The Denison Press
Friday August 17, 1951
pg 1

School For Criminals With Youths As Trainees Broken When Woman Leader Is Held

A school for training criminals of the pre-adolescent age which was started here some months back and which
was growing to where its reaches were covering several towns and even invading other states, was cracked this week when police in New Orleans and Denison, working jointly with state officials arrested a woman by the name of Mrs. Helen Ingram, 48, in New Orleans. A son, Larry, 16, was also arrested with her, along with some Denison youths, some of whom were said to be from "Denison's best families."
Police stated Wednesday that they were receiving the best of cooperation from parents of the arrested boys in Denison, insofar as the parents have been advised of the plight of their sons.
Police stated Wednesday they had been following the trail of the Denison woman for several weeks, but were surprised when they learned the party was indulging in tactics of the underworld. They were on the lookout for
her when she was arrested in New Orleans.
Assistant Chief of Police Louis Carlat, accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Houston Ross, left for New Orleans on word from that city's police force to come for the woman. She will be brought to Denison where a full examination of
her methods and extent of her work will be checked.
The work of the school teacher in crime roughly has been to have key boys work to secure other youngsters in
the plans. They were trained and sent to places to be robbed after the places had been carefully "cased" by the leader. Each member of the gang was sworn to secrecy under an oath and a threat which was supposed to send fear into the hearts of the boys - a fear that meant they would be squealed on and made the goat if they gave away any of the secrets and actions of the gang.
The scope of the robberies covered everything from fishhooks to typewriters, overcoats to dresses, women's undies, hosiery, cigarettes, guns, candy. This was turned over to the directing woman and she found a sale for the goods. She dressed on the loot and was known here to be a good looker who had plenty of appeal when dolled up.
The boys got little of the loot, and the idea of getting them tangled up, according to Chief Paul Borum, was
what was wanted by the teacher in crime. After that she held over their heads a club of fear, and it did little good
for the tolls to complain they were not getting their share of the take.
Chief Borum said the woman and her son "took a powder" when they got wind they were wanted again after being before Judge C. B. Carroll's court Thursday of last week.
News of the arrest in New Orleans of the woman and her son broke here over wires of news gathering agencies.
It was then the city and county officers moved fast and readied themselves for the trip to bring them back to Denison from Louisiana.



The Denison Press
Denison, Texas
Friday, August 24, 1951
pg 1

Head of Crime School For Youth Brought Back and Awaits Grand Jury

The head of the crime school run for some time in Denison, Mrs. Helen Ingram, 48, and son, Larry, are in the county jail awaiting grand jury action.
Police Asst. Chief Louis Carlat, Deputy Sheriff Houston Ross, and Capt. Clarence Faecke returned Monday night from New Orleans with the two after they had fled the city on the eve of their planned arrest here.
Soon the wires were busy and the couple located in New Orleans and arrested there. The local police were
notified and informed they could come Monday for their parties.
In the interim between the arrest of the parties in New Orleans and the time to go for them, police searched the family home on East Main street and found considerable loot which was identified as being stolen from different places of business in Denison or nearby towns.
Among items found was a machine gun. The presence of the gun was accounted for in the fact that another son,
a member of the coast guard, sent it to his mother. Whether or not this will bring the federal government into the case has not been as yet determined, according to Chief Paul Borum.
All sorts of rumors as to just what sons of local parents were dragged into the net by the head of the school are rampant, and Chief Borum suggests that persons withhold any judgment or opinions until the facts are brought
out. Suffice it to say that two sons of prominent parties being reported as involved were in no manner connected with the case.
The case of the woman and her son is classified in the felony class and although the son is reported as being 16, his case will bring the severest test on any chance for clemency. There are declared to be extenuating circumstances in connection with the young men declared to have been drawn into the ring which was operating on a constantly increasing scale to burglarize places of business. The case is a bailable one and can not be set
until a hearing is had.



The Denison Press
Friday October 5, 1951
pg 1

Parties To Crime School Here Draw Long Prison Terms

So far three parties to the crime school which was found to be operating in and around Denison and which was headed by a Denison woman, who was training boys to operate for her, have all drawn heavy terms in state prison.
The leader of the ring, Mrs. Helen Ingram, a more or less attractive woman when dolled up, and who resided on East Main street, was sentenced last week to fifteen years in the state penitentiary on her pleading guilty as charged. She is awaiting the rounds of the transfer state bus to remove her to serve out her term.
Arrested with her, and who also pleaded guilty was her son, Harry Ingram. He has been given a five year term and paroled to a relative who resides in the state of Louisiana and has been with him for several days.
This week a third party, a Denison youth, 18, Gregory Newland, was given a five year sentence on plea of guilty. Sentence was passed in the 15th District court, R. C. Slagle, judge. A suspended sentence was passed and young Newland will also be out on his good behavior.
Newland particularly pleaded guilty in being in on the robbery and destruction of property of the Green Gables
cafe some weeks back. All cash left in the till, along with tobacco, cigarettes, food, candy and other articles were said to have been carried away in bags. The goods were delivered to Mrs. Ingram who sat in her car just around
the corner on Sears street. She engineered the deal and planned the way of entering the place, Newland recited.
Several towns in and around Grayson county were visited by the crowd of Pilferers she was training. She used
her own son, it was reported, to decoy his acquaintances and friends to the home of his mother on East Main where she carried on the rest of the work, sometimes under threat and fear of bodily harm from her, it was stated in testimony taken in the case.
With her son, she fled the city in the family car when officers got hot on her trail, but was caught a day or so later
in New Orleans. The clue which gave the officers a hint that the gang was being led by a woman was the print of
a woman's shoe heel left in a window in one of the places entered, according to Chief of Police Paul Borum.
Most of the loot which was found in the Ingram home was identified and returned to the rightful owners.