“Operating Under the Guise of the Fair Sex”
On June 22, 1862, New York City newspapers follow up with more details of the Ellen Eyre scandal.
The Sunday Dispatch, under the headline “Operating Under the Guise of the Fair Sex,” reports that Eyre's blackmailing has gone on for five years, extending to the North and South. The paper refers to Eyre once as “she (?).”[1]
Arrest and Alias
The paper claims that when arrested by Detective Wilson, “Mrs. Eyre, in a twinkling, disrobed, and stood before the detective, a young gentleman, saying, it was no use to arrest him as there was no law to reach his case.”[2]
The paper identifies Eyre as “Dr. Benj. Coffin” and says that he appeared before Justice Kelly at the “Jefferson Market Police Court” (a site that today operates as a public library).[3]
Clothes, Victims, and Income
Eyre reportedly had a wardrobe “containing about $400 worth of ladies' rich silk dresses.” The Sunday Dispatch continues, “He wore a wig and painted, so as to give him the successful aspect of a young lady, and in this guise has walked in and out of his office...without exciting suspicion.”[4]
The paper claims that a “memorandum book, now in the hands of the police, contains a long array of the names of gentlemen who have given him money and who have visited him at various times.” It is withholding those names, the paper claims, “out of respect to the feelings of many a respectable family, who would shudder to know that any of their members should have descended so low in vice.” The case was “a sad commentary on the social impurity of our city.”[5]
The report says that the blackmailer made a yearly income of $4,000 to $5,000 (the equivalent of approximately $125,000 to $190,000 in 2025). The paper also prints what it claims are two letters that “Ellen” had written to gentleman, suggesting that she had had a romantic relationship with them.[6]
Letters to Mr. Stott and Morgan
One letter, dated March 17, 1862, and addressed to a “Mr. Stott,” expressed regret that he had failed to show up as planned. She hoped to see him before he left town. “Mr. Stott” is the only last name printed in all the newspaper reports.[7]
The second letter, dated April 30, 1862 and addressed to “My dear Morgan,” indicated that she hoped to see him again and realize “those enchanting visions of which we had had so dreamy a foretaste.” She added that “as the time of your departure is fast approaching,” she hoped to see him soon. She awaited “the promised messenger of bliss -- the note that is to announce your visit.” A postscript added that she had succeeded in procuring a place to which “any person would not have the slighest [sic] apprehension...in coming.” She was “anxious not only to embrace” him but to acquaint him with her “good fortune.”[8]
Notes
[1] “Operating Under the Guise of the Fair Sex,” Sunday Dispatch (New York), June 22, 1862, 5.
[2] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[3] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[4] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[5] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[6] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[7] “Operating Under the Guise.”
[8] “Operating Under the Guise.”