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While looking through old newspapers to find stories about family members, I was frequently distracted by interesting items that prompted me to detour from my original purpose. Some of those detours led me to people who were too strange to be true.
She broke the bank
Cassie Chadwick was a woman of many names. but one goal — to get rich by fleecing the gullible, and she succeeded, though some of her claims were outrageous.
This beauty was a beast
Isabella Bidwell was considered the prettiest girl in Elmira, New York, but years later, in California as Mrs. John Martin, she was called the most dangerous female in the country.
From actress to social worker
Long before Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Meredith Baxter-Birney, there was Josephine Plows-Day, but she kept her husband's name even after she eloped with someone else.

The Galapagos Empress
Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bousquet — one of several versions of her name — arrived on the island of Floreana in 1932 and declared herself the ruler.
Real life Richard Kimble
Eleanor Jarman, known to police as “The Blonde Tigress," escaped prison and remained a fugitive for the rest of her life.

No wonder she sang the blues.
Singer Libby Holman's life was more unbelievable than a daytime soap opera, and through it all she just kept plugging along.
The Dollar Princess
Nancy Leeds went from stenographer to wife of a Cleveland millionaire. When she became a rich widow, royalty came calling.

She was guilty
Some folks still believe Ruth Judd couldn't have committed 1931's grisly "trunk murders," but common sense says she must have been.
Safari in Missouri
A wrong-headed man ironically named Denver Wright bought two circus lionesses in 1932 for the purpose of having them hunted to death on a Mississippi River island.

Zion City's Wacky Wizard
Wilbur Glenn Voliva was a virtual dictator in a tiny Illinois town until his craziness finally caught up to him.

Petticoat Ponzi
Mrs. Mildred Boniface was a con woman whose long career strains credibility. She truly believed you should never give a sucker an even break.

What a swell guy
William Earl Dodge Stokes Sr. waged a long campaign against his second wife, Helen, in what may have been the dirtiest divorce case of them all. (Stokes also has a connection with TV's "Only Murders in the Building.")

Mother-in-law from hell
Dr. Alice Wynekoop was a well-respected Chicago physician who seemingly wouldn't hurt a fly. But she would murder the daughter-in-law who wasn't good enough for her spoiled son.
 
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