Month: January 2021

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Hostess Cupcakes – Homemade!

Cake Recipes - Homemade Hostess Cupcakes
Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Who doesn’t love a Hostess Cupcake!! The dense chocolate cake, the creamy filling, the ganache topping and then the adorable little squiggle on top!

These take a little time to make. They aren’t difficult, just a lot of steps for each element. They are worth the effort!

I have included some hacks that you can use at the end which will speed up the process and have very little effect on the quality!

Enjoy!

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Hostess Cup Cakes

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes
Print Recipe

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Homemade version of Hostess Cupcakes that were first distributed in 1919!  The perfect sweet treat while watching True Crime!

  • Author: cwisdom@scandalsandsweets.com

Ingredients

Cupcake

2 Cups Water, boiling
1 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder, Dark – I used Hershey’s Special Dark
2 3/4 Cups All-purpose flour, Sifted – You can skip this but it makes a lighter fluffier cake
2 Teaspoons Baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Butter, softened
2 1/4 Cups Sugar
4 large Eggs
1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling

2 Cups marshmallow cream topping
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Powdered sugar
1 Splash Heavy cream

Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

White Icing Swirls

2 Cups Powdered Sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons Warm Water
1 1/2 Tablespoons Meringue Powder

Instructions

For the Cupcake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
 In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth.
Let mixture cool.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture.
Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, or till a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool thoroughly.

For the Filling

Add butter and marshmallow creme in a mixing bow and beat with mixer on medium speed till really soft and airy.
Cut back the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar.
After it’s all been combined, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for one to two minutes more, or till very light and airy.
Fill a Piping Bag using a large tip.

For the Chocolate Glaze

Heat cream until it comes to a simmer.
Put Chocolate Chips in a bowl.
Pour cream over chocolate chips.
Let sit for a couple of minutes until the chocolate chips start to melt.
Gently whisk until a smooth shiny ganache forms, let stand 5 – 10 minutes until it thickens.

Construction

After the cupcakes have cooled, there are a couple of  methods to fill them. 
You can just pipe the filling into the cupcake using a large tip on the piping bag. 
You can use a Melon Baller to carve out some of the cake fill it and replace the cake.
Using your preferred method fill the cupcakes.
Then dip the cupcakes in the ganache.
Allow the ganache to harden completely. 
You may want to put them in the refrigerator to speed it along a little.
After the ganache has hardened using the handwriting tip on the piping bag pipe on the swirls.

Notes

These are truly delicious, but there are a lot of steps and it does take some time and a lot of ingredients.  Here are some shortcuts that you can use to speed the process up a little bit.

You can use a Devil’s Food Cake Mix for the Cup Cakes.

You can use Cool Whip for the filling, if you do this you absolutely have to refrigerate them.

Sorry, no help for the ganache.

For the White Swirls on top, Wilton makes White Royal Icing in a tube that you can use most grocery stores have it and so does Michael’s.

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Joyce’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

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Cake Recipes - Joyce's Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake! This is my daughter Joyce’s recipe .  Oh my goodness!  It is so delicious with the caramelized butter, brown sugar, and fruit juices!  The cake is light and flavorful!  Not to mention it has Pineapples and Cherries!! Yummy!

Ingredients:

12 Pineapple Slices, This will be 2-3 cans
12 Maraschino cherries, stems removed
3 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 Box Yellow Cake mix
1 Box Vanilla Instant Pudding
1 Cup Pineapple juice, From cans
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Whole Eggs

Directions to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake:

Preheat Oven to 350
Add melted butter to cast iron skillet or 9 inch round cake pan
Sprinkle Brown Sugar over melted butter
Place Pineapple in whatever pattern you like adding cherries either to the center or between slices or both!
Mix Cake mix with Pineapple Juice, pudding, vegetable oil and eggs
Pour over Pineapple
Bake 40-45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean
Let cool 5-10 minutes, flip on to plate
Do not let cool more than this or you will NEVER get it out!

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Agatha Christie – Queen of Mystery

Agatha Christie - Queen of Mystery
Archibald Christie

Agatha Christie is the author of more than 75 novels, numerous short stories and the longest running play in the world, that only stopped running because of the COVID-19 pandemic when it was forced to close in March 2020 after running since October 1956.  

More intriguing than any of her mysteries is the true story of the disappearance of Dame Agatha Christie herself!  In 1926 Agatha Christie disappeared for two weeks and had the whole world looking for her, particularly the people of England.

