Baroness May Dugas de
Pallandt van Eerde (1901)
Dear George,
My hometown
of Menominee, Michigan, has a remarkable history, and a surprising amount of
information is available online.
For some time I’ve been interested in reading about various Menominee
citizens dating back to the lumber boom era of the late 1800’s. None is more colorful and intriguing
than the story of May Dugas, later the Baroness de Pallandt van Erde. She was described by a Pinkerton
detective as “the most dangerous woman in the world.” (1) [note: numbers in parentheses refer to sources at
end.] The Baroness’s life history
was recorded in a series of Chicago Tribune newspaper stories written by
reporter Lloyd Wendt and published in 1946 and 1947. My summary here draws primarily from the Tribune articles,
supplemented by other sources given at the end.
May Dugas was
born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on May 23, 1869. Her parents, Eugene and
Sophie Dugas, were French--Canadian immigrants, and they had two sons in
addition to May, Paul and Eugene.
By 1880 the family had moved to Muskegon, Mich., where May’s father was
a saloonkeeper. He died about
1884, and May then moved with her family to Menominee. May reportedly was
strictly reared and was known as an excellent student at Menominee High
School. After graduating she left her family and moved on her own to
Chicago. Nothing is known of May's first months in Chicago, but she soon
became a prostitute in Carrie Watson's bordello in Chicago’s levee district,
taking the name of Pauline Davidson. (1, 13)
In the late
1800’s Watson’s brothel at 441 S. Clark St. in Chicago was one of the best
known houses of ill repute in the world. The establishment was famous for
its trained parrot who greeted incoming patrons at the front door by saying,
“Carrie Watson – come in, gentlemen.” Watson typically employed
about 25 well-dressed, well-mannered, and highly attractive ladies of the night
who catered to an upper-class clientele.
The house featured a bowling alley, a billiard room, five parlors, and a
three-piece orchestra. (11)
"Pauline"
was beautiful and enticing to men, and, with the collaboration of a piano
player friend in the brothel, she began blackmailing some of her wealthy
clients in exchange for her silence about their activities. In a short
time she had accumulated enough money to buy a business in Menominee. She sent her pianist accomplice there
to establish himself as a legitimate businessman. He quickly became
successful and wellknown throughout the U.P. Pauline, meanwhile, was
taking university courses in psychology, French, and business law, to enhance
her abilities to attract rich and powerful men. She was considered a
brilliant student in her studies. (1)
By all
accounts, May Dugas was intelligent, beautiful, polished, and had a remarkable
ability for entrancing and entrapping upper class men. Her long-time friend, Miss Frank Gray
Shaver, gave this description: "She was a woman of beautiful face and
figure, attractive and charming, always well and becomingly attired. She
had much ability and great magnetic power, a strong will and keen wit.
She was a delightful entertainer." (1)
Pauline soon
became a favorite at society balls and parties in Chicago. She was
accepted by the city’s young wealthy social set, and two daughters of an
automobile manufacturer sponsored her wherever she went. A young man from a very rich family fell in love with
Pauline and proposed marriage, but his father hired a Pinkerton detective, Joe
Edwards, to investigate her.
Edwards set up a scam to trap her into illegal dealings, and, when
Pauline fell for the trick, he ordered her to leave town. Pauline did so, but not before securing
$20,000 from her potential fiance's father to insure her silence. Changing
her name to Pauline Townsend, she left for New York City and then to brothels
in Portland and San Francisco. Arrested for attempting to rob a rich
suitor in San Francisco, Pauline seduced a jailer and escaped after a single
night in jail, setting off by ocean liner for China. (1, 3)
In
Shanghai Dugas had a love affair with a British mining executive and
blackmailed him for $25,000. Then
she took up an affair with a young American in Tokyo who spent enormous sums on
her. When Joe Edwards, the
Pinkerton detective, discovered her and intervened, she left the young
American. He died several months
later, presumably of suicide resulting from heartbreak, though one of the
coroners concluded he had been murdered. (14)
In about 1891 May Dugas met
Baron Rudolph van Eerde in London, and they married in 1892 at his estate in
the Netherlands. May Dugas was now
a Baroness at age 23. The couple
divided their time between Castle Eerde in Holland and London, where the
Baroness enjoyed life in the royal and high society circles. Tiring after several years from her
long absences, the Baron eventually pressed for a divorce, and, though the
Baroness would not agree to a divorce, they signed a deed of separation in 1899
which provided for her annual support.
When the Baron died, the Baroness inherited his fortune. She also
inherited a family fortune from her sister-in-law, the Baroness Groeninx van
Zoelen of Amsterdam. From all her
various blackmail, fraud, extortion, inheritance, and business ventures the
Baroness earned $2 million over the course of her career (about $12 million in
today’s currency). She owned property in England, Australia, and the
United States, as well as country places in southern France, in Algeria, and
near Paris. Menominee remained her
U.S. home. (7)
Around the
turn of the century, May Dugas’ brother Gene arrived in Menominee.
