Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I got a revolver to protect us, and I soon
Speaker 2: had use for it, declared Constance Connie Copp when interviewed
Speaker 2: about the intruders intimidating her family under the cover of
Speaker 2: darkness at her home. Connie's assistance with the arrest of
Speaker 2: an ex KHN making threats against her and her sisters
Speaker 2: led to her role as the first female appointed Deputy
Speaker 2: Sheriff of Bergen County, New Jersey. Let's talk about how
Speaker 2: Connie got there at a time when women were not
Speaker 2: so much welcomed into such work. Welcome to Criminalia and
Speaker 2: to our first episode of a brand new season about blackmailers.
Speaker 2: I'm Maria Tremarki.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. On a summer morning in nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: silk factory owner Henry Kaufman crashed his brand new car
Speaker 1: into CoP's family buggy at the corner of Carroll Street
Speaker 1: and Broadway in Patterson, New Jersey. The buggy was carrying
Speaker 1: Connie and her two sisters, Norma and Florett. There are
Speaker 1: some conflicting reports that suggest that it was just Connie
Speaker 1: and Norma in their buggy that day, and not their
Speaker 1: youngest sister. But truthfully, it really doesn't matter how many
Speaker 1: sisters were in that vehicle. The women were not injured,
Speaker 1: but their buggy was a wreck. The accident had broken
Speaker 1: its shaft, and Kaufman, who was reportedly one hundred percent
Speaker 1: at fault, refused to pay damages.
Speaker 2: So Connie sued Kaufman in an effort to make him pay,
Speaker 2: and was awarded by a civil court fifty dollars for
Speaker 2: damages caused by the crash. However, Kaufman failed to pay her.
Speaker 2: You can imagine her frustration. Fast forward not too far,
Speaker 2: and Connie saw opportunity. One day, while walking in downtown Patterson,
Speaker 2: she recognized Kaufman's automobile on Main Street and she ran
Speaker 2: after itvoting for other pedestrians to help her stop the vehicle,
Speaker 2: and indeed, she created such a spectacle that Kaufman was
Speaker 2: forced to stop. Some reports suggest there were just too
Speaker 2: many pedestrians surrounding him for him to continue. As luck
Speaker 2: would have it for Connie, a patrolman nearby spoke with Kaufman.
Speaker 2: He was forced to pay the fifty dollars court ordered
Speaker 2: payment He did so and was allowed to drive away.
Speaker 1: But things didn't end there. Connie's lawsuit plus the street
Speaker 1: scene touched off a blackmail slash extortion campaign against her
Speaker 1: and her sisters that included demands for money, threats of arson,
Speaker 1: as well as threats to the sisters themselves. On November
Speaker 1: twenty second, nineteen fourteen, the cop sisters received the first
Speaker 1: of several anonymous threatening letters, each similar to the style
Speaker 1: of what are known as black hand letters. So a
Speaker 1: black hand letter was and is basically extortion through written correspondence.
Speaker 1: Menacing letters would be sent to victims, threatening things like
Speaker 1: arson or kidnapping, or perhaps even murder unless a specific
Speaker 1: amount of money was paid. These letters were signed, but
Speaker 1: not with a traditional signature. Black hand letters were most
Speaker 1: commonly signed with an ink drawn human hand, which is
Speaker 1: where their name black hand came from. Their practice began,
Speaker 1: or was at least popularized, among Italian and Sicilian criminals
Speaker 1: in New York City, and then it spread across the
Speaker 1: United States. These letters were in heavy circulation in the
Speaker 1: early twentieth century, and if you didn't give into the
Speaker 1: demands of a black hand letter, you suffered the consequence.
Speaker 2: The first letter Connie received stated quote, Madam, we demand
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars or we will kill you. Give money
Speaker 2: to a girl dressed in black at the corner of
Speaker 2: Broadway and Carroll Street, Patterson, Saturday night. If you don't pay,
Speaker 2: we will fire your house. We know your horse and wagon.
Speaker 2: We live in Patterson. Sisters received this first one, and
Speaker 2: those that followed were usually signed with things like friends
Speaker 2: of h K or similar sorts, Unlike traditional black hand signatures.