Agatha Christie's childhood and youth

Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 to an American father, Frederick Miller, and Clara Miller.  Agatha was the youngest of three children.  When Agatha was 11 and they were in France, her father died from a series of heart attacks.  Clara was distraught and Agatha became her constant companion.   Clara’s health was declining so Clara and Agatha took off for Egypt in 1910 where they spent 3 months in Cairo. 

In 1912 Agatha met Archie Christie an aviator who was trying to join the Royal Flying Corps.  They were married on Christmas Eve in 1914, and on the 27th Archie returned to France to fight in World War I.  Agatha was working in the Red Cross Hospital in her hometown of Torquay.  Agatha took the examination of Society of Apothecaries and became licensed to dispense drugs.  It is from here that she learned all her knowledge of poisons. 

Clara died in 1926 and Agatha was devastated.  There were rumors that she had gone to a resort in Biarritz to recover.  On her return in August, Archibald had asked Agatha for a divorce.  He had fallen in love with Nancy Neele.  On December 3 Archibald and Agatha had an argument and Archibald left saying he was going to go stay with friends. Agatha left on her own moonlit drive.

Agatha Vanishes

Agatha Disappears!

Agatha left her home on Friday, December 3 for a moonlit drive.  She told her secretary, Carlo that she would call him on Saturday but did not tell him where she was going.  On Saturday, her car was found by a country boy where it overhung a cliff at Newlands Corner.  There were no traces of Agatha.  She had left her fur coat, a suitcase with some clothing and briefcase with unimportant papers in the car.  Her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie went to London to get Scotland Yard on the search. 

Col. Christie told the press, “My wife did not tell me that she was leaving home on Friday night.  She had not been in the habit of taking night rides alone in her automobile.  The only explanation I can give is that she is suffering from loss of memory.  My wife had a serious nervous breakdown last Spring and had recuperated in Paris.” 

Agatha’s literary agents said that she had spoken to them on Thursday and seemed to be in good health.  She told them that she hoped to get caught up since she was behind from her breakdown earlier in the year. 

Physicians surmise that Agatha was depressed because of the death of her mother, her fear that she was losing her inspiration for her novels, and because she had been left alone too long in her home Sunningdale.  One of her friends reported that she had said, “Unless I can get away from Sunningdale it will be the end.”

The Search

Agatha Clarisse Christie still missing for more than a week.  Thousands of people are searching for her, over 15,000 civilians and 100 policemen.  The Volunteers consisting of bicyclers, motorists, and hikers, many of the hikers had bloodhounds. 

Police consult Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who in addition to authoring the Sherlock Holmes novels was also a physician.  No comment from Doyle was made public, although it was said that he gave one of her gloves to a psychic so that she could find Agatha.  It was also announced that Agatha had written a letter to her husband before her departure that the police had. 

Agatha Christie is found on December 14, 1926.  She was found in Harrogate in a hydropathic hotel registered under the name of Mrs. Theresa Neele of Cape Town, South Africa. 

Agatha and Clarice

Agatha Found!

Col. Christie again spoke to the press, “There is no question about her identity.  She is my wife, but she has suffered a complete loss of memory, and I do not think she knows who she is.  She does not know me and she does not know where she is.  I am hoping that rest and quiet will restore her.  I expect to take her to London tomorrow to see her doctors and specialists. ” 

The hotel management said that she was a popular guest.  While in Harrogate she sang, danced and played billiards.  Some of the other guests that had become acquainted with her said she had been around town and seemed perfectly normal. 

The manager of the hotel described the first meeting between Col. Christie and Agatha as pathetic.  The colonel was sitting in the lobby watching the arrival of guests when he saw his wife arrive.  Agatha took a flyer containing her picture and the details of the searches for her.  He approached her and witnesses say she said, “Hello Archibald, how are you.”

Although others said she didn’t recognize him.    They went to the dining room where they had dinner and conversation.  A maid in the hotel that recognized Agatha from the pictures that were circulating.  She contacted hotel management who called the police.

Agatha Christie - Mystery Author

Agatha left with her sister to return to her sister’s home, Abney Hall in Cheadle.  There she was examined by Dr. Donald Core and Dr. Henry Wilson. 

