SEPIA SATURDAY- My mother helps convict "The Mad Poet Of Amboy"

My mother's father left his family of five children during the depression. My mother was the oldest so she started working at a very young age.  Her first job was cleaning houses but she worked her way up to being the secretary for the State's Attorney of Lee County, Illinois.  She had gotten a college scholarship after high school but the family didn't have the money for transportation to the college.  

I don't remember her telling us about working for the states attorney or this case but this copy of "Inside Detective" (1935) with her picture in it is with our family photos.

This was an interesting crime story about a poet who apparently killed the girl he was enamored with.

It kind of reminds me of the story I posted about last week. A poet was hit and killed by a school bus while drawing a flower in chalk in the street in front of his girlfriend's house. Well, I guess they're only a tiny bit alike- they both involve a poet and a girlfriend.

I'm not sure when this was taken. Pretty smile, pretty dress!

My mother moved to the big city of Chicago, worked as a secretary there, met and then married my father who was attending The University of Chicago.

The next time she was ever involved in the criminal justice system was about 20 years later when we lived in Pomona, California and she was the secretary to the warden at the California State Prison at Chino.  She had some interesting experiences there, but that will have to wait for another Sepia Saturday.
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