THE ENTERPRISING MRS. CHADWICK
There had been a sensational forgery in a certain Canadian town, and
when the police announced that they had captured the criminal a huge
crowd sought entrance to the Court where the case was to be tried.
Those who managed to squeeze themselves in were astonished when they
saw a slim, fair-haired girl, with dark, alluring eyes, standing in the
dock, for Lydia Bigley, aged sixteen, was the forger!
The magistrates could hardly believe the evidence for the prosecution.
It seemed incredible that such a beautiful girl could be an expert
forger, but the police had accumulated all the facts, and there could
be no doubt that the demure maiden who looked so modest, and who
occasionally favoured the bench with a sweeping glance from beneath her
long eyelashes, was the person who had tried to raise five thousand
dollars by imitating a wealthy acquaintance's signature on a cheque.
The large-hearted men who judged Lydia did not intend to send her to
gaol if they could help it, and after a brief consultation amongst
themselves they acquitted her on the ground that she must have been
insane when she committed the crime with which she had been charged.
It was a remarkable decision, and it did more credit to the
magistrates' hearts than to their heads, but Lydia's magnetic eyes
may have had something to do with Lydia's first escape from prison.
For years afterwards those fascinating orbs were busy at work. There
were to be greater triumphs in store for her ere she was run to earth.
The girl developed into an extraordinary woman. When she stepped out
of the dock with an alluring smile her brain was busy evolving a
method by which she could live luxuriously without having to work, and
she deliberately chose a life of crime. For a year or two, however,
she contented herself with blackmail. It was always easy for her to
persuade some rich man that she had lost her heart to him, then get him
into a compromising position, and afterwards proceed to levy blackmail
as the price of her silence. The money so obtained did not provide her
with more than her current expenses, and she was anxious to launch out
as a society woman.
She did not, of course, confine herself to Canada. The rich country
of the United States presented a promising field to her, and in turn
she visited many of the principal cities, where she posed in turn as
the daughter of a British general, the widow of an earl, the niece of
a former American president, and so on until she had at one time or
another claimed close relationship with many of the mighty ones of the
earth.
[Illustration: MRS. CHADWICK]
All this, however, only prepared her for the great and final swindle,
and a very brief career as a "society clairvoyante" in an Ohio town
was merely an incident. Lydia was much more ambitious now. It took an
immense amount of hard cash to coax fashionable dresses and fascinating
hats out of the shops, and she simply loved both. In the hour of her
desperation, when two former victims declined to part with any more
cash, and her clairvoyance business was closed by the police, she
remembered her first exploit in criminality, and decided to chance
her luck again as a forger. But she was not going to be content with
a small sum now. She was the most popular woman in the district where
she temporarily resided. She set the fashion, and was determined to
live up to her proud position.
Up to this time Lydia had not found a man sufficiently rich to make it
worth her while to marry. She had had numerous affairs with married
men, and not a few bachelors had actually proposed to her, but there
was something against every one of them, and it was not until she met
handsome and popular and well-to-do Dr. Leroy Chadwick, of Cleveland,
that she consented to change her name. But if she had been dangerous
as Lydia Bigley, she was doubly so as Mrs. Leroy Chadwick, because
her status as the wife of the respected practitioner gave her almost
unlimited opportunities for swindling, and she took full advantage of
them.
Her extravagance knew no bounds. She bought on credit thousands of
pounds worth of jewellery and furs. If she met a girl she liked she
would take her to Europe for a pleasure trip. Once she brought four
young ladies with her to London, Paris, and the principal Italian and
German cities. The trip cost four thousand pounds, but it was none of
her cheapest experiments in trying to get rid of money. For instance,
she and her husband occupied a large house standing in its own grounds,
which she insisted upon refurnishing, regardless of expense. A little
later she decided to have it redecorated throughout, and she agreed to
pay a fantastic price to the contractors on the understanding that they
began and finished the work while she was watching a performance at the
local theatre! They managed to keep their word, and Mrs. Chadwick's
house became for the time being a show place.
Another of her fads was a habit of giving costly presents on the
slightest provocation. To impress a local piano dealer with her
importance she walked into his showroom one day and counted the number
of instruments he happened to have in stock. There were twenty-seven
of them all told, and Mrs. Chadwick promptly gave him a list of
twenty-seven of her friends, and told him to deliver one of his pianos
to each with her compliments. Although somewhat taken aback at such
an order, and hearing that Mrs. Leroy Chadwick always paid for her
eccentricity, the piano dealer dared not doubt her word, and promised
to deliver the instruments. Again she ordered a dozen costly clocks,
one of which was made of gold, works and all. She kept the latter for
herself, and gave away the others. Her servants came in for many of her
gifts, and she decked out her cook with so many costly clothes that the
good dame grew too big for her job, and gave notice on the ground that
the work was undignified, and tended to ruin her wardrobe!
Of course, these ventures in extravagance could not have been
accomplished without a considerable amount of ready money. American
tradesmen are not all "mugs," and no matter how beautiful Lydia
Chadwick may have been, had she not been in a position to pay her
tradesmen, they would have spoiled her little schemes by pressing for
the settlement of their accounts.
