one morning early when she was riding her horse on st charles avenue alone ( juhen was ill at the time , and would very soon die ) , a man tried to pull her from the horse , at which time she herself turned into a man and beat him half to death with her fist , and then dragged him at the end of a rope behind her horse to the local police station 'lots of people saw that , ' we are told that story was repeated in the irish channel as late as 1935 indeed police records of the time indicate the assault , and the 'citizen 's arrest ' did take place in 1914 the man died in his cell several hours later there is another story of a foolish maidservant who stole one of mary beth 's rings , and awoke that night in her smothering little room on chippewa street to discover mary beth bending over her , in manly form , and demanding that she give back the ring immediately , which the woman did , only to die by three o'clock the following afternoon from the shock of the experience that story was told to us once in 1898 , and again in 1910 it has proved impossible to investigate .