Strange Times 142: Chicago Girl Thieves

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Today we have smooching in Baltimore, thievery in Chicago, and an old-fashioned Eleventh Avenue brawl. Pucker up for…

May 22, 1921

• 44,387 men and boys respond to a call for a call asking for opponents of Prohibition to march in a parade opposing “the tyranny of Volsteadism.”

• At a ceremony attended by 10,000 people, regimental flag and wreath of poppies are placed on the sheep meadow in Central Park to honor the Black “Fighting” Fifteenth Regiment of National Guardsmen.

• The Reverend Doctor David Duncan Irvine has his clergyship stripped after accusations that he has been spotted in a bowling alley with a congregant’s wife.

• A Kansas City court overturns a provision in a dead woman’s will demanding that her Scotch collie, Laddie, be “humanely chloroformed” upon her death, instead committing the dog to the care of one of its guardian’s friends.

• The Weather: Fair and continued warm today and probably Monday; fresh southwest winds.

Osculation, n. Smooching.

BALTIMORE, May 21.—“Is kissing a lost art among college men?” and “does Johns Hopkins University maintain a traditional conservatism even in matters of osculation?”

These two questions took the lead in the college talk here today, when Theodore Gould, chairman of the Senior Class Committee, announced the results of his tabulation of statistics gathered from answers to a questionnaire submitted to members of the graduating class.

Forty-eight seniors owned up to having “really kissed a girl,” but thirteen said “no,” and four declined to answer the question at all.

Along with the question about kissing girls went the further query: “Why?” This brought some illuminating answers, including the following:

• “Psychological observation.”

• “Every man looses himself occasionally.” (Original spelling retained.)

• “Midsummer madness.”

• “Couldn’t help it.”

• “Sometimes to please the girls, sometimes for excitement.”

• “I have the right girl.”

• “Too personal.”

• “Obey that impulse.”

• “Because she had such beautiful, tempting red lips.”

• “The fuse blew out.”

One youth answered, “Of course not; I consider it improper.” Another said, “I lost my nerve in the pinch,” and a third, “No; she says wait.”

Nineteen other questions were propounded by Mr. Gould. The answers to the first six, however, he will not divulge until class day, June 20, because upon these answers will depend the awarding of six prizes.

There is so much here. An apartment building given as a gift! The baffling headline! The fact that Mrs. Heil (Mrs. Heil!!) was, if nothing else, a perfect maid! I’ll add this to the pile of “Strange Times stories that would make brilliant screwball comedies.” Please message me when you’ve finished the script.

CHICAGO, May 21.—An automobile which resulted in injuries leading to kleptomania was blamed by relatives and physicians today for the acts of Mrs. Joseph S. Heil, wife of a wealthy broker and who confessed last night, according to the police, that for more than a year she had been robbing the homes of the rich by posing as a maid. The loot is said to amount to more than $25,000, and much of it was found in Mrs. Heil’s home.

Mrs. Heil was held in a detention home today booked on four formal charges of robbery.

Members of the family said today that Mrs. Heil was in an automobile accident several years ago. An operation was necessary, and the wound never healed, relatives said. They said that previous to the accident Mrs. Heil was normal in every way.

The case is one of the most unusual on Chicago’s police records. Mrs. Heil, with an allowance of $300 a month from her husband, two automobiles and a luxurious home, forged references, according to her alleged confession, and obtained employment as a maid in fashionable North Shore homes, robbing them when she left. She was identified by four former employers. All said she was a “perfect maid” and showed such efficiency that she was trusted fully.

Her loot ranged from canary bird cages to valuable pieces of jewelry. A number of platinum pins and diamond rings were being traced through pawn tickets found in Mrs. Heil’s home.

Her husband recently gave her a small apartment building, it is said, and Mrs. Heil is quoted as having said that much of the property she stole was used for furnishing it.

Mr. Heil refused for some time to believe the charges against his wife.

“Why, I can cash my personal check for $250,000 at any Chicago bank,” he told reporters. “Why should my wife steal?”

Mrs. Heil is thirty-eight years old. She has a married daughter eighteen years old.

Mrs. Heil was lucky she had her husband’s money backing her up, or she could have ended up in church herself.

CHICAGO, May 21.—Five young women were placed on probation for a year and ordered to go to church every Sunday in that time when arraigned before Judge John F. Haas today, charged with stealing from Loop stores.

Miss Alma J. Ormes, 21 years of age, one of the four, employed as a cashier in Rothschild’s department store, was charged with embezzlement of $384.50. She entered a plea of guilty and was ordered to pay back part of the amount each month. She entered a plea of guilty and was ordered to pay back part of the amount each month.

“You are placed on probation for a year,” Judge Haas said, “and you are to go to church every Sunday morning in that time. You must be home at 10 o’clock every night and wash and dry the dishes for your mother every day. This is no joke, so take this seriously.”

When in doubt, protect your bartender.

Eleventh Avenue residents in the vicinity of Fifty-first Street showed something of their old-time fighting spirit shortly after 7 o’clock last night when they resented a raid by two detectives on a saloon at 718 Eleventh Avenue, owned for the last two weeks by James Campbell, 25, of 793 Amsterdam Avenue.

The detectives and three patrolmen who went to their assistance were badly bruised in a struggle in the street with a large crowd not in sympathy with the State dry laws, while a number of the attacking party went away with marks left by the nightsticks which the officers used freely after shots fired into the air had failed to disperse the mob. One man was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Detectives Bruno Mondieka and Louis Romirez of Inspector Boettler’s staff were the raiders. Mondieka ordered a “beer,” and while standing at the bar consuming the fluid his eyes were busy trying to locate a safe in which the detectives had been informed the owner kept the “hard” stuff. Discovering the safe, Mondieka walked over to it and snatched open the door. Meanwhile his partner was leaning over the bar. Finding two quart bottles, one partly filled with Scotch and the other containing some rye, the detective called to Campbell that he was under arrest.

Campbell, according to the detectives, asserted that Mondieka could not get away with that kind of “stuff” and added that he would not leave the place with him. A large number of patrons were in the place, and they immediately sided with the owner of the saloon. They gathered around the two detectives, who by this time had taken Campbell into custody, and indulged in abusive language.

Whistle Brings Help

Mondieka broke through a crowd and to the front door, where he blew his police whistle. The signal was promptly answered by Patrolmen James Revelli, Frank Reilly and John Kitson, all of the West Forty-seventh Street Station. The crowd meanwhile had grown rapidly. Fighting their way through the mob the patrolmen reached the detectives and their prisoner, and after battling with the crowd for several minutes got Campbell into a passing taxicab. He was sent to the Forty-seventh Street Station, accompanied by the two detectives.

The patrolmen started back to their respective posts, thinking the trouble over. As Patrolman Kitson got half way across the street a man, later identified as William Sheridan, 48 years old, of 542 West Forty-sixth Street, made a dive for the officer’s feet and the patrolman fell. Then the crowd surged around the policeman, who lay prone for several minutes.

The other patrolmen rushed to the assistance of their fellow officer. Drawing their revolvers, they called to the crowd to stand back. This had but little effect and the patrolmen fired several shots into the air. The crowd fell back a few feet and the policemen got to Kitson who by this time was on his feet again. Bricks and sticks were picked up by the attacking party and hurled at the policemen, some of the missiles hitting their mark. The crowd surged about for some time before the officers finally got Sheridan into a taxicab, bound for the police station. Sheridan, who said he was a fireman on the tugboat Alice M. Guirl, was charged with disorderly conduct. He was somewhat disfigured as a result of the melee, but not seriously hurt.