In the summer of 1905, fear spread through the mountain towns of southern Vermont as a small gang of outlaws raided rural communities and vanished into the forests.
At the center of the case, authorities said, was an 18-year-old girl who appeared to have directed the gang’s movements through Rupert, East Pawlet, and East Rupert.
Described in the newspaper as hardened and defiant, she refused to give Sheriff Wilson any useful information after her arrest.
The pursuit had already turned deadly. One suspected member of the gang was shot through the heart by his own companions, who mistook him for an officer in the dark underbrush.
With armed farmers and deputy sheriffs combing the mountain woods, the strange case of the “girl bandit” became one of the more dramatic crime stories to come out of Vermont that summer.
Girl Leads Bandit Gang
BENNINGTON, Vermont. — An 18-year-old girl bandit, who appears to have led a gang of outlaws who have put in a state of terror some of the back towns for weeks, is in the custody of Sheriff Wilson of Bennington County.
One of her companions, who is believed to be A.H. Ross, of Boston, was shot through the heart by his mates, who in the darkness of the underbrush mistook him for an officer.
Two others of the gang are being pursued through the forests of the mountain towns of Rupert and Dorset by sex deputy sheriffs and a posse of 60 armed farmers.
The girl under arrest is rather pretty, but is thoroughly hardened and refuses to give the officers any information. What little she says indicates that she planned the raids on Rupert, East Pawlet, and East Rupert, and kept camp while the men were away. They were surprised in camp through a boy berry picker who guided the posse.
Source: New York Tribune. New York, N.Y. July 31, 1905.
