By the autumn of 1907, Evelyn Radtke had vanished from the respectable world of Milwaukee society. The beautiful young wife of a wealthy trunk manufacturer, a mother of a five-year-old daughter, had simply disappeared. When she resurfaced, she was in Chicago, living under an assumed name in the Victoria Hotel, and the life she was leading there was a complete and deliberate rejection of the one she had left behind. Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the late 1880s, Evelyn Kane had come from a solid, respectable family.
Her father owned a small rubber plant, and her early life pointed toward a conventional future. She trained as a schoolteacher and was working in a small town in the northern woods when she met Charles Radtke. He was a millionaire on a hunting trip, the owner of a trunk manufacturing business, and Evelyn, at just sixteen, was swept off her feet. Despite the objections of his family, who disapproved of the match, Charles married her.
The couple had a daughter, and for a time, their life seemed perfect. Then Evelyn fell seriously ill after giving birth. An operation was necessary to save her life, but the trauma of the procedure seemed to change her. The warm, loving demeanor she had once possessed faded, replaced by a withdrawn and restless coldness.
Those closest to her noticed the shift but did not understand the cause. It was a change that would soon lead her to abandon everything. In the months before her disappearance, Evelyn had begun reading stories about criminals, developing an obsession with meeting real ones. She checked into the Victoria Hotel and soon met a cleaner by the name of Mr.
Jones. When she asked him for the time, he produced a lady’s fancy pocket watch, and gave her a knowing look. She later described the moment as a strange thrill creeping over her, bringing her face to face with her dreams. Jones, a Black man from Chicago whose real name was William, would become the driving force behind her crimes.
He encouraged her to steal, sold the goods on the black market, and Evelyn, in turn, showered him with expensive gifts bought with her stolen wealth. Immersing herself in Chicago’s high society, Evelyn frequented elegant cafes and mingled with elites, but beneath the surface, a sinister plan was at work. Posing as a maid, she obtained positions in the homes of wealthy families. She was not there to serve; her goal was to steal.
She carefully studied each home, learning the layout, discovering where valuables were kept, and noting the routines of the residents. Once she had gained their trust, she would wait until they were away, then ransack every room, taking anything of value, especially jewelry. The stolen possessions were then passed on to her lover, William Jones. Her crime spree could not go unnoticed forever.
The turn came on Labor Day, when detectives caught wind of her after a robbery at the Beck household on South Park Avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Beck had left their home unlocked, and Evelyn, having seen them leave, boldly entered and ransacked every room.
In one bedroom, she found a large alligator-skin pocketbook containing more than a thousand dollars’ worth of jewels. When the Becks returned and discovered the theft, they notified the police, and Lieutenant James V. Ling began his investigation. While dining at the Baltimore Inn, one of Chicago’s fashionable cafes, Lieutenant Ling noticed a well-dressed woman at a nearby table in the company of a prominent businessman.
It was not the woman that attracted his attention, but the large alligator-skin pocketbook she had placed in full view on the table. He followed her when she left and made sensational discoveries. The woman was Evelyn Radtke, a prominent and reputedly wealthy member of Milwaukee society. He also found her prone to strange whims and fantasies, including a delight in posing as a maid and disappearing after a few days, which strengthened his suspicion that she was responsible for a number of mysterious robberies in Chicago.
On October 16, 1907, Evelyn was arrested and questioned at length. Her husband, Charles, was notified and rushed to Chicago, stunned to learn his wife was accused of burglary. At first, Evelyn claimed the pocketbook and jewels had been given to her by her husband, but she soon confessed to the robbery and to many other thefts in Chicago. Then came the most shocking detail: the jewels were not for herself, but gifts for her lover, William Jones.
She showed no remorse and even declared she preferred her lover to her husband. Charles was devastated, his reputation ruined by the scandal. He filed for divorce and was granted sole custody of their daughter. The Radtke family, once a symbol of prosperity, was shattered.
The trunk manufacturing company began to falter, Charles’s brothers forced him out, and by 1912, the company filed for bankruptcy. A man who had once had everything spent the rest of his days working menial jobs, a shadow of his former self. Evelyn, however, was not the only one to face justice. She refused to give up the name of her lover, but Lieutenant Ling searched her apartments and found a slip of paper with several telephone numbers.
One number led him to the home of William Jones. When a woman answered, claiming to be William’s wife and saying he was not there, Ling set up surveillance with an extension telephone line connected to the house. He soon heard a woman advising a man on the other end that detectives had called and he should stay away, and the man instructed her to destroy a certain trunk. A police raid on the home quickly followed.
The trunk was confiscated and opened at headquarters, revealing many of the articles Evelyn had confessed to stealing. Ling soon located and arrested William Jones. While in custody, William told officers he had taught Evelyn the business, boasting that he had an evil influence over her and that she had been a tool in his hands. Together, the couple had stolen around $25,000 worth of goods, equivalent to roughly $800,000 today.
On November 15, 1907, Evelyn Radtke and William Jones were put on trial. Both were found guilty, Evelyn of burglary and William of receiving stolen property. They were given intermediate sentences of one to twenty years in prison, ending what was then one of the most sensational cases in the country, one that had attracted nationwide press attention. But Evelyn’s story did not end there.
Released from prison in 1910, she learned nothing from her past. By 1911, she was suspected of being the ringleader of a notorious group of female thieves known as the vampire women. Under her leadership, these women drugged wealthy men in Chicago nightclubs by slipping sleeping powders into their drinks. When their victims passed out, the women would steal cash, jewelry, and anything else of worth.
In one such incident, Evelyn and a member of her gang targeted a Kansas millionaire, slipping a sleeping powder into his drink and stealing nearly $11,000 in cash and jewelry. After regaining consciousness, the man reported the robbery, and from a book of mug shots, he was able to identify one of the women who had robbed him: Evelyn, though she had been using an alias. Police apprehended many of the girls, who confessed they worked for a lady named Mrs. G.
R. Graves, whom they identified as Evelyn Radtke. Despite the evidence, Evelyn slipped away once again. The victim had left town before he could swear out a warrant and never returned to do so.
The police continued to try to trace her, but after 1911, the trail grew cold. There were rumors she had fled to another city or assumed a new identity, but despite numerous investigations, she was never captured again. Whether she lived out her days in hiding or became a victim of the criminal underworld she had joined remains unresolved to this day.