At the end of the 19th century, Chicago was one of the fastest growing cities in the world. In just 30 years, since the Great Fire (1871), the city's population increased sixfold. There, in Chicago, the largest meat processing plant in North America was located, where more than six thousand employees worked. 
There was also a steel mill, one of the largest in America, and a factory that produced agricultural machinery. There was a lot of money in the city, luxury and improvement of the urban environment flowed there. Neighborhoods with business centers, luxury hotels, parks and long tram tracks. It was a mega-modern city, unlike all the others.
But behind the facades of progress and money capital there was something sadly constant. This was the Coastal quarter, later renamed the Satanic Mile. There were brothels and saloons, and not elite ones, but varying levels of cheapness and primitiveness. Well, where there is poverty, there is violence and lawlessness. It was mortally dangerous for an ordinary city dweller to appear there - a human life in the “Satanic Mile” was valued at a couple of bucks, and the girls of the brothels were a real lottery. It was possible to win the most diverse bouquet of sexually transmitted diseases, and this is the 19th century. Hygiene, antibiotics, sanitary standards - these words were not known in the quarter. 
A good part of Chicago back then.
It would seem that this is the bottom of human existence. But even there there were terrible places, which the residents of the quarter themselves spoke about with a shudder - brothels for blacks. They were called the "Negro Hole" and girls of all races worked there. Including white ones. It is clear that in the 19th century, a white sex worker for blacks was already the last step; it was simply impossible to fall any lower.
Such introductory information is needed to understand the scenery in which what will be described below took place.
Kitty Adams was supposedly from the rural hinterland and the exact date of her birth remained unknown. She was the type of lady who would stop a horse and strangle a bear with her bare hands. Kitty showed up in Chicago in the first half of the 1880s and was quite young, so we can estimate that she was born around 1862 (of course, two or three years, plus or minus)
Initially, Adams was the wife of Chicago thief George Shine, and this status bore little resemblance to the family values common in those days. Very often, criminal personalities forced their women into sex work and were for them something like a pimp with privileges. George and Kitty were just one of these couples, and after six months of this lifestyle, the girl began to wonder why she should give her husband money by engaging in prostitution, if she could do the same thing and keep the entire amount for herself.
Having thought everything over, Kitty gave George her resignation, but he didn’t like his wife’s love of freedom and he tried, as was then supposed, to physically let his wife know that she was wrong. But Kitty, contrary to the obedience of women of that time, immediately took a straight razor from her bra and put it to Shine’s throat. The argument was weighty, so the husband collected his belongings and left to look for his wife in peace. This is how Kitty became convinced that a man was not as scary as the unspoken rules of life in the 19th century made him out to be.
It was 1884. 
Kitty was not distinguished by outstanding external characteristics and she had to go to work in a brothel located in the “Negro Hole”, where they accepted anyone at all.
When receiving a “guest,” Adams always remained in a corset, explaining that she looked more aesthetically pleasing this way, but in reality there was simply always a straight razor hidden there. For the next two years, Kitty was distinguished by regular incidents, which earned her some fame. One of her clients, for example, ran away from her down the street completely naked. Once, in the market square, a man riding a horse offended Kitty with something and she slashed the horse with a razor, giving him an impressive cut. There were several cases when an angry Adams used her favorite razor when clients, in her opinion, did not treat her with enough respect (most likely, they tried to use violence).
Black Big Billy, known in the neighborhood for his cruel treatment of white women, also came under attack. He was not nicknamed big because of his height, and many sex workers suffered terrible injuries due to his prohibitively large penis. When Billy came to Kitty, out of habit, he wanted to treat her the same as he did with others, but Kitty held his head with her legs and promised thatwill make him "Short Billy" unless he agrees to sacrifice some other part of his body. It would be a funny joke if Kitty was making a joke. She cut off both his ears and now Billy became Big Earless Billy.
Well, the last episode of many similar ones: there was a man in the “Negro Hole” who liked to rip the mouths of women in brothels. Kitty took revenge for them all: she gave him a “Joker smile” and then, laughing, advised him to grow a beard to hide the injury. 
This is what brothels looked like at that time
Thanks to such desperate courage and resistance to rough treatment, Kitty Adams quickly became considered something of a "Robin Hood in a skirt." Such are the times, such are the heroes, what can you do? Of all her many nicknames, the girl herself loved “Fighter Kitty”.
But the “mothers” running brothels increasingly did not want to have anything in common with her, because her presence was a serious blow to business.
In the second half of 1886, Kitty had to go “iron the street” (an expression for public women). At the same time, she did not have any “roof” or even a pimp. Even in the very last brothel there was at least some kind of security, a permanent security guard, and if things were really bad, then the police were involved to bring the client to reason. But on the street it was very difficult for the “self-employed” sex worker. 
But one could already guess about Kitty Adams’ character and that she did not give up so easily. She didn’t want to get out of the “Satanic Mile”, because then she would have to become a “decent” lady, obey the laws and sadly work for pennies in some factory, or as a saleswoman there. What a fun life a street prostitute is, Kitty thought and continued her work.
That same year, she met a young prostitute Annie Clarke, they began renting a house together to save money, and it was then that “Fighter Kitty” came up with a business plan that she followed for the next ten years:
men need to be robbed
It is necessary to rob when he is absolutely defenseless (during sex or right in front of him)
A woman can rob alone, but it will be more effective to do it with a partner
And in 1886, Chicago cops began to receive some incredibly daring reports of robberies in Satan's Mile, committed during the day, in crowded places. 
