WEBVTT - Bertha Heyman: America's 'Confidence Queen' 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:05.800 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:16.160 partnership with I Heart Radiom. Legendary New York City Police 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.439 detective Thomas F. Burns described Bertha Hayman as quote one 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.319 of the smartest confidence women in America, and she was 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.599 considered among New York City police to be quote the 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.520 boldest and most expert of the many female adventuresses who 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:34.320 infested the country during her lifetime. So let's meet this 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.000 so called confidence queen. Welcome to criminal Lea. I'm Maria 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.680 Tremarquis and I'm Holly Fry. Bertha Hayman came to the 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.080 United States in eighteen seventy eight, during her late twenties. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.960 She was born in eighteen fifty one as Bertha Schlessinger, 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:54.160 a native of Cubly near Posen in Prussia. Prussia at 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.520 this point was primarily a Germanic kingdom and state, and 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:00.920 it was that until the nineteen hundreds. Today what was 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.920 Prussia makes up parts of the modern day nations of Germany, Poland, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:09.279 and Russia. There are some questions about Bertha's life story, 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.080 but as she was a con artist, we suppose we 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.800 can expect some of that just by nature here is 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.080 what everyone thinks they know, with possibly an embellishment here 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:25.560 and there from Bertha herself. Bertha attracted the attention of 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:27.880 the New York City Police Department in the late eighteen 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.679 seventies pretty much as soon as she arrived in the 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.840 city and the country for that matter. Shortly after relocating 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.800 to America, this budding con artist followed in the criminal 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.640 footsteps of her father, who was an alleged forger who 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.840 regularly ended up in jail. Like her father, she had 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.640 an extensive arrest record, but despite not being able to 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.320 evade the law, Bertha was known to be one of 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.400 the best con artists of her time. She knew how 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.800 to plan on people's greed, their hubrists, their ambitions, and 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.200 their weaknesses to benefit her own end. She was talented 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.600 at offering the promise of wealth in the future in 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.480 exchange for your cash right now. Bertha executed on an 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.840 impressive number of cons throughout her criminal career, most of 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.240 which followed the same basic premise, which went like this. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.119 She would claim to be an incredibly wealthy woman who 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:24.200 was having trouble accessing her finances, would a kind soul 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.280 lent her a small amount of money so she could 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.919 access her estate. She claimed, of course she would pay 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.480 them back generously. So if this sounds kind of like 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.720 a nineteenth century version of an advanced fee email scamp, 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.840 it's because it is. The United States Securities and Exchange 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.560 Commission called this kind of scam advanced fee fraud, and 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.840 the modern day and Nigerian prints emails asking for help 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.280 in the way of some fast cash are really basically 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:56.440 the same scam that Bertha ran. And she was prolific, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.640 and she developed the nickname the Confidence Queen. Her scams 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.600 generally involved men, but she really wasn't choosy when it 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:10.440 came to victims. She was opportunistic. She stayed at luxurious hotels, 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.880 she was weighted on, and she bragged about her wealthy friends. 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.720 The Kansas City Times covered a lot of Bertha's work 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.680 and once described her in this kind of perfect manner quote. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.800 For years, she lived in regal splendor in New York hotels, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.600 surrounded by luxuries and attended by livery lackeys. She occupied 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.800 different apartments at different times in the St. Dennis Hotel, 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.800 the Grand Hotel, the Gilsey House, the New York Hotel, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.800 and the Hotel Brunswick. Her plan was to pass herself 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.120 off for a millionaire and then to borrow money on 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.800 the strength of her prospects. So pretty clear that the 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.160 Kansas City Times had Birtha figured out. So One of 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.720 her early scams involved the dry goods firm of Bates, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.920 Read and Coolly as her victim and lost as much 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.080 as five thousand dollars, which is equivalent in purchasing power 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.920 to about a hundred and seventy six thousand dollars today. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.040 In addition, one of the company's employees, a Mr. Brandt, 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.480 was tricked and cheated separately from the firm itself. She 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.279 was arrested for larceny on this con by two Pinkerton detectives. 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.120 The Pinkerton Agency was and is still open today, a 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:27.039 private security and detective agency. In eighty Bertha ran a 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.440 scam against Tillie J. Perren of Chicago. She had met 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.599 Parren on the train between New York and Chicago, and 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.120 he was a sleeper car conductor and she kind of 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.799 honed in on him. She used her typical con scheme 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.920 and claimed great wealth that she just simply couldn't access. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.960 She specifically claimed quote she was heir to a large 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.960 estate and she was paying a New York lawyer six 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.880 thousand dollars to look after it. Moving her con along, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.960 she suggested that Parren give up his place and manage 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.800 her estate. Bertha promised to pay more than double his 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.920 salary if he would become her employee, and he did. