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When influenza takes over a country, most medical professionals feel a sense of duty to protect and care for infected citizens. They put the health of others before their own to help the country survive. However, not all doctors and nurses are benevolent. Nurse Julia Lyons was hiding an evil secret as she took care of patients who blindly trusted her...
In Desperate Need of a Job
Julia Lyons was down on her luck during the fall of 1918. She knew hospitals needed nurses during the Spanish Influenza pandemic, and so she enlisted to take a course in medicine. This would be the answer to all her problems...
A Shady Past
Julia breezed through her training... without taking all the required courses. She was just desperate to start her job, and she knew that amid all the panic none of the doctors would take too much notice if she just walked into the hospital and just donned one of the nurse's uniforms. She was right, and she was also hiding a major secret...
"Nurse" Julia
Julia Lyons was now "Nurse" Julia, but she also went by various other names. She had aliases like Marie Walker, Ruth Hicks, and Mrs. H.J. Behrens. She worked as a house nurse, but her past was going to catch up to her soon...
No Florence Nightingale
Not only did Julia have extremely minimal medical knowledge, she decided that being a nurse just for the benevolence wasn't enough. Most people in the field were there just to heal the sick through a raging pandemic. Julia, however, needed money...
The Price Isn't Right
Whenever Nurse Julia made home visits, she would seriously overcharge patients for their medicine. She would tell them a dose of oxygen was $65 rather than the actual price, which was a mere $5. Why would she do this? What was her motive for lying?
A Lady of Class
The truth was, Julia was once a sort of socialite. She was rich and liked expensive things. However, she'd been arrested after posing as a Department of Justice representative and cashing stolen checks...
A Common Thief
That's how Julia ended up on the run, posing as a nurse, looking for the next unlucky person to rip off. Her scheme was the same every time: she would treat the sick people in their homes, gain their trust, overcharge them for medicine, and then leave with all of their jewelry and valuables while they were in bed. Nobody caught on for quite some time...
Oblivious to her Crimes
Julia's patients were, for the most part, totally unaware that they were the victims of several types of malpractice. One particular patient, a nine-year-old boy, begged Julia to treat his brother. He was described as "out of his head with illness." Her response was terrifyingly cold...
Flawed Bedside Manner
To the sick boy, Julia replied: “Oh, let him rave. He’s used to raving.” That child died, and the "nurse" felt no remorse for not offering any sort of help. Still, she was so convincing at appearing as innocent, with her sweet smile and delicate features that no one ever assumed she was capable of evil...
Squashing Any Suspicions
Julia loved to take advantage of the most vulnerable patients. Some, however, grew suspicious that the "nurse" treating them wasn't completely capable. Every time someone started to doubt her, she would swoop in and make up some story about how she must have known them before they fell ill. One time she said to a man who questioned her, "Don’t you remember me? Why, when I was a little girl I used to hitch on your wagons!”
A Betrayal of Trust
Thankfully, Julia was quick enough to cover her tracks; the man believed her. She had great timing because a detective who worked on her case in Chicago was on her tail. The sick man just assumed he'd forgotten about knowing Julia after all those years. But when she disappeared with all of his valuables, he was shocked that he'd been deceived...
An Endless Crime Spree
“By golly, I guess I was wrong,” the sick man said to the detective when he arrived, following Julia's trail of patients. It seemed like there was no stopping her, but even she wasn't fast enough to evade the law. The police had linked her to two other criminals, Eva Jacobs and "Suicide Bess" Davis...
"Flu Julia"
After much investigation, police figured out that Julia intended to marry a restaurant owner named "Charlie the Greek." After tracking him down, they were able to confirm that the story was true. But Julia wasn't going down without a fight...
Shocked By Her Lies
As the police pulled Julia out of her house in handcuffs, she allegedly shouted "The wedding's all bust up!" Charlie watched in shock as his wife was taken to prison. "I thought I knew her," he'd said, though they'd only known each other for ten days. She was nearly successful in taking advantage of even the man she claimed to love...