Speaker 2: How will Connie ever figure out whose initials those could
Speaker 2: possibly have been? Well, let's just keep going. So.
Speaker 1: In addition to receiving these demanding letters asking for ransom,
Speaker 1: the Cop family also began to see prowlers on their property,
Speaker 1: and those prowlers did things like discharge revolvers and shotguns
Speaker 1: under their bedroom windows at night. This was at their
Speaker 1: home on Wickoff Farm.
Speaker 2: Things seemed to be escalating quickly, and Connie spoke with authorities.
Speaker 2: Though some local deputies pretty much ignored her story. Bergen
Speaker 2: County Sheriff Robert Heath, on the other hand, took her
Speaker 2: concerns seriously, and he assigned a deputy to guard the
Speaker 2: CoP's farm. Connie later spoke about his efforts stating quote,
Speaker 2: we lived in constant terror, but Sheriff Heath came to
Speaker 2: our distance and provided us with a guard at our home.
Speaker 2: He even took the trouble to bring the deputy from
Speaker 2: Hackensack every day. I don't know what we would have
Speaker 2: done without his assistance.
Speaker 1: We are going to take a break here for a
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about what happened when Sheriff Heath gave Connie and her
Speaker 1: sister's guns for their own protection.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how about a
Speaker 2: year or so after the crash, Connie sued Henry Kaufman
Speaker 2: in criminal court and won.
Speaker 1: Around the same time that Connie took her case to
Speaker 1: the sheriff, she had another run in with Henry Kaufman.
Speaker 1: This time Kaufman, who was inebriated, spotted her walking along
Speaker 1: the street as he drove his car with some friends.
Speaker 1: He pulled over and then proceeded to verbally berate her
Speaker 1: until he was arrested by a patrolling officer who happened
Speaker 1: to be nearby. He was fined five dollars for harassment.
Speaker 2: Though Sheriff Heath was unable to stop the blackmail and
Speaker 2: apprehend those behind it. This wasn't a quickly closed case.
Speaker 2: He was a progressive minded sort who took a non
Speaker 2: traditional route to keep the cop safe. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: he armed the cop sisters each with a revolver and
Speaker 2: trained them how to use it. As you may imagine,
Speaker 2: the newspapers went into a frenzy when this became public.
Speaker 2: This was unheard of, and they printed caricatures of the
Speaker 2: women as three gun toting sisters snooping about in their
Speaker 2: quote petticoats. One really long headline read quote, oh for
Speaker 2: a chance to shoot at the nasty prowlers, the missus
Speaker 2: cop maintaining siege at home, would just love to turn
Speaker 2: guns on blackmailers. Among other headlines was quote silk manufacturer
Speaker 2: fine for fracas with woman. The sisters, though, took this
Speaker 2: very seriously, said Connie, quote, if we ever catch a
Speaker 2: strange man sneaking around our house after dark, we will
Speaker 2: use our revolvers.
Speaker 1: So back to those letters. After receiving the first black
Speaker 1: hand letter, Connie asked for Sheriff Heath's help in regard
Speaker 1: to meeting with the girl in black on that Saturday night.
Speaker 1: As requested in a letter, Connie waited at the corner
Speaker 1: of Broadway and Carol, while Heath waited nearby to confront
Speaker 1: anyone who approached her with a concealed revolver in her handbag.
Speaker 1: Connie waited for an hour until about nine pm, but
Speaker 1: no one showed. She returned home, and authorities never found
Speaker 1: a girl in black asking for money. Despite that no show,
Speaker 1: the threats and attacks against the sisters kept happening. Not
Speaker 1: only did they continue to receive threats in the mail.
Speaker 1: One night, Connie and Norma had to fight. They are
Speaker 1: at men that they spotted in their back garden, and
Speaker 1: those men shot back.
Speaker 2: The black hand threats then began to target the youngest
Speaker 2: Cops sister, sixteen year old Florette, specifically with threats to
Speaker 2: kidnap her. The first abduction letter read, in part quote,
Speaker 2: I heard a deep laid conspiracy to abduct floret This
Speaker 2: can be settled, and you and I and the gang
Speaker 2: are the only one to know it. Keep your head.
