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.