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Why the Crooks in the Strangest
Round- Up on Record,
Sworn to Catch tne Elusive
fugitive Beauty Who Has pared
io Break Their Own Lawless Law
At Hiht,
Passport.
. Photograph
i of Mme.
Semenof f , tho
Attractive
Youm Wife
of the Cossack
e vtri
oenerai, woo
. Surrendered
Her Pearl
Which She
Said Were
Worth
$60,000, to
Save Her
Hiuband
from Jail
5
- J '
it
i
"f English.
KatU
koown to tl0
police of twenty cities
tb9 imoothest 'Uir dip" in the bugiaeca,
to-day is a fugitive in the strangest crook
hunt that ever crossed and criss-crossed
tb ebadowB of the Americi underworld.
Her deadliest pursuew are not "dicks
and "bulls," but'outlawf like geraelf
eunmen, yeggs, blackmailers, badgejwori
eri, come-oa girls, steerers, gyps, second
tory ibarks; all the riff-raff, the fcour
geoisie and tbe aristocracy of crime.
The (biggest "mob" of crooks ever steeled
to one purpose s after "Feather Fingered"
Katie, because she broke the law of tbe 1
lawless. Arrested on the" charge of shop-
lifting six pairs of silk stockings a winor
incident, say tbe police, In a profitable day
of filching bank-rolls she jumped her
bail- And her ball was furnished by "ig
Mike" Eisenstein, best fenown criminal
bondsman to New York,
That is why her own pals are pledged
to capture this elusive little beauty of a
'dozen aliases. For "Big Mike," honest as
the sunshine himself, is famed as crook
dom's closest friend; He is reputed to know
the faces, names and generally the where
abouts of half the lads and Molls in the
Rogues' Gallery.
Seldom does he ask security, He did
in the case of General Semenoff, the Cot
ick chieftain, who w arrested oa "his
arrival in New. York and charged with
tbe confiscation of American merchandise
la Siberia
The beautiful wife of Semenoff wept bit
terly when deputy sheriffs seized Semen
off at the Pennsylvania station. She of
fered her diamonds, her ear-rings and her
rope ot pearls, which she declared was
worth f60,0uQ, if only they could save her
husband from prison. , 4
-Big Mike" Eisenstein was called. He
agreed to act as Semenoff' bondsma i .
-with the -Jewels for security. The CoSseck
general was freed. But, twenty-four hours
later, "Bis Mike" asked to be relieved of
the bond. He had discovered, he declared, -that
the rope of pearls was not worth
anywhere near $60,000.
! "Big Mike" Iref used to put his trust in
this internationally known. Russian leader.
But, in the case of some penniless girl
winged by the law, he has been known
to sign a bond without blinking an
eyelash.
Honor among thieves . is the ; motto
pasted in Mike Eisenstein's hat, H
trusts them when nothing but their -word
stands between them and a clean getaway,
i Except in : one other Instance, "Big
Mike's" trust never was violated . until
Katie English, facing a stretch "up the
river? on four different charges, vanished
en the eve of her trial. And in that other
, instance the underworld "got" Xjouis Zim--.
gnerman Just as the underworld has sworn
to "get" Katie English,
. "Skinny" Louis, a frail, white-faced
3r0uth, who had done time , twice In the
rworkhouse and served a year in the Mary
pan d State Penitentiary, was arrested by
jSergeant gamucl Pribbea for jostling the
P V L
: Lissia1f'
it
Gallerr
Photograph
f Innocent
Leoldmg
T.thr
Fin?r4"
Katie.
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"Big
Mike"
Eisenstein.
Professional
1. ! 1 11 .
"Crookdom'a Closest Friend,"
Who Went Bail for
Elusive Katie,
spoke a word to one Jounger and another.
Swiftly, the (Whisper aped through every
joint and dive in Manhattan and thence
by underworld wireless to Philadelphia,
Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago; a .
dozen cities "Get Skinny Louis for Mike
Eisenstein!" -
Boston was the first to reporti 'Louis
had been seen at a lodging house 'With his
girl, Jennie. "Big Mike" took a train to
Boston. But the girl had been tipped.
The birds-had deserted the jn est, Datroit
sent the next flash, and "Big Mike"
headed 'West. Three gangsters met him at
the station to tell him Louis and the girl,
were on . their 1 way! to Baltimore. The
train that bore them eastward was fol
lowed in six hours by another with "Big
Mike" on it. But he missed them tlfere.
"Big Mike" had spent 2,0OD in railroad
fare, when at last he got a wire from
Baltimore to April, 1922. Louis was to
t1
passengers on a Delmpsy street bus. The
charge was attempted pocket-picking. "Bis
Mike" knew Louis's father. When the 1
elder Zimmerman came: to him, he put up !
$500 bail for Louis. Ahd Louis skipped. . '
That was in September, 1950. -There '
followed nineteen months of the most re- i
markable man-hunt tri criminal history. '
"Big Mike," outraged by the first bait-'
jumper on his books, boiled over and then f
became cold steeL He I declared he would!
get "Skinny" Louis if lit took a lifetime.'
First he went to the East Side. There he
' ? - . V a A
' it " ' "
I'M' .
