Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radiom. Legendary New York City Police
Speaker 1: detective Thomas F. Burns described Bertha Hayman as quote one
Speaker 1: of the smartest confidence women in America, and she was
Speaker 1: considered among New York City police to be quote the
Speaker 1: boldest and most expert of the many female adventuresses who
Speaker 1: infested the country during her lifetime. So let's meet this
Speaker 1: so called confidence queen. Welcome to criminal Lea. I'm Maria
Speaker 1: Tremarquis and I'm Holly Fry. Bertha Hayman came to the
Speaker 1: United States in eighteen seventy eight, during her late twenties.
Speaker 1: She was born in eighteen fifty one as Bertha Schlessinger,
Speaker 1: a native of Cubly near Posen in Prussia. Prussia at
Speaker 1: this point was primarily a Germanic kingdom and state, and
Speaker 1: it was that until the nineteen hundreds. Today what was
Speaker 1: Prussia makes up parts of the modern day nations of Germany, Poland,
Speaker 1: and Russia. There are some questions about Bertha's life story,
Speaker 1: but as she was a con artist, we suppose we
Speaker 1: can expect some of that just by nature here is
Speaker 1: what everyone thinks they know, with possibly an embellishment here
Speaker 1: and there from Bertha herself. Bertha attracted the attention of
Speaker 1: the New York City Police Department in the late eighteen
Speaker 1: seventies pretty much as soon as she arrived in the
Speaker 1: city and the country for that matter. Shortly after relocating
Speaker 1: to America, this budding con artist followed in the criminal
Speaker 1: footsteps of her father, who was an alleged forger who
Speaker 1: regularly ended up in jail. Like her father, she had
Speaker 1: an extensive arrest record, but despite not being able to
Speaker 1: evade the law, Bertha was known to be one of
Speaker 1: the best con artists of her time. She knew how
Speaker 1: to plan on people's greed, their hubrists, their ambitions, and
Speaker 1: their weaknesses to benefit her own end. She was talented
Speaker 1: at offering the promise of wealth in the future in
Speaker 1: exchange for your cash right now. Bertha executed on an
Speaker 1: impressive number of cons throughout her criminal career, most of
Speaker 1: which followed the same basic premise, which went like this.
Speaker 1: She would claim to be an incredibly wealthy woman who
Speaker 1: was having trouble accessing her finances, would a kind soul
Speaker 1: lent her a small amount of money so she could
Speaker 1: access her estate. She claimed, of course she would pay
Speaker 1: them back generously. So if this sounds kind of like
Speaker 1: a nineteenth century version of an advanced fee email scamp,
Speaker 1: it's because it is. The United States Securities and Exchange
Speaker 1: Commission called this kind of scam advanced fee fraud, and
Speaker 1: the modern day and Nigerian prints emails asking for help
Speaker 1: in the way of some fast cash are really basically
Speaker 1: the same scam that Bertha ran. And she was prolific,
Speaker 1: and she developed the nickname the Confidence Queen. Her scams
Speaker 1: generally involved men, but she really wasn't choosy when it
Speaker 1: came to victims. She was opportunistic. She stayed at luxurious hotels,
Speaker 1: she was weighted on, and she bragged about her wealthy friends.
Speaker 1: The Kansas City Times covered a lot of Bertha's work
Speaker 1: and once described her in this kind of perfect manner quote.
Speaker 1: For years, she lived in regal splendor in New York hotels,
Speaker 1: surrounded by luxuries and attended by livery lackeys. She occupied
Speaker 1: different apartments at different times in the St. Dennis Hotel,
Speaker 1: the Grand Hotel, the Gilsey House, the New York Hotel,
Speaker 1: and the Hotel Brunswick. Her plan was to pass herself
Speaker 1: off for a millionaire and then to borrow money on
Speaker 1: the strength of her prospects. So pretty clear that the
Speaker 1: Kansas City Times had Birtha figured out. So One of
Speaker 1: her early scams involved the dry goods firm of Bates,
Speaker 1: Read and Coolly as her victim and lost as much
Speaker 1: as five thousand dollars, which is equivalent in purchasing power
Speaker 1: to about a hundred and seventy six thousand dollars today.
