By Susan Jones

On August 1, 1896 the Prescott Journal Miner published the following obituary: "May Ackerman, better known as ‘Diamond May’ died suddenly this morning at her room on Granite Street. A few months ago this unfortunate woman figured in the noted diamond robbery of this city, being the victim and losing it is said several thousand dollars in precious stones in that crime. Her sad ending this morning surrounded by vice and nurtured to the last in extreme poverty, disclosed a life that has surrounded it that which only a courtesan knows. Several years ago she fell through the influence of her womanly charms, and in her conquests became somewhat noted in many places of the east as well as the west, drifting with the tide however until wrecked in the gulf of despair and dissolution. She leaves a sister to mourn her loss and will be laid away tomorrow in citizen’s cemetery." A fallen woman! A robbery! Diamonds! Who was May Ackerman and what was her story? Not many clues remain and had it not been for the robbery, she might have remained, like so many in her position, nameless and forgotten.

No record has yet been found of where and when she was born, or even if Ackerman was her maiden or married name. According to a January 4, 1896 article in the Journal-Miner, she was in Tucson in 1880, making a handsome income running a house of ill repute. In one year she reportedly cleared $12,000. At some point, she traveled to San Francisco where she purchased a diamond cluster valued at $ 12,000. She married and went to Albuquerque, but by the time she was on the move again, the cluster was worth only $2000. With these she arrived in Prescott.

On December 1, 1895, while she was wearing these glittering gems, she became intoxicated and while she was passed out, her jewelry and cash caught the eyes of three men. A few weeks later, a complaint was filed by S. A. Prince, in the Justice Court presided over by J. M. W. Moore, charging J. F. (Johnny) Coyle, William (Billy) Mehan, and Charles Phillips (also found spelled Philips) with the crime. The "defendants unlawfully and feloniously did make an assault and by means offerre and against the will of one May Ackerman, take from that person of the said May Ackerman the following described personal property, to wit, two earrings, each set with one large diamond and one small diamond, one bracelet made of gold with small watch set in same, one breast pin in the shape of an ‘S’ set with chip diamonds and pearls. A complaint filed later in the District Court gave the value of the earrings at $250 each, the bracelet $55, and the breast pin $100.

Little was found about the personal lives of the defendants, although Phillips was already well known around town for his misdemeanors. On Dec. 25, 1896 the Weekly Miner reported "Charles Phillips, the colored hack man, was fined $25 with the alternative of 25 days in jail, yesterday by Judge Ling, for disturbing the peace on Saturday evening. It has not been many months since Phillips completed a fifty day term for a similar offense." Early records in the case note that Charles Philips turned states evidence against the other two and later he appears in records as a witness rather than defendant. Coyle and Mehan were held in jail to await action of the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury indicted them June 2nd and their trial in the U.S. District Court, Fourth District, Yavapai County, was set for June 15, 1896. The two men entered pleas of "not guilty." When the trial date arrived, May Ackerman failed to show up and Judge Hawkins dispatched Sheriff Ruffner to bring her in "forthwith."

Unfortunately, there is no record of the testimony, so it remains hard to reconstruct the crime. A few days after the robbery, in his Dec. 30th article, the reporter for the Journal-Miner admitted difficulty in tracking down specifics so he withheld names of the people involved. He does note that one of the men in custody was also charged with a second crime: holding a man up at gunpoint in the alley between Montezuma and Granite and stealing his diamonds as well. This would have been Johnny Coyle, as a January 8th article notes he was held on two charges: highway robbery with bonds set at $1000 and robbery, with bail fixed at $750. J. H. Kivell was the likely victim as he filed a complaint against Coyle on Dec. 24th, four days before the Dec. 28th complaint filed against all three men on behalf of May Ackerman. This additional crime adds to the confusion of dates and witnesses. Kivell’s loss included a breast pin set with four sapphires and three diamonds, one breast pin set with one large diamond in the center and surrounded with several diamonds, and one stick pin set with an opal, all contained in a leather purse. This same article reported that the perpetrators had removed May’s diamonds from their settings and had tried to sell them. The reported value of the diamonds in that article was $1500.

The January 4th newspaper article suggested that Charles Philips and his cohorts had actually drugged May in order to steal the diamonds. The article has a quaint way of wording this allegation: "Prescott’s diamond excitement does not rank with that of South Africa, but an African was the first discoverer of the Prescott fields and made the first interesting disclosures as to the methods by which they were worked. One of the principal ingredients of the process, as related by the African was ‘yenshee’ a stupefying potion, being nothing more than the charred remnant of opium which has been used or smoked. This is more popularly known as ‘dope’ and to use the African’s words, ‘sorter scatters the brains and knocks ‘em out’ without doing any particular damage. This ‘yenshee’ or dope was administered to the woman and when it scattered her brains, her diamonds disappeared."

Another hint of the crime appears in the jury instructions proposed by the defense: "Although the jury may believe from the evidence that the defendant took the property… and that in taking it from her person he cut her stocking or legging, but that he did this without her knowledge and when she was in a state of intoxication or unconsciousness, yet this does not constitute robbery…" The judge disagreed with this interpretation of the law and refused to read this to the jury, along with other requests from the defense.

From this meager evidence one cannot tell if May was in some opium den, passed out drunk in the street or purposefully drugged.

Over sixteen people were subpoenaed for the trial, among them two women. Were these also "soiled doves"? Lula Davis is listed in her obituary as a piano player. The subpoena for Belle Lee adds a hand written note, "Bring her in on the first stage." There were only three people called on behalf of the defendant, a Frank Morrell, Charles Mehan (presumably a relative who came in from Nogales) and W. D. Ross who was in the county jail awaiting transfer to Yuma Territorial Prison.

On June 17, the jury reached a verdict in case #260 and found William D. Mehan guilty of grand larceny. He was sentenced to three years at the territorial prison in Yuma. John Coyle was to be tried separately and July 14 he was released on bail. There is no further mention of him until an entry in the Register of Actions over a year later, on Aug. 16, 1897 for a motion dismissing the indictment against Coyle. Perhaps this was dropped because of the second set of charges against him by Kivell.

Many questions remain for further research. Who was S. A. Prince, and why was he the one to file the complaint on behalf of May? Why did nearly a month go by between crime (Dec. 1) and complaint (Dec. 28)? Would knowing more about the witnesses shed more light on the crime? Who was May’s husband and where was he? Who was May’s sister who was evidently the only one left to mourn her? And why were Kivell and Ackerman walking around with so many diamonds on them? Did May get her diamonds back?

And what became of May Ackerman? She was found dead two months after the trial, on Aug. 1, 1896 in her room on Granite Street. An inquest determined that she died of natural causes. She was buried the next day in Citizens Cemetery. But even in death there remains a mystery. According to the records of the Citizens Cemetery it was Mary Ackerman buried on August 2nd. And, according to the Northern Arizona Death Records, this Mary was buried August 3rd. No grave marker remains in the cemetery today to clarify this final enigma.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8069pc) Reuse only bypermission.

Looking down Granite Street in 1890 from the NE corner of Granite and Goodwin Streets. The corner saloon was a gathering place for cowboys, miners, farmers, businessmen, gamblers and the local prostitutes.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(st149pa) Reuse only by permission.

Granite Street, c.1880s, was the ‘shady’ part of town, occupied mostly by Chinese immigrants and prostitutes.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8165pb) Reuse only bypermission.

Granite Street, 1890s.