Hoaks sisters conned church — twice

Editor's note: In 1995, Birdie Jo Hoaks showed up in Salt Lake City, claiming to be an abandoned 12-year-old boy seeking help. Her story was revealed to be a hoax, and the woman pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges. Similar tales involving Hoaks and her sister, Becky, have been reported across the nation.

GALENA, Kan. (MCT) — At first glance, this town hardly seems worth a scam artist's effort.

Poverty is widespread. Industry is absent. And the people — well, few remain.

Lead and zinc mining brought riches to Galena, Kan., in the 1870s, but only the miles of abandoned underground tunnels endure.

Over the years, sinkholes have claimed the lives of at least five residents as the tunnels have collapsed. Just last August, the town's last tavern sealed its doors when an 80-foot-deep void appeared next door.

With the mining industry largely gone, many who survive in this Kansas corner find employment across the two nearby state lines, in Joplin, Mo., or the Oklahoma casinos.

Galena, population 3,100 and dwindling, perseveres as the second poorest city in the state's second poorest county.

"They are good, hard-working people," said Galena's Police Chief Larry Delmont, whose office overflows with maps approximating where the abandoned mine shafts snake underneath the town — including beneath his own desk.

"They're pretty strong people."

They're also compassionate, cheerful givers, willing to help someone in need, which means they fit the profile of folks the Hoaks sisters have preyed upon during their 16-year journey of deception and crime. Such widespread goodwill may even be the reason the androgynous twins came to Galena in the first place, although no one knows for sure. In many ways, Galena resembles the sisters' downstate Illinois hometown of Hoopeston: Both places radiated a small-town innocence until the Hoaks sisters appeared.

Birdie Jo arrived in Galena in autumn 2003 and pretended to be a downtrodden, male teenager in need of charity, as she had done in so many other spots. Becky pretended to be the boy's "aunt." Since leaving the Army National Guard in the early 1990s, the sisters had used their small, stout frames to make the scam succeed in nearly every region of the country.