Speaker 1: In addition, one of the company's employees, a Mr. Brandt,
Speaker 1: was tricked and cheated separately from the firm itself. She
Speaker 1: was arrested for larceny on this con by two Pinkerton detectives.
Speaker 1: The Pinkerton Agency was and is still open today, a
Speaker 1: private security and detective agency. In eighty Bertha ran a
Speaker 1: scam against Tillie J. Perren of Chicago. She had met
Speaker 1: Parren on the train between New York and Chicago, and
Speaker 1: he was a sleeper car conductor and she kind of
Speaker 1: honed in on him. She used her typical con scheme
Speaker 1: and claimed great wealth that she just simply couldn't access.
Speaker 1: She specifically claimed quote she was heir to a large
Speaker 1: estate and she was paying a New York lawyer six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to look after it. Moving her con along,
Speaker 1: she suggested that Parren give up his place and manage
Speaker 1: her estate. Bertha promised to pay more than double his
Speaker 1: salary if he would become her employee, and he did.
Speaker 1: Who wouldn't take that, But there's always the butt. But
Speaker 1: then Bertha began borrowing money from him to pay small
Speaker 1: debts she'd called at least a thousand dollars out of
Speaker 1: Parent that's roughly estimated at thirty five thousand dollars today,
Speaker 1: while continuing to promise that when she came into possession
Speaker 1: of her property and finances through a Mr. Robert Bonner,
Speaker 1: who she claimed was her guardian as well as executor
Speaker 1: of the will under which she was the heir, the
Speaker 1: money that Parent loaned her would be refunded, she said,
Speaker 1: and then his duties as her estate agent and its
Speaker 1: accompanying new salary, we're going to begin at that time.
Speaker 1: It's about this point when Parent came to the conclusion
Speaker 1: that Bertha was not honest, and, as reported in the
Speaker 1: Chicago Tribune, he quote despaired of ever obtaining from her
Speaker 1: his money without compulsion and brought suit against her. Bertha
Speaker 1: committed so many crimes that we can't even begin to
Speaker 1: address them all. We do know that on February Bertha
Speaker 1: was arrested again, this time in London, Ontario, Canada, and
Speaker 1: charged with conning several hundred dollars from a Montreal businessman.
Speaker 1: In June that same year, she stood trial for stealing
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars as well as two gold
Speaker 1: watches from a Mrs Schlarbaum of Staten Island, an elderly
Speaker 1: woman she boarded with for a short period of time.
Speaker 1: She was acquitted, but while leaving the courthouse, it's reported
Speaker 1: she was arrested again. Can you imagine this on the
Speaker 1: court steps. This time she was charged with conning to
Speaker 1: New York City businessmen out of a total of one thousand,
Speaker 1: four hundred and sixty dollars, which is about roughly fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars today. She was convicted on one of those
Speaker 1: two indictments and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Speaker 1: She also conned five thousand dollars from T. W. Morris
Speaker 1: of New York City. We noted during our research that
Speaker 1: this amount actually varied in some reports, and it might
Speaker 1: have been either five hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: or five thousand in total, regardless, he gave it up
Speaker 1: after she gave him a bogus bank draft for several
Speaker 1: thousand dollars from a Milwaukee bank. In October of eight one,
Speaker 1: Bertha was tried for having obtained Morris's moneys by false pretenses,
Speaker 1: and the jury convicted her in less than five minutes.
Speaker 1: She was sentenced to two years. However, prior to her sentencing,
Speaker 1: Bertha managed to run up a considerable dental bill. When
Speaker 1: the dentist requested payment, reported the Chicago Tribune, Bertha quote
Speaker 1: sent word that he need not trouble himself about so
Speaker 1: trifling a sum, as she had fourteen million on deposit downtown,
Speaker 1: but could not spare the time to cut off the coupons.
Speaker 1: She never stopped running a calm I like how she
Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to jail, but I want a
Speaker 1: good teeth first, right, I gotta take care of that.
