FULL
TEXT: Grace Mordaunt, known to the police of several cities as Grace Denning,
an attractive-looking woman, was taken to Police Headquarters and photographed
for the Rogues’ Gallery yesterday. She was arrested by Detective Sergeants
Frank Price and John Farley at the Grand Hotel.
Although
only twenty-three years old, she is considered by Capt. Titus, of the Detective
Bureau, one of the most clever confidence-women in the country. Her victims are
many and her beauty has aided her to her criminal career.
Frank
J. Potter, a wholesale paint merchant, of No. 395 Broadway, answered an
advertisement in a newspaper which read as follows:
YOUNG
WIDOW, financially embarrassed, wishes to raise loan of $100 upon diamond ring;
worth twice as much.
Mr.
Plotter met Grace in the women’s parlor of
the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Sept. 1. The young women, with tears in her eyes,
told that she was a widow, and in order to support herself had been forced to
pledge a lot of jewelry given to her by her late husband.
“All
I have left,” she said, “is this engagement ring.”
Mr.
Potter looked at it. He said he did not know anything about diamonds and
suggested that they go to a jeweler to have it appraised. A Maiden lane
merchant said the ring was worth at least $200. Then the loan was made.
“Please
don’t wear this ring,” she said to Mr. Potter, “because it is my engagement
ring, and you might lose it. Seal it up and put it in your safe and will be
back in ten days to redeem it.”
Then
she broke into tears again. The ring was placed in a little tin box, which she
sealed. Several days later. Mr. Potter opened the box and found a “fake”
diamond ring in the place of the real one. Since then the police have been
looking for Grace.
Detective-Sergeant
Frank Price answered another advertisement and met the woman by appointment in
the Grand Hotel yesterday. She tried the same game on the detective and wag
arrested. Mr. Potter identified her. With her was Edward Roberts, alias
Jackson, a pickpocket, whose picture is in the Rogues’ Gallery.
In the Jefferson Market Court yesterday the woman was held in $1,000 bail for
examination. Roberts was discharged. Capt. Titus has already found three more
of Grace’s victims. She was arrested a year ago and sent as a prisoner to
Boston, where sentence was suspended.
A
male companion at that time was sentenced to State prison for eight years.
[“Grace
Mordaunt Only 23, but Police Call, Her Clever Confidence Woman. - Gets Loan On
A Ring, Works ‘Flim-Flam’ Game - Posed as a Young Widow in Distress and Found
Victims Who Advanced Cash.” The World (New York, N.Y.), Jan. 17, 1902, p. 12]
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[884-5/1/21; 1373-10/4/21]
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