Emma’s first accomplices had been John Laksock, 11, and John Doolick, 14. Apparently, her glare was so highly effective that John Doolick “misplaced all will energy when she solid her stern eyes upon him.” An area newspaper referred to as her the “Feminine Fagin,” an antagonist from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist who teaches kids to dwell lives of crime. She would allegedly name up the boys on a whim and entice them into committing break-ins together with her.

Late on Halloween evening, 1905, Emma and her gang began a gradual string of robberies. They stole cigars, “nice portions” of tobacco, and 5 gold rings from an area retailer (altogether value round $1,785 in 2025). Halloween evening was a citywide celebration in Passaic, and the vacation supplied the right cowl for his or her heist to go undetected. The next night, the gang stole alcohol, tobacco, and different valuables from a close-by saloon. The trio slid by a skylight to plunder the bar. One estimate put their loot at an astonishing fifty bottles of alcohol, which they resold to an area man.

The police caught Emma per week later. An officer noticed her in a shoplifted coat and stopped her, recognizing the lacking merchandise. She acknowledged that it was stolen however denied that she was the one who looted it. The officer marched her to jail. Her uncle paid for the coat, and the choose dismissed the case. Nevertheless, officers remained interested by her “boyish nature.”

Respecting her gender, Emma’s father defined, “She is a Tom boy [ . . .] she invariably associates with boys and leads a reckless type of existence.” Charles’s assertion is a small however exceptional piece of trans historical past. He was keen to defend her gender (and maybe commit perjury) even when she misbehaved. Gender isn’t a reward to be distributed however a fundamental type of self-expression that households should help. If Charles Heinrich knew this in 1905, we are able to actually perceive it in the present day.

Charles’ testimony appeared to fulfill the officers, who let his daughter go. Emma, unfazed by the arrest, instantly returned to stealing.

Police had been unaware that the Halloween robberies had been linked till early November 21, 1905. Hidden by the evening shadow, Emma’s gang sneaked right into a grocery retailer by a tiny, unlocked window above the again door. They almost escaped, however an officer heard muffled voices by the partitions at 2 am. Figuring out the shop homeowners had been gone, he cautiously approached the constructing and caught Emma and John Laksock in the act. They held $4.35 from the until together with a number of small gadgets. John Doolick had already fled the scene, however Emma and the opposite John implicated him in the theft. All three had been interrogated so officers might perceive how they achieved such a posh heist.

Whereas Emma was in holding, Laksock and Doolick turned in opposition to their pal and claimed she was the mastermind behind the scheme. They admitted to having plundered many shops in the realm by utilizing their small our bodies to enter locked buildings. The police seized the rings the gang had stolen on Halloween whereas looking out Emma’s dwelling. The choose held the trio with out bail, and so they grew to become a small media spectacle. It was uncommon for such younger people to be concerned in difficult break-ins—and for a woman to guide a gang. The press dubbed Emma the “tomboy burglar,” and he or she sat in jail for almost a month.