Bertha Heyman: America's 'Confidence Queen'

Tremarquis and I'm Holly Fry. Bertha Hayman came to the United States in eighteen seventy eight, during her late twenties. She was born in eighteen fifty one as Bertha Schlessinger, a native of Cubly near Posen in Prussia. Prussia at this point was primarily a Germanic kingdom and state, and it was that until the nineteen hundreds. Today what was Prussia makes up parts of the modern day nations of Germany, Poland,

and Russia. There are some questions about Bertha's life story, but as she was a con artist, we suppose we can expect some of that just by nature here is what everyone thinks they know, with possibly an embellishment here and there from Bertha herself. Bertha attracted the attention of the New York City Police Department in the late eighteen seventies pretty much as soon as she arrived in the

city and the country for that matter. Shortly after relocating to America, this budding con artist followed in the criminal footsteps of her father, who was an alleged forger who regularly ended up in jail. Like her father, she had an extensive arrest record, but despite not being able to evade the law, Bertha was known to be one of the best con artists of her time. She knew how to plan on people's greed, their hubrists, their ambitions, and

their weaknesses to benefit her own end. She was talented at offering the promise of wealth in the future in exchange for your cash right now. Bertha executed on an impressive number of cons throughout her criminal career, most of which followed the same basic premise, which went like this. She would claim to be an incredibly wealthy woman who was having trouble accessing her finances, would a kind soul lent her a small amount of money so she could

access her estate. She claimed, of course she would pay them back generously. So if this sounds kind of like a nineteenth century version of an advanced fee email scamp, it's because it is. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission called this kind of scam advanced fee fraud, and the modern day and Nigerian prints emails asking for help in the way of some fast cash are really basically the same scam that Bertha ran. And she was prolific,

and she developed the nickname the Confidence Queen. Her scams generally involved men, but she really wasn't choosy when it came to victims. She was opportunistic. She stayed at luxurious hotels, she was weighted on, and she bragged about her wealthy friends. The Kansas City Times covered a lot of Bertha's work and once described her in this kind of perfect manner quote. For years, she lived in regal splendor in New York hotels,

surrounded by luxuries and attended by livery lackeys. She occupied different apartments at different times in the St. Dennis Hotel, the Grand Hotel, the Gilsey House, the New York Hotel, and the Hotel Brunswick. Her plan was to pass herself off for a millionaire and then to borrow money on the strength of her prospects. So pretty clear that the

Kansas City Times had Birtha figured out. So One of her early scams involved the dry goods firm of Bates, Read and Coolly as her victim and lost as much as five thousand dollars, which is equivalent in purchasing power to about a hundred and seventy six thousand dollars today. In addition, one of the company's employees, a Mr. Brandt, was tricked and cheated separately from the firm itself. She was arrested for larceny on this con by two Pinkerton detectives.

The Pinkerton Agency was and is still open today, a private security and detective agency. In eighty Bertha ran a scam against Tillie J. Perren of Chicago. She had met Parren on the train between New York and Chicago, and he was a sleeper car conductor and she kind of honed in on him. She used her typical con scheme and claimed great wealth that she just simply couldn't access. She specifically claimed quote she was heir to a large estate and she was paying a New York lawyer six

thousand dollars to look after it. Moving her con along, she suggested that Parren give up his place and manage her estate. Bertha promised to pay more than double his salary if he would become her employee, and he did.