They issued a news bulletin, “After a careful examination of Mrs. Agatha Christie this afternoon, we have formed the opinion that she is suffering from an unquestionably genuine loss of memory, and that for her future welfare she should be spared all anxiety and excitement.”  Colonel Christie told the press that she would probably stay at Abney Hall for a few months.

Two musicians from the hotel where Agatha was found received silver cigarette cases with a note thanking them and signed A. Christie.  Agatha with her daughter and her secretary sailed to Las Palmas, Canary Islands where she recovered for three months.  On her return Agatha filed for divorce.  Agatha’s divorce from Archibald was final in October 1928.  Archibald married Nancy Neele a week after the divorce was final. 

The public was up in arms!  It made no sense to most people that Agatha would leave her car in the middle of the night to travel almost 170 miles to Harrogate, check into a hotel under the name of her husband’s mistress and conduct a social life.  

It was especially thought to be something other than memory loss when Archie spoke to the press.  “I never called for the assistance of the press or the police.  I suppose the police were only doing their duty; although I think they must have been egged on by the newspaper headlines.  I never wanted them to search for my wife on such a big scale for I had no doubt she was suffering from loss of memory.”

Regardless, it remains a mystery.  Years later Agatha wrote her autobiography and nothing at all was mentioned by her at all.  The Queen of Mystery remains the Queen in both fiction and fact.

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Kitty Malm – The REAL Go-to-Hell Kitty

Kitty Malm - The REAL Go to Hell Kitty

The fourth real criminal that gave Maurine Dallas Watkins inspiration for her book and play Chicago, is Kitty Malm, the “Tiger Girl”.  In the movie she is played by Lucy Liu and called “Go To Hell Kitty”.  She had a much larger part in the original book.  She was called by the newspapers a Defiant Flapper, the Tiger Girl and the Wolf Woman.

Kitty was born in Austria and the family immigrated to the United States when she was 7 riding in steerage on a ship.  The fifth grade was as far as she went in school.  She then went to work in machine factory where her mother worked.  

When she was 15, she married Max Baluk who she told reporters, “Finally Max Baluk, the Russian in the factory, he married me in 1921.  Then I learned what rotten names a bad man can call his wife.” 

She gave birth to her daughter two years later.  When she left her husband Baluk she sent baby “Tootie” to her mother and paid her $15 a week to take care of her.  Kitty Malm further told reporters, “I didn’t go home.  My stepfather called me worse names than my husband did.  But the baby was safe while I was working as a waitress. “

Kitty then went on to explain that she had asked Otto Malm to pose as her husband and to “smash the face of a dirty man down the street who’s tryin’ to steal my kid.”  Otto did and the two went into partnership, Otto calling Kitty, “Sweetheart”.  He showered baby Tootie with luxuries, clothes, toys, food, whatever Kitty wanted.  Together along with Eric Noren and a changeable gang, they robbed a variety of places.

Otto Malm
Blonde Kitty Beck

On November 5, 1923 an amateur night watchman, Edward Lehman was shot and killed during a holdup of the Delson Knitting Works.  Also included in the loot from the Delson Knitting Works was $100 worth of baby clothes for baby Tootie.

There were four suspects, three were arrested “Blonde Kitty”, Ethel Beck, an 18-year-old from the north side and Walter Bockleman, the head of a small gang of robbers. 

The third suspect was Otto Malm.   Malm had been sentenced twelve years before for the murder of a tailor, Andrew Jensen, he was sentenced to Pontiac Reformatory from which he escaped.   

Otto  was arrested for the robbery of a butcher shop and while he was being questioned about the robbery, he confessed to the murder of Edward Lehman, although he was sure that it was Kitty’s bullet that killed Lehman.  He also confessed to many robberies including the theft of a dining room suite for their bungalow, a bedroom suite also for their home, furs and baby clothes.

The fourth was the “Tiger Woman”, Kitty Malm, Otto’s common law wife.  Kitty was shot in the head during the hold-up and Otto threw her into the car that Eric Noren was driving. 

Otto with police

The police returned to the house where Otto and Kitty were living and were refused entrance.  Deputy Sherriff Louis Flentye ordered policeman to guard the front and back while he went back to the station to see what to do.  While he was gone Kitty and Victor McCarthy left from the back door and went to a Boarding House in Indianapolis. 

The police were inside of the apartment, not guarding the doors as ordered and shot at Flentye when he returned thinking he was McCarthy, they fired six or eight shots over his head and as he ran for his life, they arrested him and took him back to the station in the paddy wagon.  Sherriff Morgan was indignant and made a formal complaint to the Police Chief, Morgan Collins.  The police involved were suspended.