Speaker 1: Got a got a crown. I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in. In fact, imprisonment didn't slow
Speaker 1: down her scams either. While in cars rated, she often
Speaker 1: continued to work generally she spent her time moving through
Speaker 1: the New York State penitentiary system, stealing watches and jewelry,
Speaker 1: as well as forging checks and bonds, and in one example,
Speaker 1: while serving time on Blackwell's Island in New York in
Speaker 1: the early eighteen eighties, she befriended then swindled a man
Speaker 1: out of his life savings of nine dollars, which is
Speaker 1: equivalent to about thirty one dollars today. The Kansas City Times,
Speaker 1: on top of the story, reported that while in carser
Speaker 1: rated Bertha was quote a prisoner only by name. She
Speaker 1: occupies the suite of apartments in the courthouse, has been
Speaker 1: attended by a maid, and is treated to carriage rides
Speaker 1: every day. She has been at many excursions and spends
Speaker 1: much of her time in attendance at scenes of festivity
Speaker 1: in the city. To such an extent is this carried
Speaker 1: that she is called the princess by the local residents.
Speaker 1: In conversation, she's most plausible and graceful and presents an
Speaker 1: air of injured innocence that induces many credulous person to
Speaker 1: believe she is really a wronged and persecuted woman. The
Speaker 1: Chicago Tribune was one of the other American newspapers that
Speaker 1: followed Bertha's cons closely and reported in January of eighty
Speaker 1: three about her time in prison. In particular, they wrote
Speaker 1: about how she pulled off cons while she was incarcerated,
Speaker 1: something we know from other articles and core reports that
Speaker 1: she had been doing for years. Quote. From her cell
Speaker 1: in the Blackwells Island Penitentiary, she was able to communicate
Speaker 1: with a trustful German named Charles Carpa in New York
Speaker 1: and secured from him nearly one thousand dollars upon like
Speaker 1: representations to those which had deceived Parim and the unfortunate
Speaker 1: Mrs Schlarbaum. Her scam was tweaked a little bit while
Speaker 1: she was doing time, but not much. Bertha confided in
Speaker 1: Carpa that she had owned a strong box filled with
Speaker 1: bonds and jewels. Her dilemma, she claimed, was that the
Speaker 1: box was stored in a vault and she needed cash
Speaker 1: to pay leans for its storage. She explained that once
Speaker 1: this was back in her possession, she would pay him
Speaker 1: back tenfold. She also explained that she needed cash to
Speaker 1: bribe the prison warden so she could get her sentence commuted.
Speaker 1: Carpa was hooked and before she was exposed he had
Speaker 1: advanced her money on several instances. More newspapers began to
Speaker 1: report more frequently on Bertha's criminal affairs as her career grew,
Speaker 1: and many reported things such as this. The history of
Speaker 1: Bertha Haymond's exploits and adventures would fill a book. She
Speaker 1: is up to every device, strategem and trick that is
Speaker 1: calculated to deceive. She used to lodge at the leading
Speaker 1: hotels and was always attended by a man servant and
Speaker 1: a maid. At the Windsor and the Brunswick, she had
Speaker 1: elegant quarters. When plotting one of her swindles, she would
Speaker 1: glibally talk about her dear friends, and on such occasions
Speaker 1: it was not unusual for her maid or servant to
Speaker 1: bring in her a valuable bouquet bearing the card and
Speaker 1: compliments of gould Aster or Vanderbilt. The flourish from whom
Speaker 1: she procured the bouquets still retains exceedingly lively recollections of
Speaker 1: her as an undesirable customer. We are going to take
Speaker 1: a break for a word from our sponsor, and when
Speaker 1: we return there will be a lot more talk about
Speaker 1: Bertha's crimes and her prison time. Welcome back, to criminalia
Speaker 1: in prison or out. Bertha was a natural born confidence artist.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the scam she ran when she decided
Speaker 1: to try her luck in California in eighty three. Fresh
Speaker 1: out of prison, Bertha used forged securities to defraud a
Speaker 1: financial broker who believed that she was worth millions. She
Speaker 1: was again arrested and charged, and she was sentenced in
Speaker 1: the Court of General Sessions in August of that year.