Dr. Chadwick could not, however, keep pace with her expenditure, and
she fell back upon forgery, and now she began her greatest exploit,
which, before it landed her in the dock of an unsympathetic criminal
Court, enabled her to handle nearly a million dollars.
One day she drove in a costly carriage, with coachman and footman in
attendance, to the bank, and with impressive dignity walked in and
requested the manager to advance the modest sum of fifty thousand
pounds. Naturally the official asked for security. Mrs. Chadwick yawned
and opened her purse bag.
"I presume you have heard of my uncle, Mr. Andrew Carnegie?" she asked
sarcastically.
The banker declared that he knew a great deal about the millionaire,
whose name will for ever be associated with Pittsburg iron and free
libraries.
"Well, then," said the lady, with her nose in the air, "here are two
notes signed by him. You can see they are worth £150,000. Perhaps you
consider them sufficient security for such a paltry sum as I want you
to lend me for a few weeks."
They were, of course, ample security, but the manager, a shrewd
business man, determined to take no risks. He, therefore, politely
hinted that while he would not dare to doubt the genuineness of the
signature of the famous millionaire, "just for form's sake," he would
like to have a responsible person swear that the writing was Mr.
Carnegie's. He rather expected Mrs. Chadwick to be offended, but she
merely told him that the gentleman who had delivered the notes to her
that morning was still in town. "And as he is Mr. Carnegie's New York
lawyer I think he ought to know his handwriting."
The lawyer was fetched, and he not only identified the signatures,
but added the overwhelming testimony that he had been present himself
when Mr. Carnegie had drawn up and signed the notes. After that there
was nothing to be done but to credit Mrs. Chadwick with fifty thousand
pounds, and deposit the precious securities in the safe.
A month later the whole of the money had evaporated. Clamouring
tradesmen had had to be satisfied, advances from money-lenders
liquidated, and scores of persons to be impressed by large orders for
various goods, for which cash was paid. Meanwhile the Carnegie notes
rested securely in the strong room of the bank, for it was some time
ere the manager was to know that they were worthless forgeries, and
that Mrs. Chadwick did not know Mr. Carnegie, neither had she ever seen
him in her life!
Mrs. Chadwick certainly displayed a very masculine ability in her
criminal exploits. It was a stroke of genius to carry a bunch of
important-looking papers to one of the leading banks, and hire a
special safe by the year, for the rent of which she obtained a
receipt. Armed with this she was able to persuade quite a number of
rich and fashionable Americans that she had a million pounds worth of
securities in the safe which she did not wish to dispose of because the
markets were low, and to sell out would have been to invite a heavy
loss. She varied her story as occasion demanded, one of her favourite
yarns being that the securities were bequeathed to her on the condition
that she did not sell them outright. She could, however, promise very
large interest to those who trusted her, and it was an offer to pay
twenty per cent that induced one millionaire to hand her his cheque
for two hundred thousand dollars and not ask for anything more than a
written receipt.
Her swindle was, of course, only a copy of the Humbert fraud, and,
considering that she put it into operation a year after the sentence
on the famous Madame Humbert, it is extraordinary that she should have
been able to find victims. The only explanation that has been advanced
is that of hypnotism. Mrs. Chadwick had undoubtedly "hypnotic eyes,"
but it is doubtful if they alone charmed nearly a million out of some
of the most astute business men the land of dollars has produced.
But her story of a vast fortune in a bank safe was generally believed.
When she informed a keen-witted New York millionaire that if he
advanced her twenty-five thousand dollars she would repay him twice as
much within the year--the safe, she declared, was to be opened on a
certain date, and the contents distributed as she decided--he actually
took her word, and parted with the money he was never to see again. And
this did not happen long ago. The date of the transaction was 1904,
and that same man must have read all about Madame Humbert's trial and
conviction less than twelve months previously.
It is not necessary to give further particulars of this "safe" fraud.
Mrs. Chadwick simply took the cash, and had a "high old time," and
day and night her mansion was filled with guests. Her tradespeople
were delighted. The fact that she paid them cash, and that most of
them were too wary to take "shares" in the "safe" exploit, proved that
some people at any rate ultimately benefited by the woman's amazing
imposture.
One of her most fiendish exploits was to invite a well-known financier
to dine with her and a few friends. This gentleman had declined to
advance money on the strength of the mythical securities, and she
had resolved to get even with him. She therefore retained friendly
relations with him and unsuspectingly he accepted her invitation. When
he arrived Mrs. Chadwick's only other guest was a pretty young girl,
the daughter of a New York physician.
The dinner was a pleasant affair, but towards the close the financier
became sleepy, greatly to his surprise, as he did not suspect that
his hostess had purposely drugged both him and her only other guest.
