by Elliot Ashkenazi

Belle Levy was a private detective, an unusual profession for a woman. Crime-solving, however, ran in her family, since her father was a lieutenant with the New York City police force.

Belle Rosenfeld Levy was born in New York City on December 29, 1898, to Ray and Monroe (Wieser) Rosenfeld. She progressed through the city’s public school system and married Charles Levy before her eighteenth birthday. Her first independent job was designer of children’s clothes, but at age twenty-five, she began working for a private detective agency. In 1927, she formed her own detective agency, the Colonial Detective Service. She continued as a private investigator at least through 1942; records show that she appeared in court that year as the owner of the detective service.

Levy had one daughter, Madeline. She maintained her detective office at various locations in Manhattan, including West 42nd Street and Columbus Circle.

Bibliography

NYTimes, May 9, 1942, 28, and May 20, 1942, 16; WWIAJ (1938).