Speaker 1: The jury returned a verdict of guilty within minutes, and
Speaker 1: Bertha spent five years in prison, this time. After her release,
Speaker 1: she headed west. In she moved from New York to
Speaker 1: San Francisco with a man named Willie Stanley, who she
Speaker 1: claimed was her stepson. Some reports suggest she may have
Speaker 1: or may not have used the surname Stanley at this time,
Speaker 1: but once settled in California, she approached Rabbi A. J. Messing,
Speaker 1: who happened to be an acquaintance from her Prussian childhood,
Speaker 1: and she explained to him that she had made a
Speaker 1: mistake by marrying a man who was not Jewish. That
Speaker 1: man had since passed, she noted, and had left her
Speaker 1: with an enormous fortune, as much as three hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which roughly translates to ten million, five hundred thousand today.
Speaker 1: She wanted to marry again, she told the Rabbi, but
Speaker 1: this time she wanted to marry within her faith. So
Speaker 1: she asked Messing for his help finding her a Jewish
Speaker 1: husband and offered one thousand dollars to the matchmaker who
Speaker 1: can make it happen. Fortunately, or coincidentally, it turns out
Speaker 1: that Messing's brother in law, Abraham Grun, a wealthy local businessman,
Speaker 1: was taken with Bertha upon meeting her, and according to
Speaker 1: the San Francisco Examiner, he proposed in a matter of days.
Speaker 1: The pairing brought Bertha into the high society of San Francisco,
Speaker 1: in particular San Francisco's Beth Israel Congregation, where she attended
Speaker 1: parties and events in a fancy new wardrobe, a fancy
Speaker 1: new wardrobe that's been purchased on credit several businesses had
Speaker 1: extended to her and also on bad checks. Burtha was
Speaker 1: general us with her fake finances and gifted a check
Speaker 1: of a thousand dollars to the congregation. But before the
Speaker 1: two were officially wed, her alleged son, Willie quietly asked
Speaker 1: Abraham for money five dollars, and it was because he
Speaker 1: didn't want his alleged stepmother to marry. Abraham obliged with
Speaker 1: an open wallet, and then it wasn't long before Willie
Speaker 1: asked him to give him jewels he wanted. He explained,
Speaker 1: to have them reset in a contemporary fashion, the way
Speaker 1: his alleged stepmother would like. Abraham again obliged this request,
Speaker 1: and then within the week after pawning those jewels, Bertha
Speaker 1: and Willie they just be beat. Realizing he was swindled,
Speaker 1: Abraham pleaded his case to the San Francisco Police Department's
Speaker 1: Captain of detectives, But before he could even finish telling
Speaker 1: his story, the detective opened a book on his desk
Speaker 1: and flipped to photo number one. Showing the page to Abraham,
Speaker 1: he asked, quote, is this the woman the victim in
Speaker 1: this belief? Nodded. The book containing Bertha's photo was titled
Speaker 1: Professional Criminals of America and had been written in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty six by a name we mentioned earlier, Thomas F. Burns,
Speaker 1: New York City's legendary police inspector. Inspector Burns became known
Speaker 1: for the interrogation technique he called the third degree while
Speaker 1: he was head of the New York City Detective Bureau
Speaker 1: from eighteen eighty until, and he'd profiled Bertha in his book.
Speaker 1: The description of photo number one two read Bertha Hayman
Speaker 1: alias Big Bertha Confidence Queen and detailed stories of several
Speaker 1: of her cons It also noted where she had been incarcerated.
Speaker 1: In addition, a dispatch from San Francisco to New York
Speaker 1: sent in eighty eight laid out the situation heads up
Speaker 1: that we're quoting here, but this quote and another one
Speaker 1: that are coming up referred to Jewish people in a
Speaker 1: way that is very outdated and considered derogatory by many.
Speaker 1: Just know that as we're going in. This alert stated
Speaker 1: that quote, the Queen of Crooks has been operating among
Speaker 1: the Hebrew portion of the San Francisco community with wonderful success.
Speaker 1: The dispatch reported that she was using the name Bertha
Speaker 1: Stanley and was accompanied by her alleged step son, William
Speaker 1: Willie H. M. Stanley. According to newspapers around the country,
Speaker 1: she was living in luxury and until she was discovered
Speaker 1: she absolutely was. In April, one local paper reported quote,
Speaker 1: they ran up large bills in the various stores through
Speaker 1: the clever fashion they had of shopping in the company
Speaker 1: of some wealthy Hebrew. She had for a suitor, a
Speaker 1: popular and wealthy young merchant, whom she gave a check
Speaker 1: for thirty thousand dollars on the Lassalle Bank for safekeeping,
Speaker 1: and he in return gave her a five hundred dollar
Speaker 1: diamond ring and other gems aggregating several thousand dollars in value.