Who wouldn't take that, But there's always the butt. But then Bertha began borrowing money from him to pay small debts she'd called at least a thousand dollars out of Parent that's roughly estimated at thirty five thousand dollars today, while continuing to promise that when she came into possession of her property and finances through a Mr. Robert Bonner, who she claimed was her guardian as well as executor of the will under which she was the heir, the

money that Parent loaned her would be refunded, she said, and then his duties as her estate agent and its accompanying new salary, we're going to begin at that time. It's about this point when Parent came to the conclusion that Bertha was not honest, and, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, he quote despaired of ever obtaining from her his money without compulsion and brought suit against her. Bertha committed so many crimes that we can't even begin to

address them all. We do know that on February Bertha was arrested again, this time in London, Ontario, Canada, and charged with conning several hundred dollars from a Montreal businessman. In June that same year, she stood trial for stealing two hundred and fifty dollars as well as two gold watches from a Mrs Schlarbaum of Staten Island, an elderly woman she boarded with for a short period of time. She was acquitted, but while leaving the courthouse, it's reported

she was arrested again. Can you imagine this on the court steps. This time she was charged with conning to New York City businessmen out of a total of one thousand, four hundred and sixty dollars, which is about roughly fifty thousand dollars today. She was convicted on one of those two indictments and was sentenced to two years in prison. She also conned five thousand dollars from T. W. Morris

of New York City. We noted during our research that this amount actually varied in some reports, and it might have been either five hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars or five thousand in total, regardless, he gave it up after she gave him a bogus bank draft for several thousand dollars from a Milwaukee bank. In October of eight one, Bertha was tried for having obtained Morris's moneys by false pretenses, and the jury convicted her in less than five minutes.

She was sentenced to two years. However, prior to her sentencing, Bertha managed to run up a considerable dental bill. When the dentist requested payment, reported the Chicago Tribune, Bertha quote sent word that he need not trouble himself about so trifling a sum, as she had fourteen million on deposit downtown, but could not spare the time to cut off the coupons.

She never stopped running a calm I like how she was like, I'm going to jail, but I want a good teeth first, right, I gotta take care of that. Got a got a crown. I don't know how long I'm going to be in. In fact, imprisonment didn't slow

down her scams either. While in cars rated, she often continued to work generally she spent her time moving through the New York State penitentiary system, stealing watches and jewelry, as well as forging checks and bonds, and in one example, while serving time on Blackwell's Island in New York in the early eighteen eighties, she befriended then swindled a man out of his life savings of nine dollars, which is

equivalent to about thirty one dollars today. The Kansas City Times, on top of the story, reported that while in carser rated Bertha was quote a prisoner only by name. She occupies the suite of apartments in the courthouse, has been attended by a maid, and is treated to carriage rides every day. She has been at many excursions and spends much of her time in attendance at scenes of festivity in the city. To such an extent is this carried that she is called the princess by the local residents.

In conversation, she's most plausible and graceful and presents an air of injured innocence that induces many credulous person to believe she is really a wronged and persecuted woman. The Chicago Tribune was one of the other American newspapers that followed Bertha's cons closely and reported in January of eighty three about her time in prison. In particular, they wrote about how she pulled off cons while she was incarcerated, something we know from other articles and core reports that

she had been doing for years. Quote. From her cell in the Blackwells Island Penitentiary, she was able to communicate with a trustful German named Charles Carpa in New York and secured from him nearly one thousand dollars upon like representations to those which had deceived Parim and the unfortunate Mrs Schlarbaum. Her scam was tweaked a little bit while she was doing time, but not much. Bertha confided in Carpa that she had owned a strong box filled with

bonds and jewels. Her dilemma, she claimed, was that the box was stored in a vault and she needed cash to pay leans for its storage. She explained that once this was back in her possession, she would pay him back tenfold. She also explained that she needed cash to bribe the prison warden so she could get her sentence commuted. Carpa was hooked and before she was exposed he had

advanced her money on several instances. More newspapers began to report more frequently on Bertha's criminal affairs as her career grew, and many reported things such as this. The history of Bertha Haymond's exploits and adventures would fill a book. She is up to every device, strategem and trick that is calculated to deceive. She used to lodge at the leading hotels and was always attended by a man servant and a maid. At the Windsor and the Brunswick, she had

elegant quarters. When plotting one of her swindles, she would glibally talk about her dear friends, and on such occasions it was not unusual for her maid or servant to bring in her a valuable bouquet bearing the card and compliments of gould Aster or Vanderbilt. The flourish from whom she procured the bouquets still retains exceedingly lively recollections of