Anyhow, in the early morning, when he woke up, he found himself
stretched on the floor, and a moment later Mrs. Chadwick appeared,
and tearfully explained that in his "excited condition"--she meant
intoxicated, but refrained from using that vulgar word--he had grossly
insulted her girl friend. The long and the short of it was that he had
to pay ten thousand dollars in blackmail, and of this sum the woman
gave her girl confederate two hundred.
But at last the morning dawned when a certain victim of hers set out
for the Wade National Bank in Cleveland, and presented the manager's
receipt for the hire of the safe, together with the key and a written
order from Mrs. Chadwick that the bearer was to be permitted to open
the safe and take from it the valuable securities she had deposited
there. Her emissary was a creditor to the extent of eighty thousand
dollars, and he was naturally very anxious to recoup himself for his
outlay. Mrs. Chadwick had instructed him to select sufficient stocks
and shares to realize his account plus twenty thousand dollars for
interest, and then to send the rest to a firm of stockbrokers in New
York with instructions to realize.
It must have been a very dramatic moment when the credulous creditor
turned the key in the lock and the safe door opened on its hinges,
and he must have felt pleased with himself when he saw the pile of
important-looking documents which seemed to him to be valuable share
certificates. But a moment later he realized that he had been grossly
swindled, for the papers proved to be worthless.
The bubble had burst! Mrs. Chadwick was from that moment known as the
Madame Humbert of America. How her creditors howled! How they were
chaffed and ridiculed! A few would not reveal themselves once they
guessed that there could be no redress. Nevertheless, stern measures
were adopted, and a warrant was issued for the impostor's arrest.
Mrs. Chadwick had taken up her quarters in an expensive hotel in the
early part of December, 1904. She intended to pass Christmas there, and
the management had already consulted her as to her ideas of a really
Christmasy entertainment. She was paying one hundred dollars a week
for her rooms, and she had arrived with a fortune in jewels, and half
a dozen personal servants. She was the uncrowned queen of the hotel,
where the other visitors stood in groups and discussed her wonderful
personality in awed accents.
She was destined, however, to spend that Christmas in gaol. One evening
when Mrs. Chadwick, resplendent in a marvellous Parisian creation,
and wearing jewels which must have cost fifty thousand dollars at
least, was chatting at the dinner-table, the manager came to her
and respectfully intimated that a couple of gentlemen wished to see
her. She graciously answered that she would receive them in her
drawing-room. Visitors were every-day occurrences with her, and these,
she thought, were local celebrities, who had come to enlist her support
for their Christmas charities.
Without the slightest suspicion that anything was wrong she entered
her luxurious drawing-room, and with a smile inquired the strangers'
business. Now American detectives have a habit of being brutally frank,
and they lost no time in informing her that she was their prisoner,
and that the charge against her was that of having obtained nearly a
million dollars by fraud.
The news stunned her, and for a moment or two she stood motionless.
Then she collapsed in a faint, and it was some time before the two
detectives could get her downstairs and into the waiting cab.
Mrs. Chadwick had started her criminal career with a triumph over
the soft-hearted Canadian magistrates who had so obligingly decided
that she was too pretty to be evil, and, recalling that triumph, she
resolved to fight for her liberty with her eyes and not her tongue.
When she was brought into the dock she fainted again, knowing that
she looked quite bewitching when in that state, and that her forlorn
condition must wring pity from even her worst enemies. But her
programme did not work out as she expected it would. Instead of a host
of sympathetic men crowding round her and proffering good-natured
advice, she was roughly brought to by a couple of hard-featured
wardresses. Then she was installed in the dock again, and compelled to
listen to the story of her life as told by a prosecuting lawyer, who
was quite unaffected by Mrs. Chadwick's "magnetic eyes." He mercilessly
raked up her past, recounted how she had ruined scores of men and
women, how she had been one of the most dangerous blackmailers in
America, and how she had adopted Madame Humbert's "safe" swindle, with
disastrous results for scores of impressionable men.
It was a formidable indictment, and the recital of it blotted out
at once the beauty of the prisoner. She was shown to be an utterly
unscrupulous impostor, a woman who had declared war against society,
and who had repaid her husband's love by making his name a byword
throughout the land.
She had, of course, a clever lawyer to plead for her, and every
possible effort was made to secure an acquittal, but there was no
question of insanity now. She was too clever to be an imbecile, and
the judge had not the slightest hesitation in giving her ten years'
imprisonment.
When she had been convicted, and before she tottered from the dock
into the oblivion of the gaol, the interesting fact was mentioned that
she had been in the habit of wearing a belt containing ten thousand
dollars, with the object of taking to flight if her liberty was ever
threatened. The celerity with which the police had acted, however,
resulted in the capture of this little "nest egg" for her creditors,
although it is to be feared that each of them received a very small
proportion of the amount he lost through his faith in the word of
the greatest female impostor since Madame Humbert was convicted. It
should be recorded that her husband had nothing whatever to do with her
frauds. He was, in fact, one of her victims and when he married her he
had no idea that she was then an ex-convict.
After the failure of her attempt to secure a new trial Mrs. Chadwick
was sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus, and there she died
on Oct. 10th, 1907, at the age of forty-eight.