According to a New York Herald article (12), Gene was a handsome dark haired
young man who wore big city clothes and an elegant assortment of
diamonds. “He didn’t seem to have anything to do particularly, except
ramble around, which he did to a vivid perfection.” About a year later,
his sister – the Baroness de Pallandt – arrived on the Copper Country Limited
10:42 A.M. train. The Herald wrote, “She was dressed as they do not dress
ordinarily in Menominee, and she carried a few jewels that made the collection
worn by Mr. Dugas, who met her, look like a modest shroud.” Her brother
was waiting her at the Menominee depot in the Baroness’ shiny Renault, driven
by her liveried chauffeur who she had sent ahead. The Baroness declined
social invitations except for a few from the city’s elite. Menominee
women were thrilled by the arrival of nobility to their town, though “they
quickly discovered that the Baroness regarded them as mere peasantry” (5)
Every day she walked down Ogden Avenue, through the Courthouse park and to Main
St. (now First St.), wearing different Parisian dresses and new jewels.
She regularly spent time in Menominee for the next ten to fifteen years, living
with her family and looking increasingly elegant. When she was in town,
local dressmakers gathered around the Courthouse and in front of a nearby
furniture store in the morning so they could get fashion ideas when the
Baroness walked by. (12)
The Baroness
had bought a large home in Menominee for her mother at the corner of Stephenson
Ave. and State St. (now 14th Ave. and 7th St.) and had had it rebuilt and
furnished at a cost of $30,000 (about $230,000 in today’s dollars). The
house was known locally as the “mystery palace” or the “house of
mystery.” Her brothers Paul and Gene lived there as well as her mother
and an older man named Joseph King who later claimed to be Mrs. Dugas’ common
law husband, and it was the Baroness’ home when she was in the United
States. The house reportedly had secret passageways and panels, was
filled with exotic artifacts from around the world, and had a tunnel that connected
the house with the servants’ quarters and stables in the rear. (8)
(4) The Baroness hired a Menominee lawyer, Miss Frank Gray Shaver, to
represent her American interests, and she also enlisted a young woman named
Belle (Daisy) Andrews in Chicago to be her companion. Miss Frank Gray
Shaver moved into the Dugas home on Stephenson Avenue where she assisted
members of the family in whatever they needed. (5, 9)
Though there
was considerable wealth in Menominee due to the lumber boom, the Baroness
confided to a friend that she found the town stuffy. When a high school
acquaintance mentioned her early boyfriend, Fred Stephenson, who was an heir to
the Stephenson lumber fortune, the Baroness replied, “Poor Fred, he couldn’t
buy my shoes.” (5) After her arrival in Menominee she bought an
automobile agency for her brother Paul, a quiet man who preferred hunting and
fishing to business. For her favorite brother Gene, she bought a resort
hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Rumors about
the Baroness circulated in Menominee. Some wondered if she were really a
baroness. Though her brother had
an apparent local accent, the Baroness spoke with a European accent which
intimated nobility. On one
occasion a visitor from Chicago told several prominent people that May Dugas
had been a prostitute in the Carrie Watson house in Chicago. (8)
When May
learned that Miss Frank Gray Shaver was about to inherit $375,000 from her
Pittsburgh father’s estate, she invited Frank to accompany her on a world tour,
and Frank, thrilled by the Baroness’ attention, signed over 200 shares of
Westinghouse stock to her and made the Baroness the beneficiary of her
will. According to Lloyd Wendt, when May left for Hot Springs “the
Menominee housewives sighed their relief. At least they could cease
watching their husbands and get some attention from the dressmakers the
Baroness had been monopolizing.”
(5)
Eventually
trouble for the Baroness developed in Menominee. Miss Frank Gray Shaver
had spent most of her $375,000 fortune on her, and she finally began to realize
that she had been swindled by the woman she had adored for years. She
told a Menominee friend, “The Baroness de Pallandt is nothing but a street
walker.” Miss Shaver
employed Menominee attorney Alvah Littlefield Sawyer and his son, Meredith P.