1 '
Al Right, Baltimor
Police Photograph of
j Skinny"
"Jumper, Caad by
1 Ggtr Niseteev
Month Bf or They
Caught a4 Trae4
Him Over to
(SondnMU instein.
ft t s I ,
1 ! ' ( .. . f ' ' ii " " ' ' ' ' ''' '
1
Jail there. The underworld had
tumed him up. "Big Mike" him
self brought "Skinny" Louis back
to New Vprk. To ma'-e the cap
ture it bad cost him four times the
original bond.
"Skinny" Louis Zimmerman was
landed only because he broke the
law. of the Jungle. "Feather Fing
ered" Katie has broken the same
law. But it is a far harder, toucher
trail she I leaves for "Big Mike" to
follow than the trail of "Skinny"! -Louis.
For Katie English, ' according to
the records of the 1 New York Police De
partment,! is tbe smartest, subtlest she
crook who ever "frisked" a coat-tail pr
"stripped I a leather."
She is now In her late thirties, but she
still has many of the handsome, dashing
looks and 1 ways which made' her, as a
girl of sixteen, the belle of every dance
club on pelancey street. She had already
picked her first pocket and i served her
first time' In Bedford Reformatory, when
she married "Little Maxie" Stromberg,
leader ofan East Side gang.
; Katie came home one night to a group
of frightened neighbors, a silent flat and
a policeman who took her to the Morgue
where Maxie's body lay, riddled with a
.dozen bullets. His own gang had killed
him on the waterfront In a ; battle 'over
the spoils of a robbery, said' the police.
Katie cried at tne inquest, 1 went home
Official Passport Photograph and
Signature Qf General Semenoff, the
Cossack Chieftain. Who Was
Temporarily Bailed Out by "Die Mike1
Eisenstein After Mme. Semenoff Had
Deposited Her Pearls as Security
for the Bond.
This sentence was still hanging over
Katie when she was arrested three times
under i three i aliases to , three different
cities, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.
She is yeti to be tried in each case, for
before the ! dates were reached, Katie ran
afoul of the law again in New York,
i This r was on Fifth avenue on a recent;
Spring afternoon.-wben thousands of shop
pers streamed , in and out -of the . depart
ment stores. , Anna Caschina and Frances
Devine, two women detectives, mingled I
with the crush of women jamming the
aisles of cue of the biggest stores in New
York near i Thirty-eighth street.
- Just ahead !of them a stylishly gowned
woman stopped at the stocking counter.
6he leaned over, they say, examining with
one hand stockings advertised at $1.88
a pair, and with the other flipped into the
tolas 01 ner fur cloak half a pile of stock
and was arrested a few weeks later .on a - na ta6ed ftt, S8 a pair.
-charge oj lifting a fat wallet.
She gate the name of Annie Gold. That
was one of the many aliases now opposite
her name 1 on the police records Annie
Gold, Annie Berg, Annie Harris, Annie
Feldberg.jMay Harris, May Fields, Sylvia
Cohen, and Anna Silver among others
Tbe detectives followed her out of the
store, across the street and into another.
She : was trying on shoes when they ac
costed her, . i , 1 ,
"I know you" said one of them, "you're
Annie Berg." j 1 .
The woman! drew herself up haughtily.
She was born--say detectives KauV spoke a few blistering denials, protested
Schwergtag. but fs now known as Katie
English since her marriage to Joe Eng
lish, known as a post-graduate "dip." -'
Joe English was a pal of ."Lefty Louie."
one of the gunmen who went to jthe chair
at ap examination, was forced , to go to
the office, and there gave up, not only
six pairs of silk stockings, but ten sep
arate rolls of greenbacks, ' . ,
"You must have snitched those 'Stock-
at Sing 81ng along with Police lieutenant lngs for fun, Katie," commented the eei
Becker far the murder of Herman Rosen
thai, the gambler. English and Feather
Fingered"! Kate were said to have been
the ' ring-leaders of a syndicate' of pick-
' pockets until English was l caught red
handed, jumped his bail and escaped to
France. He is now - serving five years
there for 'picking pockets. ' ' -
- After that, Katie played a lone hand.
Now and again she was arrested, but she
evaded conviction with uncanny3 shrewd
ness. Twice she was hailed before a Mag
istrate and discharged. Once ehe went
to the penitentiary for six months, again
to 'the workhouse for the same term. Nine
years ago she was Cried' for grand iar
geant later- But "Feather Fingered" Kate
only smiled, denied everything and sent
for "Big Mike" Eisenstein. Ha promptly
went her bond $500. And Katie Just as
promptly went West. . n
1 Again "Big Mike" sought his , friends
on , the East Side. Again the word has '
gone forth through all Manhattan and out
ward to Philadelphia, Boston, Chicsgo and
other strongholds of outlawry VGet Katie
. English for Mike Eisenstein!"
One woman, but she the smartest In her
trade, has , pitted her wits against the
, crooks tit a Continent- aWiU she, win?
."Big Mike" Eisenstein says "no." "Feather
Fingered'" Kate answers nothing. But
topyrifit,' 1973, by latntaaJ ?tur Swvlcs, .(Brest Srliala &?fct RtwsVsJb;
ceny and; giver a suspended sentence of .that nothing,-as long as she can say it.
en years, , 1 u more ; man a mouinnu,!