The first female boss of the New York underworld, who opened a school of criminal sciences (7 photos)

It seems that the pinnacle of a career for women in the middle of the last century was to become a dressmaker or governess. But this feminist lady was not happy with this development of events. And she went further - she opened a crime school.





Frederica Mandelbaum turned street rats into professional criminals.



Frederica "Marm" Mandelbaum

Organized crime in New York is often portrayed as an exclusively male sphere of influence. But one of the first and most powerful crime bosses in the city's history was an immigrant known as "Mama" or "Marm" Mandelbaum.

This domineering and powerful woman was also called the “Queen of Fences.” She became one of the most powerful criminal figures of her time, buying and reselling stolen goods, financing criminal endeavors, and even creating a school for young criminals.

Frederica Mandelbaum came to the States with her husband Wolf in 1848, settled in New York City and opened a hardware store. At first, Mandelbaum and her husband worked as street vendors, establishing relationships with both crowds of aimlessly wandering children and petty thieves who wanted to get rid of their stolen goods.





Rivington Street is a street in the New York borough of Manhattan.

By 1865, Mandelbaum opened a store on Clinton Street, which became a front for her growing criminal activities. Her husband, described by Sophie Lyons - the woman who would later become Mandelbaum's chief student and protégé - as rather weak-willed for his calling, lazy and suffering from chronic dyspepsia, faded into the background while Marm built a criminal empire.

Buying stolen goods became Mandelbaum's main business. The criminal could steal anything - from jewelry to furniture - and sell it to Mom, who in turn resold it to another buyer. Most of all, Mandelbaum loved to buy silk and diamonds. She could buy both of them cheaply and sell them at a huge markup. But she took whatever she wanted. After the Great Chicago Fire, someone showed up at her store with a herd of goats stolen in the fire, and she bought the bleating animals.

As Mandelbaum's power grew, she began to finance bank robberies and support all types of criminal activities - from blackmail to theft and burglary.



Few people tried to argue with the authoritative lady. This was facilitated by Mandelbaum’s impressive dimensions: with a height of 180 centimeters, she weighed about 120-130 kilograms and had a more than impressive appearance.

It is known that she bribed police officers, local politicians and judges, who allowed her amateur group to turn into a criminal group. Mandelbaum never got her hands dirty herself; instead, she created her own inner circle of robbers, pickpockets and brigands.

It is believed that to develop and support this network, Mandelbaum created a school in which she trained numerous children living on the streets to become criminals. At that time the city was filled with orphans. They were called "street rats." And the Mandelbaum School on Grand Street became perhaps the city's first and most successful training center for con artists.



Sophie Lyons is one of Mommy's best students

The school was opened around 1870 behind a storefront on the corner of Clinton and Grand streets. Mandelbaum invited boys and girls to come and learn the criminal trade from professional thieves, pickpockets and swindlers. When young people entered school, they began to learn petty crimes such as pickpocketing and theft.

If they showed abilities, the list of “disciplines” expanded. Other higher-level subjects included safecracking, blackmail, and burglary.

Star students eventually went to work directly for Mandelbaum.

Her enterprise was in close relations with the criminal community: she needed a constant flow of thieves bringing her goods, and they needed a quick and reliable place to sell their criminal gains.

One of Mandelbaum's best students was Lyons, a master of blackmail and theft who, after working for Mandelbaum, went on to have an impressive criminal career of her own and became known as the "Princess of Crime." One of her scams involved a woman luring men to a hotel room, letting them undress, then stealing their clothes and extorting money to get them back.

However, at the beginning of the 20th century, Sophie Lyons reformed, condemning her criminal career and connection with the Mandelbaum school.



Even as the Mandelbaum School lured impressionable youth into a life of crime, its willingness to train and hire women created opportunities that simply did not exist elsewhere. Despite her involvement in crime, Mandelbaum is considered one of the first feminists. Because she was able to find women jobs where they earned more money and could use their skills better than working in factories, as maids or scrubbers.

The Grand Street School operated for about six years and closed about 1876. Mandelbaum closed the school when she learned that the son of a police official had secretly enrolled there. Instead of allowing this suspicious new student to settle in, risking her entire empire, she closed the school.



Even after its closure, Mandelbaum's criminal empire continued to grow and prosper. In addition to the apartment above the Clinton Street store, where she did most of her business, Mandelbaum had to keep a couple of warehouses in the city to store all her dirty goods. Finally, in 1884, members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency managed to put an end to her criminal reign.

The queen of crime was destroyed by the silk she loved so much. Detectives tagged the stolen bale. The woman bought it and got caught. Instead of going to trial, Mandelbaum managed to escape to Canada, where she again acquired money and diamonds worth more than a million dollars.

Mandelbaum died in 1894, continuing to live in exile. Her body was returned to New York for burial, and many mourners reported that they had been (shockingly) robbed. Naturally, Mandelbaum and her school were on the opposite side of the law. But by helping the women she trained and hired, she was still able to get a plus in her karma.