THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL. PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 16, 1921.
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The Extraordinary Prpblem of the Gentle-
Voiced, Demure Nurse-Maid Who
Drugs Helpless Little Ones While Her
Wicked Accomplices Loot
the Homes of the Trusting
Parents
Who Have
Left Their
Children in
er si
H
''Kneeling beside j the little
ones entrusted to her, she
i chloroformed them with all
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nurse, while her confederates
ransacked the bedrooms for
valuables."
Little Dorothy
Olson, One of
the Chloro
formed Babies,
with Her Younger bister Louise,
Who Escaped.
THE police throughout the country
are searching for Lucille Verhoff.
a girl just turned nineteen. Sho
has the sweetest face conceivable, large
and Ingenuous blue eyes, a wistful mouth,
the gentlest j manners and the softest of
voices. From her appearance it would
seem that she could not hurt a fly.
Yet, despite ifer angelic exterior, Lucille
Verhoff is being sought for as one of the
most mysterious and," for parents, oh ot
the most terrifying of criminals.
The police charge that she comes to the
homes ot wealthy people, easily obtaining
employment as nursery maid. At the first
opportunity she summons her confederates
and -with speed and dispatch they strip the
house of its valuables.
Thus far her story, though unusual, is
not unparalleled.
, What sets her apart In the category of
criminals is that in the carrying j out of
these robberies she chloroforms the little
ones entrusted to her care!
What is It that prompts her to do this?
In every case where she has been tracked
the children she has drugged have been
too small and weak to have interfered wita
the robbery. Under no circumstances'
could they have raised an effective alarm.
Ijs it that she shrinks from having their in
nocent eyes upon her while she betrays the
.trust that has been reposed in her? Or is
it. a -form; of mania, a rare one fortunately,
that has been recognized and described by
certain psycho-analysts? Up to now the
closes she has administered to the babies
have dose nothing worse than stupefy
them for varying periodB.
She has killed none.
But will she
continue to
keep herself
clean of mur
der? It is that
doubt that has
made the pur
suit of her so
vigorous.
Utterly
strange as Is
her case it is
little more
strange than
the happen
ings which.
linked the identity of the Lucille Vaden.
Lucile Peters, Ruth Jones and a half dozen
other names taken by the blue eyed, au
burn haired drugger of the babies, with
the Lucille Verhoff, who as the sweetheart
and lieutenant of James J. Harrigan him
self one of the most unusual of crooks
hejped Amass the $300,000 worth of Jewels
and other boudoir loot that was found in
his apartments last April after he had
been killed in a pistol duel with the Chi
cago police.
And in this place was found the first clue
of Lucille :Verhoff a letter written on the
stationery of an exclusive hotel whero
Harrigan had been employed as a clerk
before he began putting his nimble mind,
his suave i manners and his extraordinary
knowledge of languages to enterprises
that held greater promise of speedy profit.
At that hotel Lucille had found employ
ment, long after his departure, as a tele
phone girl.
JEvfciently Harrigan had talked to her
over the ;rail of the little telephone ex
change, and bad taken her out with him
to a night of pleasure. Evidently, too, she
had feared their contact had been but
casual.
I know;- she wrote, "that It ts too much
toj hope you will remember me and wtsh
to: see me again or that you will look for
me when you come this way again.
rYou brought sunshine Into my life this
night. I had always hoped and prayed
that there were such men as you, and I
tried to believe it; and now you have come
and proved it to me. Yet I will probably
go my humble way, pegking at the switch
board through long years- but henceforth
I will have in my heart the vision of one
real man. (
"And so you will be with me the re
mainder o my life. And I shall possess
you, even though you never come near me
again. I shall think of you and know that
It is a pretty good old world after all.
"I will try not to expect to see you again
because I do not wish to spoil my
thought of you with disappointment.
"It is said, you know, that the devil al
ways leaves a door open He has done
so. LUCILLE VERHOFF."
Among Harrigan's effects was found an
Interesting bundle of notes, in which was
made clear just how he had operated.
They also showed plainly that "the devil,"
or somebody or something, had left the
door very wide open for Lucille, the tele
phone girl. There were lists of Harrigan's
victims and those whom he had marked
dqwn for victims in the near future.
To these houses Lucille would have gone
as she hadrgone to many others on vari
ous pretexts. After her visits would come
Harrigan, smooth and sure, and knowing
through her report every detail of exit and
entrance, safeguard and burglar alarm. It
was stolen stuff from these homes to which
Lucille Verhoff had gone that made up the
loot i- Harrigan's home.
But of Lucille, search as they might, the
police found no trace.
It was not until November, seven months
-later, that she .reappeared, and began the
wicked operations that have aroused the
authorities throughout the country.
On November -22 a sweet-facea, slim girl,
with the gentlest manners, applied at the
home of Mrs. Bernard Nicholas Olson for
the position of nurse maid. She gave her
name as Lucille Peters. Mrs. Olson noted
how extraordinarily well kept were her
hands not at all the hands of a servant
girl. She proved herself capable, and the
children Dorothy, six years old, and
Louise, four loved her on sight.
On Thanksgiving afternoon all the mem
bers of the family went out, except Doro
thy. She had a cold, and It was decreed
that she stay at home.
"Lucille will keep you from being lone
some," said her mother.