Speaker 1: After Bertha left the duke, suitor wired the LaSalle Bank
Speaker 1: and discovered that the check was worthless. She is wanted
Speaker 1: here for forgery and counterfeiting. Bertha's check, unsurprisingly to the
Speaker 1: Beth Israel congregation, was returned for insufficient funds. Warrants for
Speaker 1: Bertha and Willie's arrests were issued, and detectives tracked the
Speaker 1: pair to Texas, where both were apprehended in San Antonio.
Speaker 1: Bertha played an outraged, innocent character during her arrest, which,
Speaker 1: as we've gleaned from her arrest reports, was kind of
Speaker 1: her thing. They were returned to California by officers James W.
Speaker 1: Gillen and John Parrott by boat. The San Francisco Examiner
Speaker 1: reported these details on June four. Quote Bertha was treated
Speaker 1: considerately on the journey, no handcuffs being put on her.
Speaker 1: She and Willie were in remarkably good spirits from the
Speaker 1: time San Antonio was left until San Francisco was reached,
Speaker 1: and in the jail they showed not the least trace
Speaker 1: of dejection. Two brits of habeas corpus were success fully
Speaker 1: obtained and dismissed the question in reference to the last
Speaker 1: one turning on the woman's identity. Grun, the deluded lover
Speaker 1: and expected bridegroom, went to San Antonio and satisfied the
Speaker 1: court on this point. Bertha objected strenuously to going to
Speaker 1: San Francisco, but had no choice. During the case, Bertha
Speaker 1: and really denied Grun or anyone else had given them
Speaker 1: any money or any checks. Bertha stated she had become
Speaker 1: Mrs Stanley after she divorced a John Hayman. She claimed
Speaker 1: she was never married to a man known as Fritz Carpo,
Speaker 1: with whom she lived in New York City and later Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Despite this report, it's actually really unclear if Bertha ever
Speaker 1: married once twice never. The information doesn't all match up.
Speaker 1: But Bertha is really not known for the truth. Is
Speaker 1: she if she married It's unclear if the pairs divorced
Speaker 1: or if Bertha was widowed. It's suggested by some accounts
Speaker 1: she did marry twice, once to a man she identified
Speaker 1: as John Hayman and from whom she took her surname,
Speaker 1: or maybe she just pretended all of it. Bertha was acquitted,
Speaker 1: but Willie was found guilty in what became a media
Speaker 1: frenzy of a trial during which the judge stated he
Speaker 1: quote could hardly force his way through the crowd to
Speaker 1: reach the bench. That's according to a story in the
Speaker 1: Daily Alta, California. Why was there such a crowd? Allow
Speaker 1: us to explain It was because Bertha had a second career.
Speaker 1: That's right. But first we're going to take a break
Speaker 1: for a work from our sponsor, and when we would return,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about how Bertha developed a stage career during
Speaker 1: the time she lived in San Francisco. Welcome back to Criminalia. Yes,
Speaker 1: Bertha had a side hustle that involved Romeo and Juliet
Speaker 1: and a man who called himself Oofty Goofty. Where to begin.
