By Mike Simmons
The March 7, 1899, edition of the Pensacola News Journal reported that Eliza Paine, known as “Big Liza,” a notorious female hoodlum, who has been a terror to the Pensacola Police for years, took a little too much Mardi Gras Tuesday and went before the municipal court yesterday.
Liza whooped her up.
She became so violent in the courtroom that she had to be removed and, when taken downstairs and locked up, she made things so lively by her virulent abuse of everybody and everything that, at last, Chief Roberts went below and took her to the cell of “Sea Lover,” the Indian.
When Liza found out that it was the chief’s intention to put her in the cell with the Apache, she fell on her knees and prayed for mercy. Chief Roberts sent her back to her own cell, and she has not been heard to whimper since.