CONTENTS

Chapter	Page
I.	How I Began My Career of Crime
II.	The Secret of the Stolen GainsboroughAnd the Lesson of the Career of Raymond, the "Prince of Safe Blowers," Who Built a Millionaire's Residence in a Fashionable London Suburb and Kept a Yacht with a Crew of 20 Men in the Mediterranean
III.	How I Escaped from Sing Sing, and Other Daring Escapes from Prison That Profited Us Nothing
IV.	Women Criminals of Extraordinary Ability with Whom I Was in Partnership
V.	How I Faced Death, How My Husband Was Shot, and Some Narrow Escapes of My Companions
VI.	Behind the Scenes at a $3,000,000 Burglarythe Robbery of the Manhattan Bank of New York
VII.	Bank Burglars Who Disguised Themselves as Policemen and Other Ingenious Schemes Used by Thieves in Bold Attempts to Get Out Their Plunder
VIII.	Promoters of CrimePeople Who Plan Robberies and Act as "Backers" for Professional CriminalsThe Extraordinary "Mother" Mandelbaum, "Queen of the Thieves," and Grady, Who Had Half a Dozen Gangs of Cracksmen Working for Him
IX.	Surprising Methods of the Thieves Who Work Only During Business Hours and Walk Away with Thousands of Dollars Under the Very Eyes of the Bank Officials
X.	Startling Surprises That Confront CriminalsHow Unexpected Happenings Suddenly Develop and Upset Carefully Laid Plans and Cause the Burglars Arrest or Prevent His Getting Expected Plunder
XI.	Thrilling Events Which Crowded One Short Week of My LifeHow I Profited Nothing from All the Risks I Faced
XII.	Good Deeds Which Criminals Do and Which Show That Even the Worst Thief Is Never Wholly Bad

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INTRODUCTION

The publishers believe that a picture of life sketched by a master handsomebody who stands in the world of crime as Edison does in his field or as Morgan and Rockefeller do in theirscould not fail to be impressive and valuable and prove the oft repeated statement that crime does not pay.

Such a person is Sophie Lyons, the most remarkable and the greatest criminal of modern times. This extraordinary woman is herself a striking evidence that crime does not pay and that the same energy and brains exerted in honest endeavor win enduring wealth and respectability. She has abandoned her earlier career and has lately accumulated a fortune of half a million dollars, honestly acquired by her own unaided business ability.

Sophie Lyons was a "thief from the cradle," as one Chief of Police said; at the early age of six years she had already been trained by her stepmother to be a pickpocket and a shoplifter. A beautiful child with engaging manners, she was sent out every day into the stores and among the crowds of shoppers, and was soundly whipped if she came out of a shop with less than three pocketbooks. "I did not know it was wrong to steal; nobody ever taught me that," Sophie Lyons writes. "What I was told was wrong and what I was punished for was when I came home with only one pocketbook instead of many."

As the child grew into womanhood she was conspicuously beautiful, and soon became known as "Pretty Sophie." Then romance entered her life and she married Ned Lyons, the famous bank burglar. Her husband was a member of the great gang of expert safe-blowers who were the terror of the police and the big banks of some years ago.

Women are regarded as dangerous and are seldom taken into the confidence of such criminals as these. But Sophie Lyons was not only welcomed to their councils, but was taken along with them to the actual scenes of their operations. Many of the most daring bank robberies were, indeed, planned by her and to her quick brain and resourcefulness the burglars often owed their success.

Sophie Lyons became famous not only among the burglars who work with dark lantern and jimmy but also among those specialists who are called "bank sneaks"the daring men who walk into banks in broad daylight, in the midst of business, and get away with great bundles of money. Her fame spread, too, among other specialiststhe shoplifters, pickpockets, confidence women, jewelry robbers, importers of forbidden opium, and the men engaged in bringing Chinamen into the country (a very profitable and hazardous field).

For twenty-five years Sophie Lyons was "The Queen of the Bank Burglars," the active leader of many expeditions in various parts of the world, and with her were associated about all of the great criminals of Europe and America. It has been said that she has been arrested in nearly every large city in America, and in every country in Europe except Turkey. She has served sentences in several prisons, and, on one occasion, her husband, Ned Lyons, was in Sing Sing while she herself was confined in the women's wing of the prison across the road. Ned Lyons managed to make his escape and very soon drove up to the women's prison and effected the escape of his wife, Sophie Lyons.

But all this belongs to the past. Sophie Lyons has learned that her new life as a respected woman is the only one that is really worth while. The comfortable fortune she has now honestly accumulated has proved that it is not true that "once a thief always a thief."

The actual happenings in her career have been more extraordinary than the imagination of any novelist has dreamed; more surprising than any scene on the stage.

Yet nearly every one of those whose exploits she has recounted here is now an outcast, has served a good share of life in prison, is in poverty, or has died poor. Surely, as she has asserted again and againand hopes to abundantly proveCRIME DOES NOT PAY.

This great truth forced itself upon her after many, many years of profitless life in the Underworld. And her own life experience and her present fortune of half a million dollars, all honestly acquired, have demonstrated that half the industry and ability that great criminals expend will return them richer and more enduring success in honest fields of endeavor.

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SOPHIE LYONS
QUEEN OF THE BURGLARS

CHAPTER I

HOW I BEGAN MY CAREER OF CRIME

I was not quite six years old when I stole my first pocketbook. I was very happy because I was petted and rewarded; my wretched stepmother patted my curly head, gave me a bag of candy, and said I was a "good girl."

My stepmother was a thief. My good father never knew this. He went to the war at President Lincoln's call for troops and left me with his second wife, my stepmother.

Scarcely had my father's regiment left New York than my stepmother began to busy herself with my educationnot for a useful career, but for a career of crime. Patiently she instructed me, beginning with the very rudiments of thievinghow to help myself to things that lay unprotected in candy shops, drug stores and grocery stores. I was made to practice at home until my childish fingers had acquired considerable dexterity.

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