Speaker 1: Bertha did live a life in and out of jail,
Speaker 1: but she also lived a life on and off the stage. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: doubt you have questions will tell this story. During her
Speaker 1: time in San Francisco, Bertha was asked to perform and
Speaker 1: a one woman show. Manager and promoter Ned Foster saw
Speaker 1: an opportunity with Bertha, and, after bailing her out of jail,
Speaker 1: launched her new career in theater. He booked her first
Speaker 1: into Woodwards Gardens. Woodwards Gardens was a popular public amusement
Speaker 1: resort in the late eighteen hundred. It filled two square
Speaker 1: blocks in the Mission District and included, among many things,
Speaker 1: an amusement park, a museum, and an animal collection featuring
Speaker 1: a grizzly bear, grotto, sea lions, and an aviary. As
Speaker 1: many as eighteen thousand people went to see her perform
Speaker 1: her poem The Confidence Queen, which I will now read
Speaker 1: to you. So when vain grasping men pant for glittering
Speaker 1: gold and find their bonanza in me? Is it wicked
Speaker 1: to show up how badly they're sold? And the robes
Speaker 1: that men can sometimes be? Birtha's theatrical career continued to
Speaker 1: grow beyond that poem with a booking at the Belly Union,
Speaker 1: san Francisco's most popular music hall. Foster cast her and
Speaker 1: an actor named Leonard bore Sharp, who went by the
Speaker 1: stage name Oofti Goofty. These two played in scenes from
Speaker 1: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Leonard, it was reported in the
Speaker 1: local papers, had turned himself into one of the city's
Speaker 1: first celebrities. He did so by acting as a human
Speaker 1: punching bag, and his stick was physical comedy and performance
Speaker 1: art and a little side show work thrown in. So
Speaker 1: he was known to yell the phrase Oofti goofty at
Speaker 1: his audience from within a cage while he was covered
Speaker 1: with glue and hair. There are so many layers of
Speaker 1: problems to this. Off stage, he was known for his
Speaker 1: offbeat antics. He once shipped himself through the postal service
Speaker 1: wrapped in a large box. Strike that more than once.
Speaker 1: He also attached a leather pad to the seat of
Speaker 1: his pants and got people to for a small fee
Speaker 1: kick oofty goof dy. There was a sliding scale based
Speaker 1: on how severely you wanted to kick him, so, for instance,
Speaker 1: for ten cents, you could kick his backside once. For
Speaker 1: a little more money, you could hit his behind with
Speaker 1: a cane. For two bucks, you could use a baseball bat.
Speaker 1: According to the San Francisco Gate on a busy Saturday,
Speaker 1: Leonard was known to end his night with as much
Speaker 1: as ten dollars in his pocket. That's equivalent in purchasing
Speaker 1: power to roughly fifty dollars today being hit by a bat. Sure.
Speaker 1: It was also during this time he earned a second nickname,
Speaker 1: Professor hart Miss, because, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, quote,
Speaker 1: he combined spartan fortitude with unusual doscility. In addition to
Speaker 1: large promotional posters that were placed around the city, Foster
Speaker 1: had cabinet photos taken to Bertha to promote her stage career.
Speaker 1: A cabinet photo is a photograph mounted on a stiff
Speaker 1: piece of cardboard, and it was a really popular format
Speaker 1: in the late nineteenth century, and people would buy them
Speaker 1: as souvenirs of her new stage appearance. The San Francisco
Speaker 1: Examiner reported quote her costume was a nun's veiling dress,
Speaker 1: black hat and feather to match, gloves, fan and jewelry.
Speaker 1: When it came to their Romeo and Juliet show, Foster
Speaker 1: show was a hit. Bertha even picked up a few
Speaker 1: tips from Leonard, and the local California papers began to
Speaker 1: report she was engaging in wrestling matches with any man
Speaker 1: who dared go against her, and of course for a fee.
Speaker 1: Bertha was strong, and she was skilled, and she knocked
Speaker 1: out every one of them off stage and at her
Speaker 1: trial in San Francisco, Bertha willingly talked to newspaper reporters
Speaker 1: about the charges she was facing. She maintained that any
Speaker 1: man who was interested in her was really interested in
Speaker 1: her for her money. Bertha admitted that she preferred to
Speaker 1: target people who really should know better. According to carry
Speaker 1: Seagraves book Women Swindlers in America in eight three, Bertha
Speaker 1: told a police chief in Jersey City after one of
Speaker 1: her many many arrests, quote, the moment I discover a
Speaker 1: man's a fool, I let him drop, but I delight
Speaker 1: in getting into the confidence and pockets of men who
Speaker 1: think they can't be skinned. It ministers to my intellectual pride.
Speaker 1: She's not alone in her thoughts and approach to the
Speaker 1: flim flam business. Now. Celebrity con artist Frank adam Nel Jr.
