Woman in Black

I've heard stores about the "lady in black" and even a couple about the "lady in white". This however is the first one that I've heard where a police chief and an additional fifty men try and capture the "women in black".   

May 18, 1914

Times-Picayune

New Orleans, LA

SCARY-EYED WOMAN

PUTS TOWN TO BED

Moves Rapidly Toward Folk

on Streets at Night,

Natives Say

Wilkesbarre, Pa., May 17 – Watsontown, a borough with 2500 inhabitants, is terrorized by the presence of a mysterious “woman in black” whose long waving arms and “big black, scary eyes” have given the town a deserted appearance with the coming of darkness each night.  

Chief of Police Ulrich and the head of fifty men, scored the town in quest of the mysterious woman. They worked until dawn without having laid hands upon her. Several of the men reported having seen her, but in their reports to the chief they allege that just as they were about to close in on her she vanished in the darkness.

While the “woman in black” has been seen in all parts of the town, she made her appearance in the aristocratic section, making Second and Third streets her tramping grounds. From 10 o’clock until long after midnight she spooked about this section, and members of some of the leading families in town reported having seen her.

In telling Chief Ulrich of their experience, these persons said that the woman wore a long black cloak, and as she approached them the cloak fell back on her shoulders.

With her arms waving and her “scary eyes” fastened upon those she approached, she moved rapidly forward, but not with sufficient speed to get anywhere near the men and women, who turned on their heels and broke sprinting records to their homes.