Young, attractive, and respectable, Evelyn Romadka seemed to have everything. Married to Charles Romadka, the millionaire owner of The Romadka Brothers Trunk Manufacturing Company, she had wealth, status and a young child. However, by the end of 1907, Edith’s marriage and reputation were in ruins. For earlier in the year, following a traumatic operation that changed her personality, Mrs. Romadka suddenly disappeared from her family home. In October 1907, her husband finally rediscovered her in Chicago: under arrest with her black ‘lover’ and charged with burglary.
Over the coming month, a scandalous- and extraordinary story began to unfold of an unhappy wife with a growing obsession for romanticized crime stories that led her into crime for kicks. When discovered, those ‘kicks’ cost Evelyn Romadka her marriage, her child and her liberty as well as her wealth and good name. However, even though she was down, Evelyn Romadka was not out, and on her release from prison she resurrected herself as the “Queen of the Vampire Women of Chicago.”
The Lady Vanishes
Evelyn Romadka nee Caine was born in Winnebago sometime in the late nineteenth century. She was the daughter of P J Caine, the owner of a rubber plant in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and before her marriage, she worked as a schoolteacher in a small, local town. One day, on her way to school, she met wealthy businessman Charles Romadka who was on a hunting expedition in the nearby woods. The couple flirted, then courted and finally decided to marry.
Not long after the marriage, Evelyn fell pregnant, and a year later, a daughter was born to her and Charles. However, the birth affected Evelyn badly, and she fell ill. After consulting specialist doctors, Mrs. Romadka underwent an operation. However, she did not fully recover from the trauma of the procedure, and her personality underwent a drastic change. Evelyn herself at her trial described how she developed an obsession with the over romanticised accounts of criminals she encountered in Blake’s yellow pages. According to Evelyn, the stories made her “want to meet real crooks.”
Whatever the cause, Evelyn became disillusioned with her pampered, shielded life. So, in 1907, when her daughter was just five, she left her family and her home and fled to Chicago where she made the Victoria Hotel her base. It was in the Victoria that Evelyn met Albert Jones, a hotel cleaner. According to Evelyn’s account, one day she chanced to ask Jones for the time. In response, he drew a lady’s pocket watch from his pocket. The inappropriate item and Jones’s furtive look were not lost on Evelyn. “A strange thrill crept over me, ” Evelyn explained at her trial, “Here I was, face to face with my dreams.”
Meanwhile, that September Labor Day, a Mr. and Mrs. Beck of 5520 South Park Avenue, Chicago chanced to leave their home without adequately securing the front door. Unknown to them, someone had observed their slip up, and they returned home to discover every room ransacked and a substantial alligator skin pocket book containing more than $1000 worth of jewels missing. The Becks immediately notified the Chicago police and furnished them with a description of the missing items. A Lieutenant Larkin was assigned to investigate the crime.
It was while Larkin was dining in the fashionable Baltimore Inn that he chanced upon the lead that led to the culprit’s arrest. For he happened to notice something odd about the couple at a nearby table. On the face of it, they were nothing unusual for the Baltimore, just a Chicago businessman dining with a well-dressed lady companion. However, the lady was carrying a pocketbook that exactly matched the description of the one stolen from the Becks. Larkin followed the lady once she left the café and discovered her to be Mrs. Evelyn Romadka.