Speaker 1: Author of the memoir Catch Me If You Can, which
Speaker 1: the two thousand and two movie of the same name
Speaker 1: is based on, has famously said of the con busy
Speaker 1: nous quote a hood planning a bank hold up, might
Speaker 1: case the treasury for rudimentary facts, but in the end
Speaker 1: he depends on his gun. A con artist's only weapon
Speaker 1: is his brain, admits another now retired confidence artist, quote,
Speaker 1: this was less than number one. Swindling is really acting,
Speaker 1: and you play a character who will help you appear legitimate, confident,
Speaker 1: and successful even when you are not. Bertha was a smart,
Speaker 1: interesting woman to report on, and can you imagine the
Speaker 1: stories that she could tell. But a lot of newspaper
Speaker 1: reports of her and her cons focus not on her
Speaker 1: pretty impressive intellect in her criminal abilities, but rather on
Speaker 1: crude descriptions of her appearance and those descriptions of Bertha's
Speaker 1: physical characteristics. Varied newspapers made offensive jokes at the expense
Speaker 1: of her body, describing her as quote elephantine and sometimes
Speaker 1: comparing her to a battle it. They opined about how
Speaker 1: a woman of her physical characteristics could scam a man
Speaker 1: out of such large amounts of money. Today, she's still
Speaker 1: known as Big Bertha Hayman. Most provided pretty unflattering physical
Speaker 1: descriptions of her. This whole thing is very problematic, but
Speaker 1: it happened to her, and we don't want to overlook
Speaker 1: it as part of her daily life. The San Francisco
Speaker 1: Examiner attempted to explain her appeal, but not with her
Speaker 1: charisma and wits. We quote a site of Bertha is
Speaker 1: necessary to let one perceive how a woman with so
Speaker 1: much flesh, and whose appearance has been often referred to
Speaker 1: as homely, could attract the attention and win the confidence
Speaker 1: of men. Her power lies in her eyes. They are brown,
Speaker 1: but of such a dark color they are bright enough
Speaker 1: to light up her entire countenance. She is not handsome,
Speaker 1: but she is not bad looking either, and accounts that
Speaker 1: have been given of her visage have been overdrawn it.
Speaker 1: There is not a tailor's measure in town that can
Speaker 1: encompass her ample form. Anyone with an eye for distances
Speaker 1: can readily perceive that the lady has passed her hugging days.
Speaker 1: But to one who has such a contempt for men
Speaker 1: as she, this can occasion little regret. Journalists were relentless.
Speaker 1: A reporter for the Buffalo Evening News of New York
Speaker 1: took a bit of a different angle, yet still fixated
Speaker 1: on her appearance, and reported that quote. She had what
Speaker 1: is described by the French as a bell figure. She
Speaker 1: was a very attractive person and took your fancy at
Speaker 1: the moment she fixed her big brown stag like eyes
Speaker 1: upon you. Her wavy hair is soft and black, and
Speaker 1: her hands are white, taper fingered, and Philbert nailed. She
Speaker 1: sat quietly with her dress open at the neck, revealing
Speaker 1: a shapely throat of a complexion creamy as the inner
Speaker 1: pedals of a lily, and her arms bare to the elbows,
Speaker 1: soft and dimpled. In his book, Inspector Burns described her
Speaker 1: physically similar to most reports in the media, but he
Speaker 1: is very brief descriptive statements like a checklist that would
Speaker 1: go with photo number one. He wrote, thirty five years
Speaker 1: old in eighteen eighty six, married very stout woman five
Speaker 1: ft four and a half inches, weight, two hundred pounds, hair,
Speaker 1: brown eyes, brown, fair complexion, German face, excellent talker, has
Speaker 1: four moles on her right cheek. Putting all of these
Speaker 1: toxic standards and the fat shaming language aside, Bertha was
Speaker 1: sometimes described as overflowing with charisma, although the trait didn't
Speaker 1: get the attention it deserved when talking about a con
Speaker 1: artist of her caliber, of her capabilities and faults. It
Speaker 1: was again Inspector Burns who wrote admiringly of her, stating
Speaker 1: that she quote possesses a wonderful knowledge of human nature
Speaker 1: and can deceive those who consider themselves particularly shrewd in
Speaker 1: business matters. Bertha story kind of sputters out. She faded
Speaker 1: from her stage career and from her criminal work. She
Speaker 1: died in May of nineteen o one, but the where,
Speaker 1: and frankly actually the when is disputed. We don't really
Speaker 1: know what happened to her at the end. I kind
Speaker 1: of like that birtha story dissipates. Yeah, it's like after
Speaker 1: the California business at all. Kind of it's like she
Speaker 1: was she went on the lamb forever, I hope. So
Speaker 1: I hope she just chose a new name and went
Speaker 1: for it and she was never known as Big Bertha again. No, no,
Speaker 1: And we can share our scan sauce whether she's welcome. Yes.