her as an undesirable customer. We are going to take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we return there will be a lot more talk about Bertha's crimes and her prison time. Welcome back, to criminalia in prison or out. Bertha was a natural born confidence artist. Let's talk about the scam she ran when she decided to try her luck in California in eighty three. Fresh out of prison, Bertha used forged securities to defraud a

financial broker who believed that she was worth millions. She was again arrested and charged, and she was sentenced in the Court of General Sessions in August of that year. The jury returned a verdict of guilty within minutes, and Bertha spent five years in prison, this time. After her release, she headed west. In she moved from New York to San Francisco with a man named Willie Stanley, who she

claimed was her stepson. Some reports suggest she may have or may not have used the surname Stanley at this time, but once settled in California, she approached Rabbi A. J. Messing, who happened to be an acquaintance from her Prussian childhood, and she explained to him that she had made a

mistake by marrying a man who was not Jewish. That man had since passed, she noted, and had left her with an enormous fortune, as much as three hundred thousand dollars, which roughly translates to ten million, five hundred thousand today. She wanted to marry again, she told the Rabbi, but this time she wanted to marry within her faith. So she asked Messing for his help finding her a Jewish husband and offered one thousand dollars to the matchmaker who

can make it happen. Fortunately, or coincidentally, it turns out that Messing's brother in law, Abraham Grun, a wealthy local businessman, was taken with Bertha upon meeting her, and according to the San Francisco Examiner, he proposed in a matter of days.

The pairing brought Bertha into the high society of San Francisco, in particular San Francisco's Beth Israel Congregation, where she attended parties and events in a fancy new wardrobe, a fancy new wardrobe that's been purchased on credit several businesses had extended to her and also on bad checks. Burtha was general us with her fake finances and gifted a check

of a thousand dollars to the congregation. But before the two were officially wed, her alleged son, Willie quietly asked Abraham for money five dollars, and it was because he didn't want his alleged stepmother to marry. Abraham obliged with an open wallet, and then it wasn't long before Willie asked him to give him jewels he wanted. He explained, to have them reset in a contemporary fashion, the way

his alleged stepmother would like. Abraham again obliged this request, and then within the week after pawning those jewels, Bertha and Willie they just be beat. Realizing he was swindled, Abraham pleaded his case to the San Francisco Police Department's Captain of detectives, But before he could even finish telling his story, the detective opened a book on his desk and flipped to photo number one. Showing the page to Abraham, he asked, quote, is this the woman the victim in

this belief? Nodded. The book containing Bertha's photo was titled Professional Criminals of America and had been written in eighteen eighty six by a name we mentioned earlier, Thomas F. Burns, New York City's legendary police inspector. Inspector Burns became known for the interrogation technique he called the third degree while he was head of the New York City Detective Bureau from eighteen eighty until, and he'd profiled Bertha in his book.

The description of photo number one two read Bertha Hayman alias Big Bertha Confidence Queen and detailed stories of several of her cons It also noted where she had been incarcerated. In addition, a dispatch from San Francisco to New York sent in eighty eight laid out the situation heads up that we're quoting here, but this quote and another one that are coming up referred to Jewish people in a way that is very outdated and considered derogatory by many.

Just know that as we're going in. This alert stated that quote, the Queen of Crooks has been operating among the Hebrew portion of the San Francisco community with wonderful success. The dispatch reported that she was using the name Bertha Stanley and was accompanied by her alleged step son, William Willie H. M. Stanley. According to newspapers around the country, she was living in luxury and until she was discovered

she absolutely was. In April, one local paper reported quote, they ran up large bills in the various stores through the clever fashion they had of shopping in the company of some wealthy Hebrew. She had for a suitor, a popular and wealthy young merchant, whom she gave a check for thirty thousand dollars on the Lassalle Bank for safekeeping, and he in return gave her a five hundred dollar diamond ring and other gems aggregating several thousand dollars in value.

