(2) The Women of The Tombs
Naturally women do not figure in crime as much as men, and for various reasons.
In the first place women are more domesticated, work in the interests of the home where they fight life’s battles, are more gentle, artless and persuasive in their methods than the sterner sex.
During the past quarter of a century New York has furnished a large number of murderesses, fences, thieves and women of the street, among her criminal classes.
Last year the police arrested no less than 15,000 women of a dozen nationalities for almost every crime. Only a very small number were for heinous offences.
One of the most noted female crooks that New York has known was Mother Mandelbaum. The annals of crime do not furnish such a woman as this in her particular line.
Her home was on Clinton Street on the East Side of the city. In police parlance Mrs. Mandelbaum was known as a “fence” or receiver of stolen property. In a few years she became very rich. In 1878-9 she had business relations with thieves, pickpockets and shoplifters all over the United States, Canada and Mexico and many parts of Europe. So great was her trade with criminals that she hired all the cellars in the block where she lived for storing her goods. She retained one of the best criminal lawyers of the city to defend criminals and paid him $5,000 a year. She was considered highly respected on the East Side and was a generous contributor to all charities! She was also known as a banker, broker and bondsman, and when men were sent to prison she was known to support their families till they came out.
She was very shrewd in business matters. The police had suspected her of being a “fence” for several years, but were unable to secure the necessary evidence that would indict her.
It was said that several times before a raid on her premises, some person high up in the police department would “tip her off.” In 1884 Lizzie Higgins, a notorious shoplifter, was sent to the penitentiary for five years. Mrs. Mandelbaum had been receiving Lizzie’s stolen property and had become rich on her plunder.
But this time she felt “sore” toward her old friend because she had not furnished her a good lawyer. When Lizzie found out that Mother Mandelbaum would do nothing more for her she “squealed” to the police. She told where could be found the remains of a great silk robbery that took place a few months previously. When this became known Mrs. Mandelbaum fled to Canada, where she lived in obscurity till her death, which took place a few years ago.
Another female criminal well known in New York was big Bertha, the Confidence Queen. She was well educated, had a smart appearance and engaging manners. She usually traveled between New York and Chicago in big style. In New York she stayed at the best hotels, such as the Windsor, Brunswick and Hoffman House. In Chicago she put up at the Palmer House.
On one occasion she told such a smooth story to a palace car conductor that he turned over to her his entire earnings, a thousand dollars. Her happy hunting ground, however, was Wall Street, where she had been able to persuade bankers and brokers to advance her hundreds of thousands of dollars on fictitious securities.
The last time she was on Wall Street she deceived one of the shrewdest brokers and has since disappeared from history.
In the fall of 1898 Mrs. F. M., a woman noted for her beauty and charm of manner, and said to be a belle of old Kentucky, spent many weeks in the Tombs. She and her husband were charged with attempting to blackmail a Broadway hotel keeper. Mrs. M. was known as a most refined and accomplished woman and well educated. As she came from a Southern family of respectability, many people interested themselves in her behalf.
Her husband, however, charged with the same crime, was convicted speedily and sent to prison for nineteen years. It seems to be an impossible task nowadays to convict a woman of crime, provided she has plenty of money and can secure the services of a good lawyer who can play on the “feelings” of the jury. In nearly every case judge and jury are more lenient and extend more mercy to them.
Another woman who received a good deal of notoriety in those days was a Mrs. V——, who hailed from Philadelphia. She was charged with passing forged checks. She was ably defended on both trials. On her last trial her accomplishments counted for a good deal. She had winning ways about her, was well dressed, and to secure sympathy could drop a tear at the proper time. During the few weeks they were in the Tombs Mrs. M—— and Mrs. V—— spent most of their time on the tier or in the corridor—refusing to mix with the other (naughty) female prisoners or to have any dealings with them whatever. Their meals were sent to them from without and with the select company which they received daily were seldom lonely or disconsolate.
The case of Miss Fanny T——, who spent several months in the Tombs during the summer of 1903, is indeed sad and should be a warning to all young girls who at first are admired for their beauty, then betrayed, seduced and cast off by the so-called manly sex and finally disgraced.
She was confidential clerk in a large corporation. Finally she was charged with stealing $37,000 belonging to the firm. This she stoutly denied and showed that it was a conspiracy to save certain men in the office who were the guilty ones.
Several male scoundrels made her sign checks, cash them and turn the money over to them. As she had nothing to show for the money she gave them, she was found guilty and sent to Auburn Prison for several years. What mean cowards! To put a poor woman into such a trap and then gloat over her downfall!
Mabel P—— is another woman of this class. She is what the world calls “smart” and is educated to a certain extent but not cultured. She was brought up in a convent in this state, but left it to become the wife of her present husband, who is a graduate of Elmira Reformatory. She is said to be an expert forger and is able to imitate any handwriting. This was proved at her two trials by a Central Office detective who got into her graces by representing that he was a “pal” of her husband who was then in the Tombs.
These are the best representatives of their class and are remarkable for their adroitness and power to ingratiate themselves into the affections of matrons and missionaries. Mabel is also a habitue of the Tenderloin, where she knows all the resorts, in which she has been a frequent visitor for the past two years. She has refused positively to leave her husband or to abandon her evil life.
But the most dangerous of all women are the panel thieves. They go in pairs—male and female—two of a kind. The Courts are very severe on such people, and give them all the law allows.
The woman who attends strictly to the panel or badger business must have a male side partner, she doing the decoy work before her make-believe husband appears as offended innocence.
Such people seem to be very successful, as they have many victims who meekly submit to their losses rather than “howl” or expose themselves in a Police Court. The panel woman still walks Broadway and Fifth Avenue as a “decoy,” dressed in the fashions of the day, in search of “suckers,” and it is needless to say she finds many of them.
She is great on alluring the unsophisticated—especially rich young men. She has silks and satins, laces, brocades and fine jewelry, which are sure to attract. And after she has captured one and secured the “booty” she goes out the next night with greater boldness than ever.
Another woman that more recently obtained a national reputation while in the Tombs was Miss P——. She was charged with the murder of a “book-maker” and all round sporting man. The deed was done in a cab while he was on his way to the steamer that was to take him to Europe. This woman had three trials. The first proved to be a mistrial as one of the jurors became ill and was unable to hear the rest of the testimony. After the second trial, in which the jury disagreed, Nan became a “heroine.” Friends and admirers everywhere sent her baskets of flowers, candies and frequently a hundred letters a day. Many of them, it is said, contained offers of marriage, but whether made seriously or not, no one knows. The prison authorities permitted her to receive the letters but the candies and flowers were confiscated. The third trial also proved to be a disagreement, after which she was discharged on her own recognizance. Since then she went on the stage, but did not have the same success as when she was a Florodora girl.