Speaker 2: Don't go and publish anything in the newspapers where it
Speaker 2: will spoil our plans. Again, Connie asked Sheriff Heath for help,
Speaker 2: and the two began working together on the case. Connie
Speaker 2: was instrumental in the work leading to the arrest of
Speaker 2: ex convict George Johnson from Somerville, who was a co
Speaker 2: conspirator with Kaufman in the threats against her family. It
Speaker 2: was this assistant she provided that was what ultimately qualified
Speaker 2: her for the role of deputy sheriff.
Speaker 1: On June second, nineteen fifteen, nearly one year after the
Speaker 1: car accident that started this whole conflict, Connie and Norma
Speaker 1: Copp sued Henry Kaufman, this time in criminal court. Their
Speaker 1: case alleged that he had written the black hand letters
Speaker 1: demanding money and warning of violence and kidnapping against the
Speaker 1: cop family. As a consequence, the suit also alleged that
Speaker 1: he was responsible for sending armed men to their farm
Speaker 1: to terrorize them at night. It had not just been
Speaker 1: Connie and Sheriff Heath working on this case. County detectives
Speaker 1: and federal authorities had also been brought in on the investigation.
Speaker 1: As reported in the December third, nineteen sixteen edition of
Speaker 1: The Record, a newspaper out of Hackensack, Kaufman was arrested
Speaker 1: by a detective Francis Butler, in Newark on a federal
Speaker 1: indictment that charge was improper use of the mails. At
Speaker 1: the trial, Sheriff Heath testified about the threatening letters and
Speaker 1: the men found on the property, fully corroborating the CoP's
Speaker 1: sister's story.
Speaker 2: Another important witness for the prosecution was a man named
Speaker 2: William kim Kinsley, who was a handwriting expert from New
Speaker 2: York City. He confirmed to the court that the person
Speaker 2: who wrote those threatening letters to the Copp's sisters was
Speaker 2: indeed Henry Kaufman. The handwriting matched. Kaufman denied all accusations
Speaker 2: against him, but a jury found him guilty.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 1: our sponsors, and when we return, we will talk about
Speaker 1: Connie's appointment to the role of deputy and how it
Speaker 1: quickly ended.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. And now this is the part
Speaker 2: of her story where Connie is appointed to sheriff's deputy.
Speaker 1: Because of her excellent work in the case under the
Speaker 1: order of Bergen County Sheriff Robert Heath. In nineteen fifteen,
Speaker 1: Connie became the first female sheriff's deputy in Bergen king
Speaker 1: New Jersey. That's right. In an effort to get out
Speaker 1: from under a bunch of bullying blackmailers. She made history.
Speaker 1: Although Connie was not the first female deputy sheriff appointed
Speaker 1: in the United States, she did join a rather shortlist
Speaker 1: of women in law enforcement. Included on that list would
Speaker 1: have been Margaret Adams, who joined the Los Angeles County
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department as a deputy in nineteen twelve. She's largely
Speaker 1: considered the first female appointed to the position in the
Speaker 1: United States. And there's also Emma Doherty, who is considered
Speaker 1: the first appointed female sheriff in both Texas and the
Speaker 1: United States. That didn't happen until after Connie's case, when
Speaker 1: Coleman County commissioners empowered her in that role in nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 2: To put all that into some context in United States history,
Speaker 2: for women during Connie, Margaret, and Emma's lifetimes, the landscape
Speaker 2: was quite different than today. This was before women had
Speaker 2: the right to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment wouldn't become law
Speaker 2: until August of nineteen ten. Zip ahead a few decades
Speaker 2: and you see that Connie, who could arrest criminals, was
Speaker 2: not allowed to participate in other parts of the justice system.
Speaker 2: For example, though the Civil Rights Act of nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 2: That's decades after her debt gave women the right to
Speaker 2: serve on federal juries. It wasn't until the nineteen seventies
Speaker 2: when all fifty states did so.