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:12.200 Who wouldn't take that, But there's always the butt. But 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:16.440 then Bertha began borrowing money from him to pay small 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.359 debts she'd called at least a thousand dollars out of 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.320 Parent that's roughly estimated at thirty five thousand dollars today, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.000 while continuing to promise that when she came into possession 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.599 of her property and finances through a Mr. Robert Bonner, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.920 who she claimed was her guardian as well as executor 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.000 of the will under which she was the heir, the 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.880 money that Parent loaned her would be refunded, she said, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.280 and then his duties as her estate agent and its 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:48.160 accompanying new salary, we're going to begin at that time. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.039 It's about this point when Parent came to the conclusion 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.240 that Bertha was not honest, and, as reported in the 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.800 Chicago Tribune, he quote despaired of ever obtaining from her 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:05.520 his money without compulsion and brought suit against her. Bertha 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.360 committed so many crimes that we can't even begin to 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.920 address them all. We do know that on February Bertha 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.320 was arrested again, this time in London, Ontario, Canada, and 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.800 charged with conning several hundred dollars from a Montreal businessman. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.520 In June that same year, she stood trial for stealing 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.880 two hundred and fifty dollars as well as two gold 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.880 watches from a Mrs Schlarbaum of Staten Island, an elderly 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.440 woman she boarded with for a short period of time. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.200 She was acquitted, but while leaving the courthouse, it's reported 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.400 she was arrested again. Can you imagine this on the 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.960 court steps. This time she was charged with conning to 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.839 New York City businessmen out of a total of one thousand, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.960 four hundred and sixty dollars, which is about roughly fifty 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.840 thousand dollars today. She was convicted on one of those 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.679 two indictments and was sentenced to two years in prison. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.880 She also conned five thousand dollars from T. W. Morris 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.240 of New York City. We noted during our research that 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.080 this amount actually varied in some reports, and it might 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:14.160 have been either five hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.760 or five thousand in total, regardless, he gave it up 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.640 after she gave him a bogus bank draft for several 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.680 thousand dollars from a Milwaukee bank. In October of eight one, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.800 Bertha was tried for having obtained Morris's moneys by false pretenses, 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.840 and the jury convicted her in less than five minutes. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:39.560 She was sentenced to two years. However, prior to her sentencing, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.320 Bertha managed to run up a considerable dental bill. When 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.520 the dentist requested payment, reported the Chicago Tribune, Bertha quote 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.640 sent word that he need not trouble himself about so 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:55.560 trifling a sum, as she had fourteen million on deposit downtown, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.760 but could not spare the time to cut off the coupons. 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.560 She never stopped running a calm I like how she 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:04.640 was like, I'm going to jail, but I want a 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:06.760 good teeth first, right, I gotta take care of that. 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.040 Got a got a crown. I don't know how long 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:13.239 I'm going to be in. In fact, imprisonment didn't slow 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.400 down her scams either. While in cars rated, she often 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.520 continued to work generally she spent her time moving through 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.160 the New York State penitentiary system, stealing watches and jewelry, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.280 as well as forging checks and bonds, and in one example, 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.400 while serving time on Blackwell's Island in New York in 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.720 the early eighteen eighties, she befriended then swindled a man 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.600 out of his life savings of nine dollars, which is 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:41.840 equivalent to about thirty one dollars today. The Kansas City Times, 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.640 on top of the story, reported that while in carser 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.800 rated Bertha was quote a prisoner only by name. She 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.000 occupies the suite of apartments in the courthouse, has been 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.120 attended by a maid, and is treated to carriage rides 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.520 every day. She has been at many excursions and spends 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.000 much of her time in attendance at scenes of festivity 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.840 in the city. To such an extent is this carried 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.000 that she is called the princess by the local residents. 