Ordinary workers of that time
Annie, being very beautiful, “caught” Mr. on the street, offering him a “quickie” for a penny. And without any fuss with hotels, just in a quiet side street, but look, what a quiet and deserted place. This was quite a common offer in that area.
Annie would lead a client into an alley, sit down in front of him, unbutton his trousers, and then, from behind, someone would take the man in a tight grip, putting a knife to his throat or eye. Few men, with their pants down and a knife at their throat, could resist an attack. The beauty who promised him sexual pleasure, meanwhile, quickly rummaged through his pockets and took everything from money to valuables.
Then the couple left while the stunned man tried to put his trousers back on with trembling hands. Out of fear, the “clients” usually did not make a fuss, because they understood that they could easily get stabbed in the liver.
Rarely did anyone go to the police, statements were submitted on average once a month, but the cops understood that there were many times more robberies, the victims were simply ashamed to go to them. Not only was she robbed in broad daylight, but also a woman, what a shame. 
Prostitute of that time
Kitty was not a fool and understood that Annie would eventually become familiar. She tried to change the appearance of her partner, and along the way she mastered the talent of an ordinary pickpocket, so as not to always risk a threat to her life.
But statistics are an inexorable thing, so accomplices were detained a couple of times for some unimportant reasons. Detectives decided to show their photos to the victims of the robbery and they unanimously identified them as the robbers. This was, of course, wonderful, but they flatly refused to testify in court. That is, the detectives knew very well who was responsible for the robberies, but that was all, they could not arrest them.
Kitty has acquired a new round of fame, now among the criminal world. They began to respect her and began to take her into account. Sex workers began to come to her for protection, because no one except Fighter Kitty could rob Chicago residents so openly and for so long in broad daylight. This is how wives began to be formedSky gang. 
Men of that time
It was only in the summer of 1894 that the police were finally able to persuade one robbed man to testify in court. In September, Kitty was already behind bars for four years and the male part of Chicago could rest a little. But no.
The active Adams submitted a petition for pardon to the state governor, colorfully telling in it that she had big problems with her health (an open form of tuberculosis), and that in general she strongly repented of her criminal lifestyle. Let me go free, let me live my last months with my loved ones.
She did not enter the pardons commission, but practically crawled in, choking from coughing, inadvertently showing off the bloody handkerchief that she pressed to her lips. The commission was impressed and released the unfortunate thief to live out her life in freedom. Mercy for fallen women was in fashion then, you know.
Already at the end of October, Adams fluttered out of prison, which greatly surprised her enemies, police officers, and friends. Dying Kitty immediately turned pink, recovered, and over the next three weeks the police were able to detain her eight times.
But where did the blood go that Kitty coughed up on the entire pardon committee? It’s simple: before the hearing, she pierced her gums in several places, and that’s why she coughed up blood. Kitty's detained friends told the police about this.
The scandal broke out in earnest. The Chicago police in those days were often accused of corruption (most likely for a reason), but now they could answer that they were catching criminals, and the authorities were hindering them, releasing deceivers and nullifying the work of honest cops.
The police, in desperation, decided to simply announce to the people the radius in which the Kitty Fighter gang is active in order to urge the townspeople to be as careful as possible, or better yet, not to venture onto those streets at all. 
The cops realized it was time to take Kitty seriously. They managed to collect evidence that could put Annie Clark in prison for a long time, which, according to the cops, would seriously demoralize Fighter Kitty and, perhaps, force him not only to stop the robberies, but also to leave Chicago.
In court, 4 of the 5 charges against her were well resolved, and the girl faced a good sentence (4-5 years). But in the fifth, something unusual happened: the last of the five victims was an elderly man and therefore decided to add a couple of moralizing maxims about Annie’s lifestyle into his testimony. Judge James Goggin was a rather eccentric person and at this point he could not stand it and began to yell at the victim. Briefly speaking, his cry boiled down to the fact that there is no point in teaching morality to a girl if he himself is good, they say, he is an old man, looks like he teaches at Sunday school, but what was he doing in that alley with the accused if he is so moral?
One of the journalists managed to record a number of phrases from the enraged judge:
"It serves you right, sir. You ought to have known better. You are an old man and look as though you might be a Sunday school teacher. Probably you are a Sunday school teacher, and have been doing like many others when they want "a good time. What business had you out at that hour, is what I'd like to know."
The unfortunate old man was slightly stunned by such an outburst of emotion from the venerable judge, and Goggin quickly ended the discussion, dropping all charges against Annie. By the way, Clarke was arrested along with Kitty, whom the radical judge also acquitted of everything, so as not to get up twice.
The police in the courtroom, rubbing their hands as they waited for Clarke's sentence, were in shock. James Goggin, by the way, already famous for his tyrant antics, again found himself on the newspaper pages as an example of the “unbiased American judicial system.” 
Joliet Prison
The detectives, despite this failure, got together and in 1898 were still able to remove Fighter Kitty from their streets. She was sent to Joliet Prison for eight years. It’s ironic that it was there that she caught real tuberculosis, which she so talentedly simulated several years before.
In the world history of crime, Kitty Adams is remembered as a rather unique type: a woman who committed dangerous violent crimes. More often than not, women, due to their mental and physiological characteristics, still choose criminal acts without violence - betrayal of trust, forgery, poisoning, theft, and so on. If they do kill, it is more often with poison and less often with firearms. Knives, razors and the like require close contact, courage and a calm attitude towards wounds and blood. Not all men are capable of this, let aloneabout women.
It is worth noting that no murders were observed behind her. At least there are no proven episodes. However, she managed, without much bloodshed, to intimidate the men of Chicago and gain a kind of respect that, at that time, even many notorious male criminals could not achieve.
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