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VOLUME I.
NEW YORK’S ONLY WOMAN DETECTIVE ।
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NEW YORK.—“To be detective,
first grade; at $2,250 per an
num —Mrs. Isabella Goodwin.”
Such was the order of Rhine
lander Waldo, New York’s police com
missioner, recently. He did not men
tion the fact that Mrs. Goodwin is the
only female municipal sleuth in the
United States and New York city’s
first woman detective sergeant. Nor
did he mention It officially that the
promotion from police matron to de
tective was due to good work for 14
years past, and especially for her
share in solving the mystery of the
$25,000 taxicab holdup. In which two
bank messengers were blackjacked
and robbed.
Ten thugs took part In this crime,
one of the most spectacular in the
history of New York. One or two are
still at large, but the majority are
behind the bars and all but one have
confessed. It was Mrs. Goodwin’s
work that got the first line on them.
The reader of French novels, as a
rule, imagines that the woman sleuth
Is young, dashing, dressed in spright
ly fashion and full of verve and chic.
Mrs. Goodwin is exactly the opposite.
She is a widow of forty-seven—she is
proud of her age—and the mother of
three grown-up children. Her hus
band, John W. Goodwin, was a rounds
man in the department.
“Sure,” laughed Inspector Hughes,
head of the detectives’ bureau, “you
can see Mrs. Goodwin —she’s down
stairs now.”
Among the Sleuths.
Leading the way, he walked into
the room where New York’s foremost
sleuths gather every morning to get
their orders for the day’s work and to
meet their chiefs. There eat Mrs.
Goodwin among them. She was just
as calm as you please, though it had
been only the day before that she had
been raised SI,OOO in salary and been
made New York’s only woman detec
tive.
“Don’t think these are my working
clothes," she protested, settling her
self in a chair, “but I’ve got to dress
the part today."
Indeed, she dressed it. Mrs. Good
win wore a fetching hat of blue straw
tied down with a smart lace veil, a
costume of bright blue cloth and satin
pumps and immaculate white kid
gloves reaching up to her elbows. She
looked all the world like a society
matron ready to take her limousine
out for some afternoon tea.
Mrs. Goodwin was assured that no
police secrets were wanted; merely
something about herself.
"O, that’s simple,” she ran on. “I
was born in Greenwich Village—that’s
the lower west side, you know—and I
live there yet. But please don't pub
lish my address; It wouldn’t help me
NUMBEII 19.
in my business. I’ve been in the po
lice department since May, 1896, near
ly 16 years. When my husband died
I had the children to support and 1 de
cided to get into the police depart
ment, too. So I studied and took the
examination for matron. They sent
me to the Macdougal street station,
where I stayed for four years. After
that I was transferred to Mercer
street, and there I’ve been until they
put me here at headquarters.
Woman’s Poolroom Her First Case.
“My first case? It was getting the
evidence against a woman’s poolroom
in West Twenty-fourth street 14 years
ago. No man could get in there, so
they sent for me. I had myself in
troduced around the neighborhood un
til I met a woman who had the entree
there and she took me.
“ ‘What do you know about horses?’
asked one of the women of me. •
“ ‘Sleepyhead looks good to me,’ said
I, and put up $5 on him. The nag's
running yet. But I gradually got all the
evidence I needed. Occasionally a man
used to call up the place and reassure
everybody that everything was all
right. ‘lf you get shadowed by any de
tective just lose yourself in a big de
partment store. He can't follow you
there,’ was his regular tip to us.
“The seances to which I have been
are innumerable, but I never saw a
real ghost. Many a time I have sat in
a developing class waiting for some
thing to materialize, but there was al
ways one little thing wrong. I guess
I’ve had as many fake mediums ar
rested as any man detective in New
York.
Catching a Hindu Fakir.
“One of the best was a Hindu. He
was dressed in robes and a turban and
when I walked in he locked the catch
on the door. Then he began rubbing
my arms.
“ 'Your business vibrations are all
fight,’ he began, ‘but your magnetic
vibrations are all wrong. Are you
afraid?’ I told him I wasn’t. Then he
said: ‘I can plainly see the reason why
you are not married’ —and I a widow
with three children! ‘For SSO I can
cause you to marry a man you are in
terested in. Bring me some article he
has handled —a knife, handkerchief,
pocketbook, and I will guarantee that
in 30 days you will marry him.’ He
was arrested and held in SI,OOO to
keep the peace.
“McCurda was one of my best cases.
He was the minister of a spirit church,
he said, and he gave me a reading.
He said he could see my mother and
sister in the spirit world. As a matter
of fact, my mother was living and I
never had a sister. He told me the
most wonderful, glowing stories of the
spirit world and of my spirit friends,
there.
Ilie IdletiM
IKWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1912.
‘“They are advising you to invest in
a stock,’ he said, ‘with which we will
raise the money to build a spirit
church. It only costs a dollar a share
now, but soon It will rise to $lO a
share. Won’t you take some shares
for this wonderful church?'
"I told him I would when I came
back the next time, and then he drew
me closer to him and whispered: ‘I can
see it all. You are stoical from lack of
companionship. My wife and I are not
congenial; you and I could be. Wont
you give me your address so that I
can Sall? Instead of letting him have
my address I made my report to the
central office, and our spiritual friend
was held in $3,000 bonds to keep the
peace.
“He was just like all the rest of
them —a mere faker. Not one of them
told the truth, and all of them as
sumed that I wanted a husband, which
I did not. They just impose on gul
lible. ignorant human nature. And
many of these poor people, after be
ing fooled once, come back time and
again.
Worked on 500 Cases.
“In all I have had about 500 cases. I
have been hypnotized for stuttering—
it took me quite some time to learn to
stutter before I went to the place. I
have taken the magnetic treatment
and the electrical treatment. I lay
on a table to be operated on by a
fake woman physician, but changed
my mind just as she was about to
start with her knife. I have visited
so many palmists I can’t remember
their names.
“I have sat with the crystal gazers
and watched them look into a glass
ball until they knew all about my
life, past, present and future. I have
seen pretty nearly all the fake clair
voyants in New York and have put
many of them out of business. I have
taken the absent treatment and the
open and closed trances. I have had
some husbands found for me In the
stars and other husbands in.the cards.
I have been advised by other mystics
to buy certain stocks or certain lands.
I have been promised three husbands
by one woman and children galore.
Blond and brunette husbands have
been promised to me, all of them
rich.”
With all her skill as a detective,
Mrs. Goodwin is nothing but a woman
and a mother, and she has the pret
tiest homes Imaginable —a cozy apart
ment on a good street, tastefully dec
orated, fitted with handsome rugs and
curtains, adorned with much bric-a
brac and many pictures and kept as
neat as a new pin.
Her daughter. Miss Margaret, who
is called Marjorie at home, runs the
household. She is a winsome girl of
nineteen, pretty as a picture.
MYRICK’S
DEPARTMENT
STORE
MILLEDGEVILLE,GA.
SPRING
IS HERE
Our showing of Spring and
Summer Goods will please you-
We have the most complete line
ever shown in Milledgeville
Georgia, Our efforts for the last
six months have been concern
trated on getting together this
wonderful showing.
CAN WE
PLEASE YOU?
We will be pleased to have
you call and see what we have.
Your Friends,
W. S. MYRICK
& COMPANY
SI.OO A YEAR.