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.880 In conversation, she's most plausible and graceful and presents an 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.160 air of injured innocence that induces many credulous person to 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.599 believe she is really a wronged and persecuted woman. The 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.120 Chicago Tribune was one of the other American newspapers that 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.560 followed Bertha's cons closely and reported in January of eighty 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.600 three about her time in prison. In particular, they wrote 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.640 about how she pulled off cons while she was incarcerated, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.079 something we know from other articles and core reports that 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.400 she had been doing for years. Quote. From her cell 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.120 in the Blackwells Island Penitentiary, she was able to communicate 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.160 with a trustful German named Charles Carpa in New York 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.160 and secured from him nearly one thousand dollars upon like 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:57.480 representations to those which had deceived Parim and the unfortunate 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:02.000 Mrs Schlarbaum. Her scam was tweaked a little bit while 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.400 she was doing time, but not much. Bertha confided in 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.920 Carpa that she had owned a strong box filled with 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.320 bonds and jewels. Her dilemma, she claimed, was that the 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.240 box was stored in a vault and she needed cash 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.120 to pay leans for its storage. She explained that once 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.839 this was back in her possession, she would pay him 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.320 back tenfold. She also explained that she needed cash to 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.079 bribe the prison warden so she could get her sentence commuted. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.400 Carpa was hooked and before she was exposed he had 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.440 advanced her money on several instances. More newspapers began to 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.600 report more frequently on Bertha's criminal affairs as her career grew, 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:46.280 and many reported things such as this. The history of 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.480 Bertha Haymond's exploits and adventures would fill a book. She 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.520 is up to every device, strategem and trick that is 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.520 calculated to deceive. She used to lodge at the leading 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.800 hotels and was always attended by a man servant and 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.920 a maid. At the Windsor and the Brunswick, she had 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.240 elegant quarters. When plotting one of her swindles, she would 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.719 glibally talk about her dear friends, and on such occasions 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.080 it was not unusual for her maid or servant to 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.320 bring in her a valuable bouquet bearing the card and 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:21.440 compliments of gould Aster or Vanderbilt. The flourish from whom 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.440 she procured the bouquets still retains exceedingly lively recollections of 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.200 her as an undesirable customer. We are going to take 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.360 a break for a word from our sponsor, and when 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.160 we return there will be a lot more talk about 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:51.520 Bertha's crimes and her prison time. Welcome back, to criminalia 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:56.520 in prison or out. Bertha was a natural born confidence artist. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.400 Let's talk about the scam she ran when she decided 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:04.160 to try her luck in California in eighty three. Fresh 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.800 out of prison, Bertha used forged securities to defraud a 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.840 financial broker who believed that she was worth millions. She 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.920 was again arrested and charged, and she was sentenced in 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.959 the Court of General Sessions in August of that year. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.760 The jury returned a verdict of guilty within minutes, and 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:26.280 Bertha spent five years in prison, this time. After her release, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.360 she headed west. In she moved from New York to 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.840 San Francisco with a man named Willie Stanley, who she 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:38.360 claimed was her stepson. Some reports suggest she may have 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.760 or may not have used the surname Stanley at this time, 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.360 but once settled in California, she approached Rabbi A. J. Messing, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.800 who happened to be an acquaintance from her Prussian childhood, 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.000 and she explained to him that she had made a 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.400 mistake by marrying a man who was not Jewish. That 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.440 man had since passed, she noted, and had left her 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.280 with an enormous fortune, as much as three hundred thousand dollars, 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:07.280 which roughly translates to ten million, five hundred thousand today. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.720 She wanted to marry again, she told the Rabbi, but 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.080 this time she wanted to marry within her faith. So 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.280 she asked Messing for his help finding her a Jewish 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.600 husband and offered one thousand dollars to the matchmaker who 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:26.000 can make it happen. Fortunately, or coincidentally, it turns out 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:30.200 that Messing's brother in law, Abraham Grun, a wealthy local businessman, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.840 was taken with Bertha upon meeting her, and according to 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.640 the San Francisco Examiner, he proposed in a matter of days. 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.959 The pairing brought Bertha into the high society of San Francisco, 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.440 in particular San Francisco's Beth Israel Congregation, where she attended 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:52.040 parties and events in a fancy new wardrobe, a fancy 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.199 new wardrobe that's been purchased on credit several businesses had 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.560 extended to her and also on bad checks. Burtha was 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.600 general us with her fake finances and gifted a check 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.720 of a thousand dollars to the congregation. But before the 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.800 two were officially wed, her alleged son, Willie quietly asked 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.360 Abraham for money five dollars, and it was because he 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:18.240 didn't want his alleged stepmother to marry. Abraham obliged with 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.800 an open wallet, and then it wasn't long before Willie 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.600 asked him to give him jewels he wanted. He explained, 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.120 to have them reset in a contemporary fashion, the way 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:32.040 his alleged stepmother would like. Abraham again obliged this request, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.520 and then within the week after pawning those jewels, Bertha 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.720 and Willie they just be beat. Realizing he was swindled, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.720 Abraham pleaded his case to the San