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May. 25th, 2006 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyMay 25! How They Do Rise Up.
One of the themes of this Discworld holiday is showing respect for a very tough individual, and making sure they're never forgotten. In that vein, I dedicate this post to Emma Ford.
Emma Ford says "The Gangs of Chicago", written by Herbert Asbury, available in your finer historical bookstores was one of the most dangerous criminals in 1880s Chicago. An expert pickpocket as well as a gifted stick-up artist and panel-worker*, she was over six feet tall, weighed two hundred pounds, had arms so long she could scratch her kneecaps without stooping, and had tremendous strength combined with catlike agility. "She would never submit to arrest except at the point of a revolver", says Detective Wooldridge (a noteworthy character in his own right), "No two men on the police force were strong enough to handle her, and she was dreaded by all of them."
She was equally dreaded by the wardens and guards of the various prisons in which she served short sentences. Once in the Cook County jail she nearly drowned a guard by holding him submerged in a water-trough; in the House of Corrections she went on a rampage in the laundry and severely disfigured half a dozen other female convicts with a hot flatiron; and in Denver, she held a prison guard off the floor by his hair while she plucked out his whiskers and threw them in his face. As late as 1903 she was the terror of the Levee.
Given the dates she was active, it's entirely possible that she might've shared the sidewalk with Oscar Wilde when he passed through the city during his tour of the States. It'd take a better writer than me to imagine that encounter.
*Panel-workers were specialized thieves who worked the city brothels. Many Chicago brothels had rooms with sliding wall panels; while the john was occupied, the panels would slide open, and women with long hooked poles would snag his belongings and whisk them out of the room.
One of the themes of this Discworld holiday is showing respect for a very tough individual, and making sure they're never forgotten. In that vein, I dedicate this post to Emma Ford.
Emma Ford says "The Gangs of Chicago", written by Herbert Asbury, available in your finer historical bookstores was one of the most dangerous criminals in 1880s Chicago. An expert pickpocket as well as a gifted stick-up artist and panel-worker*, she was over six feet tall, weighed two hundred pounds, had arms so long she could scratch her kneecaps without stooping, and had tremendous strength combined with catlike agility. "She would never submit to arrest except at the point of a revolver", says Detective Wooldridge (a noteworthy character in his own right), "No two men on the police force were strong enough to handle her, and she was dreaded by all of them."
She was equally dreaded by the wardens and guards of the various prisons in which she served short sentences. Once in the Cook County jail she nearly drowned a guard by holding him submerged in a water-trough; in the House of Corrections she went on a rampage in the laundry and severely disfigured half a dozen other female convicts with a hot flatiron; and in Denver, she held a prison guard off the floor by his hair while she plucked out his whiskers and threw them in his face. As late as 1903 she was the terror of the Levee.
Given the dates she was active, it's entirely possible that she might've shared the sidewalk with Oscar Wilde when he passed through the city during his tour of the States. It'd take a better writer than me to imagine that encounter.
*Panel-workers were specialized thieves who worked the city brothels. Many Chicago brothels had rooms with sliding wall panels; while the john was occupied, the panels would slide open, and women with long hooked poles would snag his belongings and whisk them out of the room.