Police were on the hunt for Kitty.  The Chief of Police issued a shoot-to-kill order to all the Chicago policemen.  The reason he did was that her “husband”, Otto told them that she had her “gat” with her.  Otto her husband confessed to shooting Edward Lehman but also confessed that Kitty shot at him too.  19-year-old Kitty was desperate and on the run. 

With Otto in jail, police took custody of their two-year-old daughter Tootie.  Kitty turned herself in so that she could see her baby. 

Belva Gaertner and Kitty Malm

Belva and Kitty playing Cards on Murderess Row

Police are totally confused.  Otto and Kitty “The Tiger Girl” confessed to murdering Edward Lehman, however, “Kitty the Blonde” swears that she and Bockelman did it. Bockelman claims innocence, that he was at a crap game at the time of the shooting.   All the confessions at some point have been repudiated, and Lehman on his death bed accused Bockelman of shooting him.  Kitty “The Tiger Girl” admits to committing the robbery but swears she didn’t shoot the night watchman.  So, the police are going to turn everything over to the Grand Jury. 

Otto and Kitty are put on suicide watch in the jail.  Kitty had tried to hang herself by twisting a sheet into a rope, tying it to the upper rung of her cell, and jumping off a chair.  A female guard found her hanging and her face turned black and the matron cut her down in time.  In her suicide note to Otto, she told him that she loved him and couldn’t live without him.  Otto was on a hunger strike.  He hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for 72 hours but had smoked cigarettes incessantly.  The guards threatened to  take the cigarettes away from him and he began eating and drinking again.

The Grand Jury was delayed as the main witness, Albert Stemwedel was subpoenaed and failed to report.  Police were on the hunt for him.  Albert insisted that it was Bockelman that shot Edward Lehman even though both Otto and Kitty confessed.  Both couples, along with Eric Noren were charged by the Grand Jury with the murder of Edward Lehman.

Kitty with her child

Kitty Malm, “The Wolf Girl”, “The Tiger Girl”, hard time finding a jury that would consider the death penalty for a woman and a mother.  Police also arrested Max Baluk, Kitty’s legal husband so that Otto could testify against her.  The trial began with only eight jurors.  They hoped to fill the four vacant slots and as Prosecutor Pritzker said, “Begin their attempt to send this woman to the gallows.”

Kitty although pretty, did not appear stylish with dirty greasy hair poorly cut, pallor and not particularly nice clothes.  Her favorite dime novel was Reno Rita, Queen of the Silver Thieves.  She took her clues as to how to act during jury selection and the trial from the novel.  Looking stoic, showing no emotion, and reading the Bible every time she remembered which wasn’t often.

Kitty lived up to her nickname “Tiger Girl” during the first day of the trial.  She remained calm and expressionless most of the time but when a juror would cringe over the description of the death of Edward Lehman, she would sneer at them, and she smirked when a girl “Friend” testified to Kitty’s confession.  Her lawyer pled with her to drop the icy attitude, to show some charm and appeal. 

Kitty  replied, “What turn white livered before them guys and them rubbernecks? I’ll say I won’t! “But then her mother brought her baby to the courtroom, she turned to look at the little girl a couple of times when the child had coughing fits but then turned back to the trial.  When the court broke for lunch her mother brought the baby up to her.  Kitty would not touch the baby until after all the jurors and “rubbernecks” left the courtroom.  Then she held her daughter and broke into sobs.  The first emotions she had shown. 

She was stoic when court resumed.  When it adjourned for the day she asked for her daughter and was told that she was taken to the hospital with Whooping Cough.  Kitty fainted. 

When she came to, she said, “Well I hope the gang don’t learn about that.  They’d sure guy me.” 

The bailiff responded, “That would be good stuff for the jury to see.”

“Well, they’ll never get a picture of me doing that” she responded. 

After Kitty left,  the bailiff said to the reporter, “Of course that jury is locked up and well-guarded, but I’ll bet a hat they know all about it before the trial is over.  And that the kid, without testifying is going to save her mother’s life.”

Blanche King

The only time that she did show any emotion was when Blanche King was called to the stand.  Blanche was a surprise witness and had been a boarder in the boarding house in Indianapolis.  She was also ill and was carried into the courtroom on a stretcher.  One day the landlord had escorted her to the “Chicago girl’s room.” 

