A well played sketch on the vaudeville stage in which a woman purloined everything in sight and escaped detection was the Influence that caused Rosa Buser, alias Mary Moll, the “woman Raffles,” to abandon a life of rectitude and embark on a short-lived career of crime, according to the story told by her to her attorney, George F. McCullough, and which, it is believed, she will repeat when her case is heard finally in Judge Davis’ criminal court.
The woman was arraigned in Judge Davis’ court yesterday on a charge of burglary, for the alleged theft of a number of articles of jewelry from the home of Frederick Nelson November 26. Whether she will admit or deny her guilt will be known January 12. when she again appears to plead to the charge.
“I believe the woman is a victim of the power of suggestion,” said her attorney yesterday. “Incidentally I believe she is mentally unbalanced. She tells me the first time the desire to commit burglary entered her mind was when she attended a matinee at a local vaudeville house and saw an actress mystify any number of detectives by the manner in which she hid all traces of her thefts. Miss Buser thought she could do as well, and tried it,”
Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, CA, January 5, 1910