Found

They tracked her all over the world from Kiev to the Carolinas after that scam in Scandanavia, and the forged checks she passed in Czechoslovakia. She was the world's most highly sought criminal, and each day at least three Acme Detective Agency agents practically pulled their hair out trying to puzzle out the taunting clues the sticky-fingered filcher would send then, flaunting their inability to catch her. The would trace her phone calls through as many as eight countries in sixty seconds trying to get a lock on her location, but always the double-dealing diva would get away. Clues always indicated she might be in some exotic location. Paris. Mount Everest. The Rock of Gibraltar. And why not? She was a savvy, worldly, high class hoodlum. She stole diamonds and landmarks. She lived a wild high profile life, so naturally, she would want to keep around the best. Only one agent dared to say she was too smart for that, that the clues were deliberate red herrings. After all, a woman clever enough to steal a vowel from the Spanish alphabet was too smart to spend her days carousing post-heist in Monte Carlo or Venice. No, a high profile crook had to lay low if she wanted to avoid capture. While the rest of ACME chased her from Sydney to Rio following the clues the careful criminal left, one followed the money, the hotel bills, the cellphone records, the surveillance footage. As a result, only one agent was able to answer the decades old question. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? The Ninth Street Howard Johnsons.

- Originally mailed to J. Raper in Batesville, Arkansas