When Blanche entered the room, Kitty was combing her hair.  Blanche could see the scar from the bullet wound.  She asked Kitty how it had happened, and Kitty told her, “My husband shot me.  We were doing a job at a Sweater Factory.”  Blanche then testified that Kitty had two guns, a big one and a little one; the big one strapped around her waist and the little one up her sleeve. 

Kitty Malm was the last witness to be called to testify.  Otto Malm, she testified ordered her to come with him as a lookout.  Suddenly, Lehman flashed a light on Otto.  Otto fired the gun and the man with the light fell.  Kitty screamed and ran and then felt a shot in the head.  Otto had shot her.  He pulled her down the alley and shoved her into the car.  Then they took her to a doctor and got her head bandaged. 

The jury was out for an hour and twenty minutes, they took four ballots and found Kitty guilty and sentenced her to life imprisonment in Joliet Prison.  Although Kitty was pretty, she was raised on the streets and was unrefined and not thought of as a “lady” by the jury, Beulah and Belva were both perceived to be “ladies” by their respective juries, so Kitty was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.  Her daughter Tootie saved her from hanging.

When Kitty heard the verdict, she flew into a rage shaking her arms around and whipping her hair back and forth.  Screaming, “My God, What did they do?” and then fainted.

Kitty Malm with attorney after verdict

After being sentenced to life imprisonment, Kitty seemed to have her spirit broken.  She held Tootie for two hours before she had to leave for Joliet.   Kitty, the defiant flapper that carried two guns and would rather shoot it out with the police than be caught was a changed woman.  As she left Murderess Row for Joliet, her shoulders were slumped, and she frequently cried. Much different from Beulah Annan’s departure a few days before, as a free woman.  Sabella Nitti also cried and was inconsolable as Kitty left.  Kitty had been the life of Murderess Row.

Kitty adjusted to life in Joliet.  She worked in the laundry and performed in the Christmas Program that the inmates put on.  To celebrate Christmas there was no work in the prison and the prisoners were served a dinner of roast pork, brown gravy, potatoes, pie, and cigars.  The prisoners were confined to their cells but allowed to get a book from the library. 

Even though she only had a fifth-grade education, Kitty began studying typewriting and shorthand.  She became a clerk/transcriptionist in the prison office.

Otto Malm, on the other hand did not.  Otto Malm murdered another prisoner by hitting him in the head with a wrench while they were working in the Fiber Shop.  Otto plead self-defense but the jury found him guilty and issued a second life sentence.  Otto refused to take the sentence, wanting to be hanged instead.  Refusal or not, his second life sentence began after the first one expired. found him guilty and issued a second life sentence. 

December 1932, Kitty Malm died of pneumonia in the Joliet Infirmary.  She was just 28 years old.  Before she died her mother and her daughter who by then was going by Katherine and was 12 years old were able to visit Kitty at her bedside. 

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Mama’s Chip and Cherry Cake

My mother

Chip and Cherry cake was my mama’s invention.  This was my mama.  She passed away quite a few years ago, and she was the keeper of the family traditions.  One of the traditions my grandmother insisted on was eating fruit cake on Epiphany.  It was supposed to bring you luck and prosperity.

Epiphany is on January 6, every year.  In 2021 it will be Wednesday.  Epiphany is the celebration of the Magi or Wise Men visiting baby Jesus.  So, it makes sense that celebrating it would bring both luck and prosperity!

The problem is my mother HATED fruit cake and passed those genes along to my sister and me and to my daughters, too.  I don’t know what it is about those weird neon colored supposedly fruit that is so disgusting that even soaking it rum doesn’t kill the taste!  

So, when I was little, my mother put together some of the things that we loved and put them in a “Fruit Cake”.  Instead of the wildly weird neon green cherries she used Maraschino Cherries.  I mean who didn’t love a Shirley Temple.  Chocolate Chips and Pecans were a given and to give some respect to the original, dates.  We all decided that we could tolerate dates and some of us secretly love them.  

Chip and Cherry Cake became our new Epiphany tradition and I am going to share it with you!