After Bertha left the duke, suitor wired the LaSalle Bank and discovered that the check was worthless. She is wanted here for forgery and counterfeiting. Bertha's check, unsurprisingly to the Beth Israel congregation, was returned for insufficient funds. Warrants for Bertha and Willie's arrests were issued, and detectives tracked the pair to Texas, where both were apprehended in San Antonio.

Bertha played an outraged, innocent character during her arrest, which, as we've gleaned from her arrest reports, was kind of her thing. They were returned to California by officers James W. Gillen and John Parrott by boat. The San Francisco Examiner reported these details on June four. Quote Bertha was treated considerately on the journey, no handcuffs being put on her.

She and Willie were in remarkably good spirits from the time San Antonio was left until San Francisco was reached, and in the jail they showed not the least trace of dejection. Two brits of habeas corpus were success fully obtained and dismissed the question in reference to the last one turning on the woman's identity. Grun, the deluded lover and expected bridegroom, went to San Antonio and satisfied the court on this point. Bertha objected strenuously to going to

San Francisco, but had no choice. During the case, Bertha and really denied Grun or anyone else had given them any money or any checks. Bertha stated she had become Mrs Stanley after she divorced a John Hayman. She claimed she was never married to a man known as Fritz Carpo, with whom she lived in New York City and later Milwaukee. Despite this report, it's actually really unclear if Bertha ever married once twice never. The information doesn't all match up.

But Bertha is really not known for the truth. Is she if she married It's unclear if the pairs divorced or if Bertha was widowed. It's suggested by some accounts she did marry twice, once to a man she identified as John Hayman and from whom she took her surname, or maybe she just pretended all of it. Bertha was acquitted, but Willie was found guilty in what became a media frenzy of a trial during which the judge stated he quote could hardly force his way through the crowd to

reach the bench. That's according to a story in the Daily Alta, California. Why was there such a crowd? Allow us to explain It was because Bertha had a second career. That's right. But first we're going to take a break for a work from our sponsor, and when we would return, we'll talk about how Bertha developed a stage career during the time she lived in San Francisco. Welcome back to Criminalia. Yes, Bertha had a side hustle that involved Romeo and Juliet

and a man who called himself Oofty Goofty. Where to begin. Bertha did live a life in and out of jail, but she also lived a life on and off the stage. Yes, no, doubt you have questions will tell this story. During her time in San Francisco, Bertha was asked to perform and a one woman show. Manager and promoter Ned Foster saw an opportunity with Bertha, and, after bailing her out of jail, launched her new career in theater. He booked her first

into Woodwards Gardens. Woodwards Gardens was a popular public amusement resort in the late eighteen hundred. It filled two square blocks in the Mission District and included, among many things, an amusement park, a museum, and an animal collection featuring a grizzly bear, grotto, sea lions, and an aviary. As many as eighteen thousand people went to see her perform her poem The Confidence Queen, which I will now read to you. So when vain grasping men pant for glittering

gold and find their bonanza in me? Is it wicked to show up how badly they're sold? And the robes that men can sometimes be? Birtha's theatrical career continued to grow beyond that poem with a booking at the Belly Union, san Francisco's most popular music hall. Foster cast her and an actor named Leonard bore Sharp, who went by the stage name Oofti Goofty. These two played in scenes from

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Leonard, it was reported in the local papers, had turned himself into one of the city's first celebrities. He did so by acting as a human punching bag, and his stick was physical comedy and performance art and a little side show work thrown in. So he was known to yell the phrase Oofti goofty at his audience from within a cage while he was covered with glue and hair. There are so many layers of problems to this. Off stage, he was known for his

offbeat antics. He once shipped himself through the postal service wrapped in a large box. Strike that more than once. He also attached a leather pad to the seat of his pants and got people to for a small fee kick oofty goof dy. There was a sliding scale based on how severely you wanted to kick him, so, for instance, for ten cents, you could kick his backside once. For a little more money, you could hit his behind with a cane. For two bucks, you could use a baseball bat.