Speaker 1: Connie often worked in partnership with Sheriff Heath, and all
Speaker 1: accounts suggest she was good at the job. On December nineteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, for instance, they found an escaped prisoner near
Speaker 1: a subway entrance in Brooklyn. It was Connie who apprehended
Speaker 1: and physically restrained the Reverend doctor Hermann Albert von Mettesias,
Speaker 1: who was accused of horrific crimes by three boys in
Speaker 1: his employment. Of that arrest, Connie stated, quote, I had
Speaker 1: worked many days and nights on this case, and twice
Speaker 1: doctor von Mettezias got away from us when we thought
Speaker 1: we had him. So I was determined to hang on
Speaker 1: to him, no matter how how rough he might be.
Speaker 1: None of the men nearby offered to come to my assistance,
Speaker 1: and I felt relieved when I heard the Sheriff's voice.
Speaker 1: It seemed as though the doctor was about to strike
Speaker 1: me when the sheriff grabbed his arm and forced him back.
Speaker 2: In April of nineteen sixteen, while Connie and Sheriff Heath
Speaker 2: were transporting a prisoner named Tony Poynotzka. The prisoner escaped
Speaker 2: from the vehicle and jumped into the Hackensack River, attempting
Speaker 2: to drown himself. Connie jumped into the freezing water after
Speaker 2: him and pulled him back to shore safely as he
Speaker 2: combatively struggled to keep himself underwater. She was treated for
Speaker 2: hypothermia because of the river's cold temperature. Of note, as
Speaker 2: she had commented about apprehending the reverend doctor von Mantesius,
Speaker 2: here again, she was the only one who jumped in
Speaker 2: of the event, she was quoted saying, Hoynatzko was my prisoner,
Speaker 2: and if he had drowned or escaped, I would have
Speaker 2: been held responsible. I simply did my duty.
Speaker 1: Newspapers referred to Connie as the quote plucky girl sheriff.
Speaker 1: According to a nineteen sixteen article published in The New
Speaker 1: York Times, Connie received a quote gold plated badge and
Speaker 1: a gold plated pair of handcuffs, which she carried quote
Speaker 1: in her handbag. She did carry a revolver in her handbag,
Speaker 1: and she was given a badge in handcuffs, but that
Speaker 1: gold plated part. Today historians consider that to have been
Speaker 1: an embellishment of the press of her new job, Connie stated, quote,
Speaker 1: some women prefer to stay at home and take care
Speaker 1: of the house. Let them. There are plenty who like
Speaker 1: that kind of work enough to do it. A woman
Speaker 1: should have the right to do any sort of work
Speaker 1: she wants to, provided she can do it.
Speaker 2: Though she was good on the job as deputy sheriff,
Speaker 2: on November fourteenth, nineteen sixteen, Connie lost her badge when
Speaker 2: a man named John Carter was sworn in as the
Speaker 2: new sheriff, a man who claimed he quote couldn't find
Speaker 2: anything for miss Copp to do. In reply, Connie stated
Speaker 2: that under the newly adopted civil service law, employees who'd
Speaker 2: held their position for forty five days prior to the
Speaker 2: election of a new sheriff were legally protected. They were
Speaker 2: to be legally retained no matter who won or lost
Speaker 2: the position of sheriff. She was correct, but despite that
Speaker 2: and her solid work, she, as well as at least
Speaker 2: one other sheriff's deputy, a male deputy, spent months fighting
Speaker 2: for their jobs, but their efforts failed.
Speaker 1: It is believed that Connie and Norma and perhaps Floret,
Speaker 1: although history does not give us a lot of solid
Speaker 1: information on that eventually operated their own detective agency years later,
Speaker 1: possibly in Hawthorne Heights, New Jersey.
Speaker 2: I'm dying to know what she called the cocktail mocktail
Speaker 2: for this particular episode in this season.
Speaker 1: I think for the season, we're gonna call this segment
Speaker 1: coercion concoction. And today's drink in particular is called the
Speaker 1: Petticoat Revolver, and it involves some of our favorite ingredients
Speaker 1: but also some we haven't used really before, and I
Speaker 1: don't think we've ever combined them in quite this way.