Mama's Chip and Cherry Cake

Ingredients:

3 Whole Eggs, Well beaten
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter, Softened
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
12 ounces Chocolate Chips
2 Cups Pecans, chopped
1 Cup Dates, coarsely chopped
1 Cup Maraschino cherries, stemmed and patted dry

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325
Beat eggs, butter and sugar together
Mix dry ingredients
Add cherries and dates to egg mixture
Add chocolate chips and pecans to dry mixture
Combine mixing well – the batter is really really thick, sometimes I use my hands
Line loaf pan with parchment paper or spray extremely well
Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours or until crusty brown and toothpick comes back clear
Let cool completely before removing from pan
Sift powder sugar over top or frost with cream cheese icing or leave plain, it’s very sweet as is!

I hope that you enjoy our family tradition of Chip and Cherry Cake, and have good luck and lots of prosperity in 2021!

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Kitty Malm – Tiger Girl

Kitty Malm - The REAL Go to Hell Kitty

The fourth real criminal that gave Maurine Dallas Watkins inspiration for her book and play Chicago, is Kitty Malm, the “Tiger Girl”.  In the movie she is played by Lucy Liu and called “Go To Hell Kitty”.  She had a much larger part in the original book.  She was called by the newspapers a Defiant Flapper, the Tiger Girl and the Wolf Woman.

Kitty was born in Austria and the family immigrated to the United States when she was 7 riding in steerage on a ship.  The fifth grade was as far as she went in school.  She then went to work in machine factory where her mother worked.  

When she was 15, she married Max Baluk who she told reporters, “Finally Max Baluk, the Russian in the factory, he married me in 1921.  Then I learned what rotten names a bad man can call his wife.” 

She gave birth to her daughter two years later.  When she left her husband Baluk she sent baby “Tootie” to her mother and paid her $15 a week to take care of her.  She further told reporters, “I didn’t go home.  My stepfather called me worse names than my husband did.  But the baby was safe while I was working as a waitress. “

Kitty then went on to explain that she had asked Otto Malm to pose as her husband and to “smash the face of a dirty man down the street who’s tryin’ to steal my kid.”  Otto did and the two went into partnership, Otto calling Kitty, “Sweetheart”.  Otto showered baby Tootie with luxuries, clothes, toys, food, whatever Kitty wanted.  Together along with Eric Noren and a changeable gang, they robbed a variety of places.

Otto Malm
Blonde Kitty Beck

On November 5, 1923 an amateur night watchman, Edward Lehman was shot and killed during a holdup of the Delson Knitting Works.  Also included in the loot from the Delson Knitting Works was $100 worth of baby clothes for baby Tootie.

There were four suspects, three were arrested “Blonde Kitty”, Ethel Beck, an 18-year-old from the north side and Walter Bockleman, the head of a small gang of robbers. 

The third suspect was Otto Malm.   Malm had been sentenced twelve years before for the murder of a tailor, Andrew Jensen, he was sentenced to Pontiac Reformatory from which he escaped.   Otto Malm was arrested for the robbery of a butcher shop and while he was being questioned about the robbery, Otto confessed to the murder of Edward Lehman, although he was sure that it was Kitty’s bullet that killed Lehman.  He also confessed to many robberies including the theft of a dining room suite for their bungalow, a bedroom suite also for their home, furs and baby clothes.

The fourth was the “Tiger Woman”, Kitty Malm, Otto’s common law wife.  Kitty was shot in the head during the hold-up and Otto threw her into the car that Eric Noren was driving. 

Otto with police

The police returned to the house where Otto and Kitty were living and were refused entrance.  Deputy Sherriff Louis Flentye ordered policeman to guard the front and back while he went back to the station to see what to do.  While he was gone Kitty and Victor McCarthy left from the back door and went to a Boarding House in Indianapolis. 

The police were inside of the apartment, not guarding the doors as ordered and shot at Flentye when he returned thinking he was McCarthy, they fired six or eight shots over his head and as he ran for his life, they arrested him and took him back to the station in the paddy wagon.  Sherriff Morgan was indignant and made a formal complaint to the Police Chief, Morgan Collins.  The police involved were suspended.

Police were on the hunt for Kitty.  The Chief of Police issued a shoot-to-kill order to all the Chicago policemen.  The reason he did was that her “husband”, Otto told them that she had her “gat” with her.  Otto her husband confessed to shooting Edward Lehman but also confessed that Kitty shot at him too.  19-year-old Kitty was desperate and on the run. 

With Otto in jail, police took custody of their two-year-old daughter Tootie.  Kitty turned herself in so that she could see her baby. 

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