According to the San Francisco Gate on a busy Saturday, Leonard was known to end his night with as much as ten dollars in his pocket. That's equivalent in purchasing power to roughly fifty dollars today being hit by a bat. Sure. It was also during this time he earned a second nickname, Professor hart Miss, because, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, quote,

he combined spartan fortitude with unusual doscility. In addition to large promotional posters that were placed around the city, Foster had cabinet photos taken to Bertha to promote her stage career. A cabinet photo is a photograph mounted on a stiff piece of cardboard, and it was a really popular format in the late nineteenth century, and people would buy them

as souvenirs of her new stage appearance. The San Francisco Examiner reported quote her costume was a nun's veiling dress, black hat and feather to match, gloves, fan and jewelry. When it came to their Romeo and Juliet show, Foster show was a hit. Bertha even picked up a few tips from Leonard, and the local California papers began to report she was engaging in wrestling matches with any man who dared go against her, and of course for a fee.

Bertha was strong, and she was skilled, and she knocked out every one of them off stage and at her trial in San Francisco, Bertha willingly talked to newspaper reporters about the charges she was facing. She maintained that any man who was interested in her was really interested in her for her money. Bertha admitted that she preferred to

target people who really should know better. According to carry Seagraves book Women Swindlers in America in eight three, Bertha told a police chief in Jersey City after one of her many many arrests, quote, the moment I discover a man's a fool, I let him drop, but I delight in getting into the confidence and pockets of men who think they can't be skinned. It ministers to my intellectual pride. She's not alone in her thoughts and approach to the

flim flam business. Now. Celebrity con artist Frank adam Nel Jr. Author of the memoir Catch Me If You Can, which the two thousand and two movie of the same name is based on, has famously said of the con busy nous quote a hood planning a bank hold up, might case the treasury for rudimentary facts, but in the end he depends on his gun. A con artist's only weapon is his brain, admits another now retired confidence artist, quote,

this was less than number one. Swindling is really acting, and you play a character who will help you appear legitimate, confident, and successful even when you are not. Bertha was a smart, interesting woman to report on, and can you imagine the stories that she could tell. But a lot of newspaper reports of her and her cons focus not on her pretty impressive intellect in her criminal abilities, but rather on crude descriptions of her appearance and those descriptions of Bertha's

physical characteristics. Varied newspapers made offensive jokes at the expense of her body, describing her as quote elephantine and sometimes comparing her to a battle it. They opined about how a woman of her physical characteristics could scam a man out of such large amounts of money. Today, she's still known as Big Bertha Hayman. Most provided pretty unflattering physical descriptions of her. This whole thing is very problematic, but it happened to her, and we don't want to overlook

it as part of her daily life. The San Francisco Examiner attempted to explain her appeal, but not with her charisma and wits. We quote a site of Bertha is necessary to let one perceive how a woman with so much flesh, and whose appearance has been often referred to as homely, could attract the attention and win the confidence of men. Her power lies in her eyes. They are brown, but of such a dark color they are bright enough

to light up her entire countenance. She is not handsome, but she is not bad looking either, and accounts that have been given of her visage have been overdrawn it. There is not a tailor's measure in town that can encompass her ample form. Anyone with an eye for distances can readily perceive that the lady has passed her hugging days. But to one who has such a contempt for men as she, this can occasion little regret. Journalists were relentless.

