Fredericka "Marm" Mendelbaum
People would say what they liked about her, but they could not argue
that she was not incredibly good at what she did. Mandelbaum was a
household name and yet she escaped prosecution countless times.
'The Ghetto' Rivington Street, New York City
As her wealth and connections in the city grew and her operation became
larger, Marm purchased a building at Clinton and Rivington Streets
claiming that it was for a dry goods business. She hired two lawyers Big
Bill Howe and Little Abe Hummell that she kept on year round with a
salary of $5,000 a year to come to her aid when the police got wind of
any bad behaviour. Marm wasn’t just prominent in New York’s underground,
some would say she was the center of it.
Mendelbaum's New York
With friends on all sides of the aisle, she was well known at the Eighth
Ward Thieves’ Exchange, a New York black market. She often networked at
her synagogue, local beer and oyster halls, and had politicians eating
out of the palm of her hand. Many officials who recognised her influence
would make it a point to stop by her dry goods store to say hello
hoping that her favour could win them the Jewish vote.
A dinner party with 'Marm's' Inner Circle
She had judges and police alike in her pocket and often walked away
clean handed even after being brought in. Newspapers described her as
the woman who “first put crime in America on a syndicated basis.” But
like any good crime boss, she never forgot to give back to her
community.
Mendelbaum's New York children
The “Old Mother” took a number of young pupils under her wing to train
them in the art of crookery. During this period many impoverished
families encouraged their young children to wander the streets
pickpocketing strangers as a way to sustain themselves. Marm took
advantage of this and would readily buy from young thieves as well as
more established crooks.
Sophie Lyons (famous for eventually spending decades trying to reform
criminals) was Marm’s best protégé. She was sent to Sing Sing maximum
security prison three times before she turned 20. As Marm became more
and more established, the number of people under her employment grew and
diversified. She employed engravers to hide the evidence on
stolen jewellery and taxi drivers that might be needed for a quick
escape. She was so good at her job she became famous for buying stolen
goods at one-fifth their value before reselling them and was known to
assess the value of a thief’s winnings with only a quick glance. She was
so powerful that many of the goods looted in the Chicago Fire of 1871
passed through her on their way to new homes.
Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum illustrated far right in a political cartoon
The public took notice of her and she was often the subject of
anti-Semitic comments and hatred. Her notoriety was not always fueled by
racism, but nevertheless, her fame became a constant source of anxiety
and paranoia for the crime boss.
Marm was constantly at odds with rivals and
terribly suspicious of being double crossed. To ensure loyalty, she was
rumored to have gone so far as to open an academy for young criminals
known as The Grand Street School.
In it she employed professional criminals
to teach lessons on pick pocketing, safe cracking, burglary, confidence
and blackmail to young minds. Students at the top of their
classes could be hired by the head honcho herself and taken into the
business. While Marm certainly used these children for her own personal
gain, she may have given many of them a chance at success that they
would have otherwise never known. Marm was a kind of mother to
these children, having once said “I am Ma because I give them what a
mother cannot sometimes give—money and horses and
diamonds.” Unfortunately the school only lasted a few years before
Marm shut it down. She may have been powerful, but when the school
supposedly accepted the son of a prominent police chief, even she knew
she had gone too far and she dismantled the whole operation.
Before the FBI, there was the Pinkerton Detective Agency
Marm was eventually taken down when the New York
City district attorney called in the Pinkerton
Detective Agency to do
what the city’s own police could not. Marm began doing business with an
undercover agent and soon many of her warehouses were raided and
her pillaged goods uncovered.
She was arrested with her son Julius and
confidant Herman Stoude and forced to plead her innocence.
She soon jumped bailed and escaped to Canada where she would live out the remainder of her days giving to charity and working in her hat shop. She allegedly returned to the city once to watch the funeral procession of her daughter before disappearing back into the unknown. Rumors abounded about what had happened to her, and many people believed that she had returned to peddle goods as Madame Fuchs because she could not stay away from the city she loved so dearly.
New York Night Scene, 1871
When Marm eventually died in 1894, her casket was brought back to New
York for burial, but it did not put the rumors to bed. Was her coffin
filled with rocks and the real Marm Mandelbaum back up to her old
tricks? Not even her death convinced people that her life of crime had
come to an end, and with a woman as clever as Marm Mandelbaum, who could
really be sure?
Since pickpocketing is not for you, now go make something beautiful!
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´
(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥
It's summer - take a dip and cool off!
