Bernice Carra Donna, a WW II “Allotment Annie” Predator Upon Servicemen - 1945

FULL TEXT: Philadelphia, March 26 – A 29-year-old brunette admitted at a federal hearing that she had married six times, four bigamously – but hubby No. 6 insisted today “I love her and I’m sticking by her.”

Mrs. Eunice [sic; should be Bernice]Carra Donna, was held in $1,000 bail by U. S. Commissioner J. Norman Griffin for a further hearing Thursday.

The government charges she married bigamously spouses No. 3, 4 and 5 – Army Pvt. Monte Thompson, Marine Sgt. Arthur Wiles and Navy Seaman Rodney Oreline, respectively – and collected about $1,000 in servicemen’s allotment checks.

FBI agents said she divorced Chauncy Mauray, her first husband, then was wed to Nicholas Carra Donna in Boston – and legally still is.

Hubby No. 6, Paul H. Schwartz of Lehighton, Pa., an engineer and navy veteran, told Griffin he wants to help her.

[“Girl Confesses To Bigamy On Four Counts,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Fl), Mar. 26, 1947, p. 8]

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FULL TEXT: Mrs. Bernice Carra Donna, 29, attractive New Bedford, Mass., brunette, yesterday admitted that she had entered four bigamous marriages and was held in $1000 bail for a further hearing Thursday before U. S. Commissioner Norman J. Griffin.

The Government charges that Mrs. Carra Donna, who was arrested in a rooming house at 9^th and Pine sts. Last Saturday, is wanted in Stockton, Calif., for accepting at least $1000 in servicemen’s allotment checks as the wife of three of her husbands,

~ NO. 6 AIDS HER ~

Coming unexpectedly to Mrs, Carra Donna’s support when she appeared before Griffin yesterday was Paul M, Swartz, of Lexington, Pa., engineer and Navy veteran with whom, the Government declares, she contracted her sixth and last marriage.

“I love her and I am sticking by her,” declared Swartz after the woman had admitted the four marriages, all without benefit of the divorce courts.

The FBI dossier shows that Mrs. Carra Donna was married to Chauncey Mauray at Vineyard Haven, Mass., in March, 1933, and divorced him in Maryland two years later.

~ WED NO. 2 IN BOSTON ~

Her next venture, and the last to be legal, the Government states, was marriage with Nicholas Carra Donna in Boston in 1939. They separated in 1941. The woman told agents that she understood that Carra Donna had divorced her, so in January, 1943, she married Army. Pvt. Monte Thompson in Blackstone, Va.

Thompson was shipped overseas, FBI said, whereupon Mrs. Carra Donna was married to Marine Sgt. Arthur Wiles in January, 1945, at San Diego, Calif.

Next, the Government states, was Rodney Oreline, a Navy seaman, in November 1944, somewhere on the West Coast, and finally, Acwattz, to whom she was married in November, 1945, to Elkton, Md.

FBI agents said Mrs. Carra Donna had confessed that she accepted checks as the wife pof Thompson, Wiles and Oreline.

[“Wife of 4 Veterans Held in $1,000 Bail,” The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pa.), Mar. 25, 1947, P. 21]

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For more cases of this type see: “War-Marriage Vampires”& “Allotment Annies"

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[421-12/12/2021]

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