Speaker 1: So I'm just going to say it. There was no
Speaker 1: way I wasn't going to name this cocktail ROOFTI goofed
Speaker 1: the thing that I kept thinking about with Bertha, and
Speaker 1: what I felt like this story and her life really
Speaker 1: needed was a cocked ale that is deceptive, right, We
Speaker 1: need one that looks very pretty that tastes very pretty,
Speaker 1: but it's just dangerous as hell. Got in the perfect
Speaker 1: description for Birth's cocktail, and we got it. It's an
Speaker 1: easy one. You're gonna build it in the glass so
Speaker 1: you don't have to mess with a shaker or anything.
Speaker 1: You're gonna put three quarters of an ounce of lime juice,
Speaker 1: fresh squeezed, always better, one ounce of Creme de violette
Speaker 1: in this glass, and you're gonna stir those together so
Speaker 1: that the lime juice thins out the syrup a little bit.
Speaker 1: Then you're gonna add your ice, and then on top
Speaker 1: of that, you're gonna pour an ounce and a half
Speaker 1: of like a good representato tequila, and then you're going
Speaker 1: to top all of it with ginger beer. So it's
Speaker 1: like a flowery tequila version of a mule, but that
Speaker 1: Creme de violette makes it pink. The ginger beer completely
Speaker 1: disguises the tequila flavor. It just tastes like a slightly
Speaker 1: bite the floral, yummy, very beautiful, refreshing drink, and it
Speaker 1: is so full of alcohol. I like when we go
Speaker 1: floral a little bit. I always think that's a nice
Speaker 1: that's a nice pickup. I feel like we don't take
Speaker 1: tequila a lot. We don't because I'm not a big
Speaker 1: tequila but I felt and part of why is because
Speaker 1: like it will knock me on my tail. So I
Speaker 1: was like, well, of course this has to be. And
Speaker 1: I will say to you, if you really want to
Speaker 1: go for the beautiful but dangerous with this, I made
Speaker 1: a little garnish out of a spring of lavender with
Speaker 1: a lime, like a little lime peel wrapped around it.
Speaker 1: It was very pretty and cute. You could also throw
Speaker 1: like some culinary lavender or rosebuds in it, just something
Speaker 1: make it very pretty, very floral. It looks so sweet,
Speaker 1: like you'd save it servant a very dainty, very composed luncheon.
Speaker 1: And in fact it will wreck you. And thus then
Speaker 1: you will be saying, ooff, please don't hit me with
Speaker 1: a bat at, please do not The mock tail for
Speaker 1: this is very easy, and you only get all of
Speaker 1: the delicious part and none of the danger. Instead of
Speaker 1: krime to violette, you'll use a violet syrup delicious and
Speaker 1: then you're just going to leave out the tequila and
Speaker 1: just do the violet syrup, the lime juice, and the
Speaker 1: ginger beer. In this case, you might even want to
Speaker 1: up the violet syrup a little bit if you like
Speaker 1: it sweet, and it is again refreshing and beautiful, and
Speaker 1: that one is not dangerous at all, but the alcoholic
Speaker 1: one sure is. I might put it on my home
Speaker 1: barment you and just see how many people think it
Speaker 1: looks very pretty and dainty, and then they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: dear me, what has happened there? Like, I can only
Speaker 1: have one drink responsibly. Obviously I'm not. I'm not advocating
Speaker 1: for getting your friends blackout drunk by any means, but
Speaker 1: I always like when a drink is a surprise, it's
Speaker 1: a stiff drink. If you have survived the u f
Speaker 1: D goof dy and have made it to the end here,
Speaker 1: we want to thank you for spending this time with us,
Speaker 1: and we will also have a lot more con artists
Speaker 1: coming in the coming weeks, So we'll see you next
Speaker 1: week with another story and another cocktail right here on Criminalia.
Speaker 1: Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio,
Speaker 1: please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.