Ellen Clegg was a New York criminal specializing in pick pocketing and shoplifting. A close associate of Fredericka Mandelbaum

Fredericka Mandelbaum

Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum was a New York entrepreneur and operated as a criminal fence to many of the street gangs and criminals of the city's underworld, handling between $1-5 million in stolen goods between 1862 until 1884. Like her principal rival John D...

, she was well known to authorities in several major cities along with her husband James "Old Jimmy" Clegg

James Clegg

James Clegg, M.D. , was a presbyterian minister.Clegg was born at Shawfield in the parish of Rochdale, Lancashire, on 26 Oct. 1679, was educated by the Rev. Richard Frankland at Rathmell in Yorkshire, and the Rev. John Chorlton at Manchester....

 and had an extensive arrest record. She was arrested with Tilly Miller, "Black" Lena Kleinschmidt

Lena Kleinschmidt

"Black" Lena Kleinschmidt was a New York criminal who, as a prominent jewel thief during the late 19th century, was an associate of fence Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum and Adam Worth...

 and four other shoplifters in Boston on December 6, 1876; her picture taken by the Boston Police Department for the "Rogues' Gallery". She was later arrested in the city for pick pocketing two years later and sent to the House of Correction.

Returning to New York, she was again arrested with Walter Price (then under the alias Mary Gray) for shoplifting on November 24, 1879. Pleading guilty, she was sentenced to three years in Blackwell's Island by Judge Gildersleeve on December 16 while Price was sent to State Prison.

Clegg returned to Boston after her term expired on April 16, 1882 where she was arrested for shoplifting on May 21, 1883 and sentenced to one year imprisonment in the House of Correction. She was returned to the House of Corrections when she was caught attempting to open a woman's handbag to steal her pocketbook on December 22, 1885 and again given a one year sentence.