Bars Couldn't Stop Her
The police knew they had a slick criminal on their hands. Even behind bars, Julia was capable of committing crimes, no matter how closely she was watched. It was true, even in custody she still had something hidden up her sleeve...
Time to Testify
The Deputy Sheriff, a man named John Hickey, was responsible for taking Julia to the courthouse the day she had to testify for her crimes. He was overly-confident that nothing would go wrong during the trial. He couldn't have been more wrong before Julia stood in front of a jury of 50 of her victims...
An Escape Artist
About 90 minutes later, the Deputy Sheriff entered the courthouse without Julia. He shouldn't have been so sure about the entire day going smoothly, because he reported to the judge that Julia had flung herself out of their moving car and into a getaway car. Hickey had been unable to chase her down the street, and she fled...
Retracing Her Steps
After some more investigating, it was pretty clear how Julia had escaped her cell. Hickey had accepted a bribe and let her out, and though the details of what exactly she'd given him weren't clear, it was pretty easy to assume what their deal had been. Hickey was suspended by the judge, and now there was a convict on the loose...
Uncovering a New Lead
This time, the police were more careful about tracking her down. If they were right, then Julia would go back to her old ways of impersonating nurses. Turns out, they actually did find something in the nurses' registries that seemed suspicious. The backstory about a "Mrs. James" from Fullerton Boulevard seemed oddly familiar...
Fitting the Description
This particular nurse was new to the household she was working for, and her physical description matched that of Julia's. The police went to the house on Fullerton Boulevard immediately, and who did they find? Julia of course, and she didn't seem surprised to see them at all...
Back to the Slammer
Julia's second arrest made headlines this time around. The Chicago Tribune reported the following: Mrs. M.S. James, née Flu Julia, née Slicker Julia, who walked away one November day from former Deputy Sheriff John Hickey, walked back into custody, involuntarily." The police were sure that this time they could detain her...
No One To Bribe
This time, Julia knew none of the police officers would fall for her bribes. She was completely on her own and went to a lengthy trial to repent for what she'd done. At first, the jury didn't believe her when she said she'd been forced into a life of crime until she pleaded insanity...
A Damaged Reputation
Everyone in town knew not to trust anything Julia said, so the jury didn't fall for her insanity plea, either. She was found guilty of larceny and served a decade in prison. While she was behind bars, another group of unconventional criminals caused trouble in England...
Stealing From Selfridges
Women loved shopping in London's high-end Selfridges Department Store. They always showed up dressed to the nines in expensive clothing, ready to buy more. However, the clerks were always so distracted by the extravagant outfits that they never thought to look at the women's hands...
"Women of Means"
Women of means were wealthy ladies with extra money that they couldn't wait to spend on expensive clothes and jewelry. Apparently, the taller her hat and the curlier her hair, the wealthier she was. The salespeople were told not to bother those particular shoppers and to just let them wander the store in peace...
A Five-Finger Discount
The salespeople shouldn't have left them completely alone though, because these women weren't paying for any of their items. They were stealing right from the renowned department store, even though they had enough money to outshop any other customer. The women bolted with whatever they could carry, unbeknownst to the staff...
Who Was Diamond Annie?
The ladies of London were some of the most unsuspecting criminals. Their ringleader, a woman named Diamond Annie, was something of a kingpin. She was dripping in money, even if her other cohorts had humbler upbringings...
A Powerful Crime Leader
Diamond Annie wasn't to be messed with. Born Alice Diamond, she picked up the nickname because her hands were always covered in beautiful (and real) diamond rings. She was six feet tall, could punch out even the strongest of men, and was the de facto leader of a powerful London gang...
The Forty Elephants
Diamond's gang, The Forty Elephants, were the slickest of criminals. They could wander through any department store undetected and make out with the most expensive merchandise. They kept their cool during heists and were never caught...
An Unmatched Legacy
The Forty Elephants kept up their charade for years, even being feared by police at one point. However, not all gangs can prosper, and one day Diamond and her crew were caught. However, their story has inspired countless other retellings of powerful women-led gangs, including the latest remake of "Ocean's Eleven," with an all-female cast.