Isabella Goodwin

When Isabella Goodwin found herself the widow of a police officer with four children to support in 1896, she sought and was given a job as a police matron in one of New York City's jails, receiving only one day off per month for very low pay. In 1912, however, after having successfully helped to solve several other crimes by going undercover, Goodwin dropped out of sight, started hanging out in a bar as a "woman of all work," and took a position as a domestic in a household full of suspected bank robbers who had made fools of New York's finest from coast to coast. Shortly, Goodwin had gotten the evidence needed to arrest the criminals and her reward was to be made New York’s first woman Detective, First Grade at two and one-half times her previous salary. Being an in-your-face woman can really help bring home the bacon.