A reporter for the Buffalo Evening News of New York took a bit of a different angle, yet still fixated on her appearance, and reported that quote. She had what is described by the French as a bell figure. She was a very attractive person and took your fancy at the moment she fixed her big brown stag like eyes upon you. Her wavy hair is soft and black, and

her hands are white, taper fingered, and Philbert nailed. She sat quietly with her dress open at the neck, revealing a shapely throat of a complexion creamy as the inner pedals of a lily, and her arms bare to the elbows, soft and dimpled. In his book, Inspector Burns described her physically similar to most reports in the media, but he is very brief descriptive statements like a checklist that would

go with photo number one. He wrote, thirty five years old in eighteen eighty six, married very stout woman five ft four and a half inches, weight, two hundred pounds, hair, brown eyes, brown, fair complexion, German face, excellent talker, has four moles on her right cheek. Putting all of these toxic standards and the fat shaming language aside, Bertha was sometimes described as overflowing with charisma, although the trait didn't get the attention it deserved when talking about a con

artist of her caliber, of her capabilities and faults. It was again Inspector Burns who wrote admiringly of her, stating that she quote possesses a wonderful knowledge of human nature and can deceive those who consider themselves particularly shrewd in business matters. Bertha story kind of sputters out. She faded from her stage career and from her criminal work. She died in May of nineteen o one, but the where, and frankly actually the when is disputed. We don't really

know what happened to her at the end. I kind of like that birtha story dissipates. Yeah, it's like after the California business at all. Kind of it's like she was she went on the lamb forever, I hope. So I hope she just chose a new name and went for it and she was never known as Big Bertha again. No, no, And we can share our scan sauce whether she's welcome. Yes.

So I'm just going to say it. There was no way I wasn't going to name this cocktail ROOFTI goofed the thing that I kept thinking about with Bertha, and what I felt like this story and her life really needed was a cocked ale that is deceptive, right, We need one that looks very pretty that tastes very pretty, but it's just dangerous as hell. Got in the perfect description for Birth's cocktail, and we got it. It's an

easy one. You're gonna build it in the glass so you don't have to mess with a shaker or anything. You're gonna put three quarters of an ounce of lime juice, fresh squeezed, always better, one ounce of Creme de violette in this glass, and you're gonna stir those together so that the lime juice thins out the syrup a little bit. Then you're gonna add your ice, and then on top of that, you're gonna pour an ounce and a half of like a good representato tequila, and then you're going

to top all of it with ginger beer. So it's like a flowery tequila version of a mule, but that Creme de violette makes it pink. The ginger beer completely disguises the tequila flavor. It just tastes like a slightly bite the floral, yummy, very beautiful, refreshing drink, and it is so full of alcohol. I like when we go floral a little bit. I always think that's a nice that's a nice pickup. I feel like we don't take

tequila a lot. We don't because I'm not a big tequila but I felt and part of why is because like it will knock me on my tail. So I was like, well, of course this has to be. And I will say to you, if you really want to go for the beautiful but dangerous with this, I made a little garnish out of a spring of lavender with a lime, like a little lime peel wrapped around it. It was very pretty and cute. You could also throw like some culinary lavender or rosebuds in it, just something

make it very pretty, very floral. It looks so sweet, like you'd save it servant a very dainty, very composed luncheon. And in fact it will wreck you. And thus then you will be saying, ooff, please don't hit me with a bat at, please do not The mock tail for this is very easy, and you only get all of

the delicious part and none of the danger. Instead of krime to violette, you'll use a violet syrup delicious and then you're just going to leave out the tequila and just do the violet syrup, the lime juice, and the ginger beer. In this case, you might even want to up the violet syrup a little bit if you like it sweet, and it is again refreshing and beautiful, and that one is not dangerous at all, but the alcoholic

one sure is. I might put it on my home barment you and just see how many people think it looks very pretty and dainty, and then they're like, oh, dear me, what has happened there? Like, I can only have one drink responsibly. Obviously I'm not. I'm not advocating for getting your friends blackout drunk by any means, but I always like when a drink is a surprise, it's

a stiff drink. If you have survived the u f D goof dy and have made it to the end here, we want to thank you for spending this time with us, and we will also have a lot more con artists coming in the coming weeks, So we'll see you next week with another story and another cocktail right here on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership

with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.