Sawyer, as her counsel in a lawsuit in Menominee’s circuit court. (8)
Miss
Frank Gray Shaver had come to Menominee in 1902 after completing her law degree
at the University of Michigan. She
selected Menominee because she enjoyed hunting and fishing. According to Lloyd Wendt, she was
"a big, hearty, masculine sort of woman, affable and outspoken, fond of
outdoor sports" (9). She was
very popular in Menominee’s social circles. Though it was extremely rare for women at that time, she had
run for political office a few years before the trial and had nearly won. She proclaimed in her campaign speeches
that she was "all wool and a yard wide." (9)
The Baroness' trial was
held on a snowy day in January 1917 in the Menominee courtroom of Judge Richard
C. Flannigan. The courtroom was
packed with big city newsmen and women from Menominee and Marinette. The Baroness who had traveled from
California a few days earlier brought along her pet bulldog, Tokyo, who wore a
red coat with a fur trimmed collar.
The Baroness wore a Scottish tweed suit and a heavy veil "to keep
the vulgar people from looking at me" (9).
Miss
Shaver testified that she had paid the household expenses for the Dugas family
in Menominee and, to save the Baroness from being victimized by unscrupulous
males, had bought her numerous jewels: a string of pearls ($15,000), a diamond
ring ($6,000), a 17 carat white diamond ($12,000), a diamond pendant ($8,000),
a platinum neckpiece containing 688 tiny diamonds ($12,000), and a black pearl
worth $50,000. When Miss Shaver
accompanied the Baroness on her tours, she paid all the bills for the two, and
she signed over stock shares to provide the Baroness with annual dividends. Despite these and many more gifts and
financial contributions, Miss Shaver testified that she was treated atrociously
by the Baroness's brothers and was eventually forced out of the Stephenson
Avenue household. Miss
Shaver, however, hadn't blamed the Baroness and, in fact, continued to travel
with her and provide gifts and pay expenses. Ultimately Miss Shaver determined that the Baroness had
acted in bad faith, and she had brought her lawsuit to recoup a portion of her
losses. (9)
When
the Baroness took the stand at the trial she admitted receiving many gifts from
Miss Shaver, but she denied that any fraud had been involved or that she owed
Miss Shaver any money. In his
cross-examination attorney A.L. Sawyer brought up her many romantic trysts with
wealthy men and her association with the brothel in San Francisco. Overwrought, the Baroness collapsed on
the stand, and the trial was temporarily halted. The Baroness never did return to the stand, and the jury
found in favor of Miss Shaver, awarding her a $70,000 judgment. To avoid paying, the Baroness attempted
to take an oath of poverty, but she eventually repaid $13,515. (9)
After
the Menominee trial, the Baroness renewed a romance with Lord Powerscourt
Allen, a member of a prominent Irish family, and she returned to Europe where
she was welcomed by royal society.
Less is known of the Baroness’s later years. She adopted a baby boy in 1917, naming him John Andrew van
Eerde, and he traveled with her in summers in Europe, graduated from Harvard,
and became a Professor of Romance Languages at Lehigh University. The Baroness returned from Europe to
seek medical treatment for cancer in New York City, and she died there on March
10, 1937. She is buried in
the Celebrity Catholic Cemetery in Westchester County. (14)
My
dad was a young kid and my grandparents were in their early 40’s at the time of
the Baroness’s trial. Living
there, I’m sure they were well aware of the Baroness, and, who knows, they
might even have met her. In any
case, it’s quite astonishing how May Dugas proceeded from her humble background
in Menominee to the social circles of the royalty and high society in Europe
and Asia. Her methods may have not
been conventional, but she was clearly one of the most extraordinary people to
have come from our town.
Love,
Dave
Sources: (1) www.archives.chicagotribute.com, "Queen of the Blackmailers" (11-10-46, pp.
8, 21; by Lloyd Wendt); (2) www.archives.chicagotribute.com, “Siren’s Song: Blackmail” (11-24-46, pp. 12, 21); (3)
www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “Most Dangerous Woman in the world” (12-1-46, pp. 7,
22); (4) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “The Pearls of Pauline” (12-8-46, pp. 8, 21); (5) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “Blackmail and the Baroness” (12-15-46, pp. 9); (6) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “Siren South of the Border” (12-29-46, p. 69); (7) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “The Baroness’ past is presented” (1-5-47, p.
11); (8) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “Pretty Petty Swindler” (1-12-47, pp. 10, 23); (9) www.archives.chicagotribune.com, “Curtains for a Con Woman” (1-19-47, pp. 9, 20);
(10) www.archives.chicagotribune.com “Syndicate of Sinners” (1-26-47, p. 10);
(11) www.chicagocrimescenes.blogspot.com, “Carrie Watson – come in, Gentlemen”; (12) www.fultonhistory.com, “Menominee gasps as its Baroness mystery clears” (NY
Herald, 1-22-14, p. 22); (13) www.goodreads.com, Photo of Baroness de Pallandt from “The Commercial
Advertiser,” New York, Aug. 10, 1901; photographer: Alme Dupont; (14) www.wikipedia.org, “May Dugas de Pallandt van Erde”
No comments:
Post a Comment