Speaker 1: So you are going to start with your shaking tin
Speaker 1: with some ice and put in an eighth of a
Speaker 1: teaspoon of black pepper. To that, you're going to add
Speaker 1: a quarter ounce of lemon juice, a half ounce of
Speaker 1: rost syrup, a half ounce of chili liqueur, and an
Speaker 1: ounce of Rye whiskey, and you're gonna shake it like
Speaker 1: the Dickens. And I see the happy looking because Rye
Speaker 1: has entered the.
Speaker 2: Check every ingredient in this drink.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, I don't mess around with Rye that
Speaker 1: much historically, but I'm getting into it. You're gonna shake
Speaker 1: that with ice. Listen, if you like a straight up
Speaker 1: slapper of a drink. You can absolutely drink this as is.
Speaker 1: I topped it three ounces of ginger beer and that
Speaker 1: was delightful. And this is an interesting one because you
Speaker 1: get this may just be my palette, but for me
Speaker 1: each sip was like a different experience where it'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: now I really taste that rose note. Oh no, now
Speaker 1: that I've actually swallowed, I just have pepper on my tongue.
Speaker 1: The thing is, if you don't want any pepper flex
Speaker 1: in your drink, or you want to minimize it, I
Speaker 1: would double strain it, So strain it with your hawthorn
Speaker 1: strainer or your regular strainer on your cobbler shaker through
Speaker 1: a mesh strainer to get all of the little bits.
Speaker 1: But if you like a little pepper in your drink,
Speaker 1: I do leave it. And then there would be some
Speaker 1: zips where I was like, oh hot, wait is there
Speaker 1: a flower in there? Like I and then others where
Speaker 1: I was like, none of them are really the dominant
Speaker 1: note in this sip. But it's pretty yummy. And it
Speaker 1: is another one of those that is dangerous in that
Speaker 1: it does not really telegraph to you how much alcohol
Speaker 1: is in it be careful, drink responsibly always. For the mocktail,
Speaker 1: this one is pretty easy. In lieu of the chili liqueur,
Speaker 1: you're gonna do any kind of like chili or hobernuro syrup.
Speaker 1: And then in lieu of the rye, here's what I
Speaker 1: would do. You're gonna make your black tea. But when
Speaker 1: you pour your hot water over your tea bag or
Speaker 1: your tea in your little container however you like to
Speaker 1: do it, already have the pepper in your mug or
Speaker 1: whatever vessel you're using, because you want that hot water
Speaker 1: to really open up the pepper and get that flavor
Speaker 1: infused in your tea. And that way you skip adding
Speaker 1: the pepper later when you make your mocktail. But it's already,
Speaker 1: it's way in there. It is gonna give you a
Speaker 1: stronger presence than if you just do the tea on
Speaker 1: its own and add the pepper. So that is my advice.
Speaker 1: That is the Petticoat Revolver, which is hopefully as fun
Speaker 1: for you as it is for me. I sure liked it.
Speaker 1: I was actually surprised at how much I liked it,
Speaker 1: because initially I was gonna just make it. The rye
Speaker 1: and the rose syrup with pepper and maybe another note.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, I want to put a chili.
Speaker 2: Liqueur s icy like Connie copp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Connie's a spicy goalt. I really have to admire her.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things where the fact that
Speaker 1: people thought it was worth making fun of her and
Speaker 1: her sisters and their petticoats with their weapons, it's like,
Speaker 1: does not take in the measure of who they clearly
Speaker 1: were as people, because they were ready. They took it,
Speaker 1: as we said, seriously. It wasn't like they were like
Speaker 1: they clearly were instructed in how to use them by
Speaker 1: Officer Heath, and they clearly knew what to do. And
Speaker 1: Connie especially level headed in a moment that most of
Speaker 1: us would probably be terrified it.
Speaker 2: She chased down a vehicle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she would be like, don't add the ginger beer drinket,
Speaker 1: but I like the ginger beer a lot. So that
Speaker 1: is the petticoat Revolver and our first of our coercion concoctions.
Speaker 1: We are so thankful that you're here with us in
Speaker 1: this new season. We hope you'll be back next week
Speaker 1: for another story and another drink. Criminalia is a production
Speaker 1: of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.