McDaniel maintained a close relationship with her mother and family over her career and she sent her daughter to boarding school.

Her clients were among the wealthy citizens of the Colorado Springs area and she was said to have the "most spectacular [house] in town", managed by a number of servants.

Although she was encouraged to leave town by citizens and law enforcement, she continued to operate her business until her death.

[2] When she began having marital problems, her mother moved to Colorado and opened a boarding house[2] and worked as a laundress.

She had an insurance policy to cover the cost of the damage, but one of her mother's boarders, Morgan Dunn, was thought to have set the fire.

Town residents believed that Dunn had set fire to McDaniel's house as agreed upon so that she could get the insurance money, and Tom killed him to keep him from talking about it.

The local paper stated that Dunn was unarmed when he was shot and he was recovering from a broken collarbone and arm from a bar fight.

The McDaniel's gave an interview to the paper providing information that were inconsistent with the events and statements by Anna Horton.

[6] People that had a significant role in her life included Charles L. Tutt Sr., a real estate and mining magnate; Minnie Smith, a female gambler; and John O'Bryne, nicknamed "Prairie Dog", who was a hack driver and brakeman for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Her nicest house, called the Mansion, was a big brick building that cost more than $10,000 (equivalent to $339,111 in 2023) to construct.

[2] In late 1917, she was arrested for stealing 34 bottles of liquor from Charles Baldwin, a wealthy resident of Colorado Springs.

A trial was held in January 1918, during which a friend, Dusty McCarthy, testified that the liquor was planted in her house.

[3]: 49 McDaniel married Herbert N. Berg, the financial editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph in February 1911 and she continued to operate her businesses.

Her niece, Laura Pearson, was killed and Dusty McCarthy was injured in the crash that occurred near Castle Rock.