Six years after Taylor divorced her, Godman was arrested and released on bail for participating in a scheme to blackmail a wealthy widower.

Godman attempted a scheme known as a "badger game," which involved framing a victim in an embarrassing and illegal situation that resulted in a staged arrest by fake law enforcement officials.

Godman posed as an unmarried woman being held against her will in a hotel room across state lines, which, if true, would have been a violation of the Mann Act.

According to Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, two former Chicago newspaper journalists, to protect her from growing up under bad influences, at age fifteen Buda was sent to St. Joseph’s Academy in Adrian, Michigan, a convent school.

She was described as "petite, a wee trifle plump, with big steel-blue eyes, a tip-tilted nose, an oval face with a dimpled chin, a peewee mouth, and tiny hands and feet."

Indicted co-conspirators in the scheme were Buda Godman, Helen Evers, Homer T. French, William Butler, Doc Brady (alias James Christian), and George Irwin.

[2] This particular scheme is known as badger gaming—an extortion tactic where an attractive woman lures a wealthy man into a compromising position; an associate breaks in, takes some pictures, then they all sit down to haggle over the price.

For years, Godman's Park Avenue apartment served as a stage for criminals that included Arnold Rothstein, the gambler; Owney Madden, the Bear King; race track notables, and Broadway climbers.

In 1932, Godman, under the alias "Helen Smith," was arrested and charged for an attempt to serve as a fence for $305,000 worth of stolen jewels from New York businessman Harry C.

Two years later, while attending the performance of "The Girl Question," by Howard, Adams, and Hough at the La Salle Theater in Chicago, Godman recognized Taylor and sent a note to him backstage, and they became reacquainted.