WOMEN MOBSTERS & THEIR GANG (2): SOPHIE LYONS
SOPHIE LYONS (December 22, 1847–May 8, 1924) was an American criminal and one of the country’s most notorious female thieves, pickpockets, shoplifters, and confidence women during the mid-to-late 19th century. She was born in Lauben, Germany. She was known as Madame de Varney, Sophia Lyons, Sophie Lyons-Burke, and Mary Watson. She was married to: Maury Harris, Ned Lyons, Jim Brady, and Billy Burke (a criminal), and she had 7 children.
She and her husbands: Ned Lyons, Jim Brady, and Billy Burke were among the most sought-after career criminals in the U.S. and Canada, wanted in several major cities including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, and Montreal from the 1860s until the turn of the 20th century.
She and Lyons were prominent underworld figures in New York City during the American Civil War era as associates of Marm Mandelbaum. She was a member of Mandelbaum’s “inner circle” during the 1860s and 1870s. She eventually retired from criminal life and spent her later years involved in the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents, and providing financial assistance and housing for reformed criminals and their families. Her autobiography, “Why Crime Does Not Pay” (1913), was published and distributed by the famous publisher William Randolph Hearst.
She was Jewish and was born in Lauber, Germany, on December 22, 1847. Her mother taught her to pickpocket and shoplift and forced her out into the streets to steal. Lyons claimed she had first been caught stealing at the age of three and was tried at the Essex Market police court, and she was again arrested for shoplifting at the age of 12. During her youth, she became known as a skilled pickpocket and a confidence woman.
Lyons married another pickpocket, Maury Harris when she was 16, but the marriage ended when Harris was arrested and sentenced to New York State Prison for two years. She was considered a consummate actress who, even when caught by her victim, was able to “counterfeit every shade of emotion” to persuade them to release her. According to one incident in 1880, she was able to convince a store detective that she suffered from kleptomania.
Lyons eventually married Ned Lyons, known then as the “King of the Bank Robbers”, and Sophie had six children during this marriage. Two years after their marriage, Ned was able to purchase a home from his share in a major bank robbery. Although he tried to discourage Lyons from pickpocketing, she continued to do so. In 1870 Ned was caught during an attempted bank robbery in Wyoming County, New York, and sent to Auburn Correctional Facility. Sophie pulled strings to get him moved to Sing Sing Prison, where security was laxer. Soon she was convicted of shoplifting and sent to Sing Sing herself in 1871. Using a disguise, Ned escaped from the prison in 1872. He returned a few weeks later and helped his wife escape and they fled to Canada with their children.
Her oldest son, 14-year-old George, returned to New York and began frequenting underworld resorts, including Dan Kerrigan’s infamous Sixth Street Saloon, where he performed as a singer and associated with known criminals.
By 1880 Lyons had split from Ned and moved her base of criminal operations to Detroit, partly due to the city’s proximity to Canada. She spent much of the 1890s in the Midwest as a member of a burglary gang led by Billy Burke, whom she would later marry. She returned to New York in 1895 and, after her arrest by police, she was put under close police surveillance by Brooklyn detectives.
On the afternoon of June 21, 1896, Lyons entered a dry goods store on 6th Avenue and 14th Street. Using the alias Mary Watson, she was approached by Plunkett, a store detective who recognized her and informed her she was wanted by the local police. When Lyons dismissed her, Plunkett grabbed her arm, attempting to bring her in by force. A crowd began to gather as the argument escalated. Plunkett told the crowd that “one of the most notorious pickpockets in the world” was standing before them. At that point, Lyons got free and left the store with the detective in pursuit. Plunkett pursued Lyons onto a streetcar, where she informed the driver that Lyons was wanted by police. The driver allowed Lyons onto the streetcar replying that it was none of his business. As they reached 18th Street, Plunkett was able to call two patrolmen and had Lyons placed under arrest.
Lyons refused to be taken back to the dry goods store, insisting that she be searched to prove her innocence but was instead arrested and taken to the Mercer Street police station. She was held at the precinct until her arraignment at the Jefferson Market police court on June 22, when she was charged with the theft of a pocketbook from an unknown woman in New Jersey which contained $12 and a railroad ticket, and it was requested by the court that she be remanded in custody. Her lawyer, Emanuel Friend, successfully argued for her release by pointing out the largely vague circumstances of the charges and the absence of the store detective. The magistrate agreed that the city had no evidence to prosecute Lyons and dismissed her case.
Following her “retirement” from crime in 1913, Lyons wrote her memoir “Why Crime Does Not Pay”, and became a known philanthropist and prison reformer in Detroit. She also owned 40 houses, not including vacant property, due to real estate and business investments worth $500,000 (equivalent to $13.7 million in 2021) She publicly offered to provide rent-free homes for any criminals with families who were brought to Detroit by the Pathfinders’ Club reform group. On February 2, 1916, she announced at the Pathfinders’ annual dinner that she would be donating land worth $35,000 to establish a building for juvenile delinquents.
The Pathfinders’ Club operated a similar “character building” facility at Lafayette Boulevard on 24th Street. Lyons specified that the gift was offered on the following condition: “The home is to be devoted to the work of convincing children who have begun to be criminals that they have chosen the wrong path, and also to training them so that they will have the strength to go alright. A secondary purpose is to provide a place in which adults who have fallen into crime may get a new start in life.”
In July 1922, the 74-year-old Lyons discovered that her house had been robbed of between $6,000 and $7,000 in bonds and $13,000 in diamonds. She had returned home after a day trip to Put-in-Bay to find her house “ransacked and the floor strewn with empty boxes, books, and other articles”. She claimed the diamonds were a gift from her son, who had recently died in Seattle. She commented to reporters, “I have no idea who did the ‘job,’ and I am unhappy to think that men would do such a thing to an old woman who devotes a large income to prison relief work.” She died on May 8, 1924, at the age of 76.
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