…fascinating, but dangerous
The Doclopedia #2,478
Pulp Villain Snapshots: The Siren Of Death
Real Name: Frieda Hollingsworth
Location: Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco
Modus Operandi: Seducing men and women into committing crimes, then killing them afterward.
Career Synopsis: The Siren was the product of a white father and a black mother, both of them poor restaurant workers on the South Side of Chicago. She was born in 1910 and her parents never married. She grew up in her grandparents home in New Orleans. A strikingly beautiful and highly intelligent person, she quickly learned how to manipulate people, especially males.
She left home at age 14 and headed back to the city of her birth. On the train, she met 18 year old Hawley Brooker and by the time they got to Chicago she had totally seduced him. She quickly set about convincing him to do a series of robberies of bagmen who worked for Al Capone. While this netted them several thousand dollars, the third time got Hawley shot dead. When he did not come home that night, Frieda packed up and left town.
From there, she went to New York, where she spent three years and ran through 5 lovers two of whome she married and heavily insured. After that, she moved on to California, where she increased her schemes to include blackmail, spying, big time thefts, and even murder for hire. She also broadened her repertoire to include women.
By 1936, the Siren of Death was on the radar of police, the FBI and several crimefighters. This only made her choose her lovers more carefully and make her plans bigger. In the fall of that year, she moved back to New Orleans and set about seducing the son of an important US Senator, all in a scheme to sell military secrets to the Germans.
She got the secrets, then told her lover that she had sent a full confession detailing what he had done to the FBI. As she was heading toward the door, she told the young man that there was poison on the table, and he should drink it.
Unfortunately for her, her lover was carrying a .38 pistol in his pocket and he shot her 4 times in the back before she could open the door. Later, he confessed all to the police, but they and his father arranged to make it look like a carefully laid trap. He was awarded a medal by the Governor. The Siren of Death was cremated and her ashes dumped in a bayou.
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