Cat-Eye Annie: Jewel Thief of the Jazz Age

by Tony St. Clair

For readers of Michael Finkel’s The Art Thief and Kirk Wallace Johnson’s The Feather Thief comes the true story of Cat-Eye Annie, the Jazz Age jewel thief with two-dozen aliases and one multicolored eye who posed as a maid to rob the rich. Her multimillion-dollar haul, daring heists, and prison breaks made her a national legend—and her final disappearance has now been solved.

A wealthy family advertises for a “respectable” German maid. The young woman who arrives speaks the language, provides impeccable references, and handles the housework with precision. But within days, she’s gone. So are the diamonds. As Lillian Fix, Lillian Redmond, Annie Bauer, or one of two dozen aliases, she fleeced Jazz Age America of nearly $20 million in today’s currency. In and out in a flash. Always on the run.

Stylish and suspenseful, Cat-Eye Annie is the cinematic true-crime caper of a master thief whose downfall was her multicolored left eye, the one clue no disguise of the time could conceal. Drawing on newly uncovered records, Tony St. Clair reconstructs Annie’s criminal career, her cat-and-mouse game with detectives and jailers, and the mystery of her final disappearance.

For decades, Annie infiltrated wealthy homes, found their hidden jewels, and vanished. Her trail stretched from St. Louis and Chicago to Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and California. The Pinkertons hunted her. Celebrated detectives like Arthur “Camera-Eye” Burns matched wits with her. And, sure, they caught Annie. That was one thing. Holding her was another.

She escaped custody three times, attempted breakouts time and again, and became an American folk hero. After her final release in 1941, Annie disappeared for good. Newspapers searched. Police hunted. Even the FBI’s trail went cold. Nobody could find her until now with St. Clair’s dogged research and riveting storytelling in Cat-Eye Annie.