It is Dorothy who relates the events
after the departure of the family.
"Louise waited till everybody went out."
says Dorothy. "She looked like she was
nervous. She heard them going down the
stairs, but she walked around and sho
waited and waited.
"I wondered why she was so nervous.
And I was wondering. And then she runs
to the front window and she looked
around. She looked first to the right
like this and then to the left just like
this she looked each way. And then she
looked straight In front of her again, and
she Just waves her hand, like this. Quick.
Just once. She waved her hand. Then
she pulled it in. v.
"And then in a minute I heard somebody
coming up. Heavy, but .quick. Like a
man. And she opened the door. She let
a man in. The same man who was here
before. You know the man she saw. Then
tbey both looked at me, and they looked
, at each other, and I looked at them. And
then Lucille smiled. And she says I should
go to sleep now. But I didn't want to, but
she gave me candy and so I went to bed.
"And then she came to me. She bent
over like this. And she put her hand by
my pillow with something In it And then
all of a sudden I began to feel sleepy.
Right away I was sleepy so fast. And
she went away, and I heard her 6ay to the
man: 'Let's go through the closets now.'
And right away I fell aBleep."
Dorothy was still sleeping, hours later
(C; 1KU lfltrnUouiJ .Tttur Swrtet. Im.
when the faiily return-
ed. Beside j her blond
head was a handkerchief.
It had been; soaked la
chloroform, j
The girl and her ac
complice had taken; cloth
ing and some choice and
expensive articles of
jewelry. j
A little over a week
later a girl who gave
her name as' Ruth Jones
and who said she was
"an orphan from Green
Bay, Wisconsin," an
swered an advertisement of Mr. and
Mrp. Paul Levy, of Ingleside avenue,
for nurse maid. The girl was hired at
onqe on the strength of her j appearance.
It hever occurred to either Mr. or Mrs.
Levy that anyone with so demure and
sweet a face could be anything but good.
The Levya have two children Robert,
two an4 a half years old, and iMarcel, four
years old. The next day Ruth Jones began
work, and that night the Levys went out
forj a half hour. They had not been gone
many minutes before a neighbor, looking
from across the street, saw a man com
out of the building where they lived. He
carried two suit cases to an automobile
and placed them within it. j
One of the men in the building is going
away to-night," the neighbor thought. She
saV the automobile driven around the cor
ner, where it waited. Mr. and Mrs. Levy,
haying finished thfeir call, returned, and
left their automobile in a garage a half
blpck away. As Jthey approached their
hotne they saw "Rith Jones," sitting in a
blaze of light in the sun parlor.
i'As soon as we saw her, she rose from
the chair and walked b'ackf out of our
sight," said Mrs. Levy. "I thought per
haps one of the children had called to her."
Vhen they reached the door of their
apartment! they found it bolted. Seeming
ly the maid could not hear their poundfng.
Mt-., Levy accordingly went around to the
rear. The rear door was open. Entering
he found the house had been looted.
Mrs. Levy called the police. Detective
Sergeants "Joseph Connelly and William
Wjragg Investigated. Tramping around
the house, searching for possible clews,
asking many questions, they yet failed to
arouse Marcel, who is ordinarily a very
light sleeper. ;
Next day both children seemed very
drowsy. There were sleepy yawns where
childish cries had been befor. Mrs. Levy
called a nurse. A doctor was called and
declared that both of them, had been
chloroformed.
Other reports of robberies following the
employment of what was manifestly the
same girl began to come In rapidly. One
of these identified the chloroformer of the
children as the' missing Lucille Verhoff.
the able assistant of the late burglar Har
rigan. .-. !
i"No one can understand just what the
girl's motive can be in chloroforming the
babies," says Detective Sergeant Connelly,
in charga of the investigation. "In most
of the cases the children Are too young to
qualify as witnesses. It r:ajr be that she
began using the chloroform for safety and
finally became a monomaniac : on the
subject.
j In explaining her expertness with the
anaesthetic, the police recall that among
Iarrigan's effects was found the manu
script of a "Dose Book" that he had been
compiling. It contained hundreds of for
xUulas for drug compounds.
"The use of the chloroform by Lucille
Verhoff is far. more likely to be a sympton
of mental derangement than a) precaution
against discovery or a closing of the eyes
andips of childish witnesses," comments
a distinguished psychologist. "Such cases,
while rare, are not unknown. The girl
seems to be of unusual education and her
photographs show none of the stigmata or
marks of the criminal. That she loved
Harrigan deeply is shown by the lengths
she went to please him. Here was an emo
tional unstability whieh the 6bock ot bin
killing certainly intensified. After a penoa
of intense grief she reappears, carrying on
his wicked activities, and adding to them
the drug factor which, it is known, had so
absorbed him, and which, no doubt, the
two had often discussed. j j
"Such manias are cumulative. They go
on. I mean, from bad to worse. Some time,
unless she is caught, the girl will adminis
ter a lethal dose to a child and will do it
deliberately! Therein lies the horror, and
that is why she must be found and soon!"
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I OfMl BrlUU Bichti Rm4.
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4 - e
Blue-Eyed, Demure Lucille Verhoff.
the Girl Burglar, Whose Wicked
Prugging of Children Has Caused
a Nation-Wide Hunt for Her.
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