They had a slick crime plan going. Apparently, the young woman, Jadwiga Curtin (described in the newspapers as a Polish war bride), would pick up men in San Mateo County bars and would then be followed by her boyfriend, Howard Durham, to a deserted stretch of road where the unsuspecting man would be robbed at gunpoint by Durham. They were accused of doing this to an editor of the Stanford Daily in October 1947.