Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - Fredericka 'Marm' Mandelbaum didn't believe in hard, honest work. She wanted big money and fast. Her solution was simple. She opened a school for criminals in New York and taught her students how to become successful thieves.
For more than 25 years, she received stolen goods, accumulated great wealth, and became one of the most influential and powerful women in New York. Her criminal gangs roamed the city, and she became a wealthy woman.
Who Was Fredericka 'Marm' Mandelbaum?
Born in Kassel, Germany, Fredericka 'Marm' Mandelbaum (1818 – 1894) came to the United States as a poor immigrant in 1850. Her family was Jewish, and there is little information about her early life, but it's known financial difficulties forced her to leave her home country. Before arriving in America with her, their infant daughter, Bertha, nicknamed Bessie Fredericka, was already married to Wolfe Mandelbaum, who worked as a peddler.
It's also easy to judge someone, but truthfully, Fredericka and her husband could face life-threatening problems if they had remained in Germany, where anti-Semitism was growing.
Beginning Of Mandelbaum's Criminal Career
When the Mandelbaums arrived in New York, they started a legitimate business by selling recycled goods, but the shop soon became a criminal enterprise that quickly became successful. Friends and enemies surrounded Frederick, but somehow she always managed to stay one step ahead of prosecution for much of her life.
Mother Mandelbaum's storefront and house. Credit: Museum of the City of New York - Right: Illustration of Fredericka Mandelbaun in the book Recollections of a New York Chief of Police" (1887) by George W. Walling. Credit: Public Domain
Fredericka's business model was based on the idea it was possible to turn young men and even women into professional criminals. After the Panic of 1857 caused a decline in the economy of the United States, many were very vulnerable and afraid they couldn't survive. Most businesses failed, and banks closed. Tens of thousands lost their jobs, and hungry, desperate children tried to sell old rope and slivers of coal on the streets. It was a pitiful sight, and Fredericka used youngsters' poverty to become a rich woman.
Many who worked for her were thieves and burglars. She opened Marm's Grand Street School, where she taught young criminals how to avoid being caught.
Fredericka Mandelbaum became an influential figure in the criminal underworld, where she was praised and highly respected as a great organized crime leader in New York City's high society. Fredericka gave her criminal students helpful and frustrating tips to the police. For example, Frederick revealed how one should get dressed before committing a crime. She also explained the value of using copied keys and bribing police officers.
Fredericka never participated in any crimes herself. Her criminal business flourished. She also employed blackmailers and confident men to join her gangs. She took 10% of the planning, making her a wealthy woman.
Marm Mandelbaum, The Queen of Fences, ran her school for criminals. Credit: Library of Congress/LC-DIG-ppmsca-28344
Fredericka was associated with some of the most well-known criminals of the day, including Queen Liz, Big Mary, "Black" Lena Kleinschmidt, Adam Worth, Sophie Lyons, and George Leonidas Leslie. Newspapers described her as "the greatest crime promoter of all time" and the one who "first put crime in America on a syndicated basis."
"Mandelbaum was truly an American success story, ignoring, of course, the fact that her enormous success was in the business of crime. She rose from the humble beginnings in the early 1850s as a lowly immigrant street peddler to become the greatest, most successful, and notorious fence in the annals of New York City history." 1
Queen of Thieves is the gritty, fast-paced story of Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum, a poor Jewish woman who rose to the top of her profession in organized crime during the Gilded Age in New York City. During her over twenty-five-year reign as the country's top receiver of stolen goods, she accumulated great wealth and power inconceivable for women engaged in business, legitimate or otherwise. The New York Times called Mandelbaum "the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City." Read more
Fredericka played cat and mouse game with law enforcement for years. Still, everything changed in the spring of 1884 when New York District Attorney Peter Olson hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate Marm's operation. An agent pretended to be a prospective thief, and Fredericka's lucrative criminal business was exposed.
This didn't stop the lady from once again fooling the authorities. Once she was released on bail, she took about 1 million USD and fled the United States. She settled in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she lived until her death in 1884.
Written by Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com
First version of this article was published on October 22, 2019
Copyright © AncientPages.com & Ellen Lloyd All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of AncientPages.com and Ellen Lloyd
Expand for referencesAdditional reading:
Sophie Lyons - Why Crime Does Not Pay
George Washington Walling - Recollections of a New York Chief of Police
Ben Macintyre - The Napoleon of Crime: The life and times of Adam Worth
Herbert Asbury - The Hangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
