The newspapers labeled them girl bandits, but they were actually young women (mostly) who robbed men on the streets and broke into people’s houses. They were dangerous, sometimes stupid, and were often uncaught.
1. The Chicago Girl Bandit
There were quite a few Chicago girl bandits back in the early 1900s, however this particular one had a way with words.
In the summer of 1909, a girl bandit was busily holding up men on the streets. No one knew her identity, but the interactions with her were reported word for word.
According to one of her victims, a man named Klober, the incident went as follows:
“I was walking in North Park Avenue a little east of Tell Place, at 3 o’clock, when a young woman walked up to me with one of her hands behind her back. Suddenly it jerked and a revolver flashed in my face.”
“Shell out what you got and come across on the jump, too,” she said.
“I came across with a $50 stud. This seemed satisfactory and she backed off, doing a threatening pantomime with her revolver. I watched while she ran up an alley and then reported the case.”
The police guessed, according to all the accounts, that the girl was about 19-years-old. She had dark hair and wore an automobile veil and hat to hide her features. [1]
2. Minneapolis Girl Burglar
In 1922 it was reported that a girl bandit had tried to burglarize Christ Kruse’s home in Minneapolis. He and the girl shot it out and the man’s wife and children were nearly injured in the gun battle before the girl took off out of the house and ran down the alley to escape.
Police believed it was the same person who robbed another home a few days before this latest incident. The girl bandit had broke into the Folsom house, chloroformed the entire family, including the dog, and made off with $60. [2]
3. Two Colts’ Revolvers
Virginia had their very own girl bandit back in 1899. She was far more adventurous than some of the other bandits because she carried two revolvers and found her victims in the wild.
Thomas Friedrich was crossing over a mountain in Grayson County when a girl jumped out at him while holding a revolver in each hand. At first Thomas thought it was a joke, but female bandit did not laugh. She stared at him coldly and demanded that he hand over all his valuable.
Thomas gave her his gold watch, his diamond sleeve buttons, and $6 in cash. She then took off and disappeared into the thickets. [3]
4. The Flapper Bandit
In 1921, there was the “flapper bandit” holding up men for cash. A 17-year-old Mae McDonald was identified as the bandit and taken to jail.
Mae, of course, denied she was the flapper bandit even though she was positive identified by one of her victims who claimed she had shoved a pistol under his nose and demanded all his money.
“What?” she said. “Me stick up a guy? Gee, I never have had a gun in my hand. I wouldn’t know which end to use.” [4]
5. Bobbed-Haired Bandit of Cleveland
Anna J. Kearns thought she could be like one of the flapper bandits when she walked into a Cleveland drug store back in 1924 and pointed a “shiny little automatic” at the male attendant. The 21-year-old cleared out the cash register and ran for it.
She might not have gotten caught, but her guilty conscious got the best of her and five days later she telephoned the store and apologized to the clerk. The police managed to trace her phone call back to its source and arrested her.
When asked why she did it, she told the detectives that “unemployment and impending hunger drove her to it.” [5]
6. Wanted the Excitement
Fay Engstrom was a bit different than the other girl bandits. She was cultured and well-educated. She was described as wearing “horn-rimmed glasses and a flowing “poet tie” and looked for all the world like the cartoon conception of a Greenwich villager.”
When she turned 21, Faye and her accomplice, a former sailor, began holding up pedestrians. She really was not interested in the cash. According to her:
“I craved excitement. I was tired of living in a rut and started out to find a little adventure.” [6]