Francisco Police Department's 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.760 Captain of detectives, But before he could even finish telling 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:51.520 his story, the detective opened a book on his desk 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.440 and flipped to photo number one. Showing the page to Abraham, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.720 he asked, quote, is this the woman the victim in 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.720 this belief? Nodded. The book containing Bertha's photo was titled 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.480 Professional Criminals of America and had been written in eighteen 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:11.560 eighty six by a name we mentioned earlier, Thomas F. Burns, 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:16.560 New York City's legendary police inspector. Inspector Burns became known 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.400 for the interrogation technique he called the third degree while 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.760 he was head of the New York City Detective Bureau 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:28.160 from eighteen eighty until, and he'd profiled Bertha in his book. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.000 The description of photo number one two read Bertha Hayman 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.280 alias Big Bertha Confidence Queen and detailed stories of several 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:41.560 of her cons It also noted where she had been incarcerated. 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.080 In addition, a dispatch from San Francisco to New York 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:49.800 sent in eighty eight laid out the situation heads up 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.280 that we're quoting here, but this quote and another one 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.440 that are coming up referred to Jewish people in a 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.120 way that is very outdated and considered derogatory by many. 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.000 Just know that as we're going in. This alert stated 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.160 that quote, the Queen of Crooks has been operating among 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:08.400 the Hebrew portion of the San Francisco community with wonderful success. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.680 The dispatch reported that she was using the name Bertha 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.880 Stanley and was accompanied by her alleged step son, William 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:20.760 Willie H. M. Stanley. According to newspapers around the country, 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.239 she was living in luxury and until she was discovered 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:30.800 she absolutely was. In April, one local paper reported quote, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.000 they ran up large bills in the various stores through 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.160 the clever fashion they had of shopping in the company 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.640 of some wealthy Hebrew. She had for a suitor, a 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.000 popular and wealthy young merchant, whom she gave a check 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.120 for thirty thousand dollars on the Lassalle Bank for safekeeping, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.400 and he in return gave her a five hundred dollar 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:56.840 diamond ring and other gems aggregating several thousand dollars in value. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.800 After Bertha left the duke, suitor wired the LaSalle Bank 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.400 and discovered that the check was worthless. She is wanted 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:10.000 here for forgery and counterfeiting. Bertha's check, unsurprisingly to the 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:16.520 Beth Israel congregation, was returned for insufficient funds. Warrants for 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.280 Bertha and Willie's arrests were issued, and detectives tracked the 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.480 pair to Texas, where both were apprehended in San Antonio. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.280 Bertha played an outraged, innocent character during her arrest, which, 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.200 as we've gleaned from her arrest reports, was kind of 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.240 her thing. They were returned to California by officers James W. 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.399 Gillen and John Parrott by boat. The San Francisco Examiner 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:43.480 reported these details on June four. Quote Bertha was treated 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.720 considerately on the journey, no handcuffs being put on her. 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.240 She and Willie were in remarkably good spirits from the 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.680 time San Antonio was left until San Francisco was reached, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.480 and in the jail they showed not the least trace 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.359 of dejection. Two brits of habeas corpus were success fully 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.160 obtained and dismissed the question in reference to the last 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.040 one turning on the woman's identity. Grun, the deluded lover 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.199 and expected bridegroom, went to San Antonio and satisfied the 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.320 court on this point. Bertha objected strenuously to going to 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.959 San Francisco, but had no choice. During the case, Bertha 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.120 and really denied Grun or anyone else had given them 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.720 any money or any checks. Bertha stated she had become 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.320 Mrs Stanley after she divorced a John Hayman. She claimed 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.879 she was never married to a man known as Fritz Carpo, 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.679 with whom she lived in New York City and later Milwaukee. 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.240 Despite this report, it's actually really unclear if Bertha ever 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:45.480 married once twice never. The information doesn't all match up. 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.280 But Bertha is really not known for the truth. Is 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.280 she if she married It's unclear if the pairs divorced 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.720 or if Bertha was widowed. It's suggested by some accounts 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.359 she did marry twice, once to a man she identified 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.840 as John Hayman and from whom she took her surname, 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:06.919 or maybe she just pretended all of it. Bertha was acquitted, 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.760 but Willie was found guilty in what became a media 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.359 frenzy of a trial during which the judge stated he 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.600 quote could hardly force his way through the crowd to 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.359 reach the bench. That's according to a story in the 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:26.960 Daily Alta, California. Why was there such a crowd? Allow 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:31.360 us to explain It was because Bertha had a second career. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.200 That's right. But first we're going to take a break 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.240 for a work from our sponsor, and when we would return, 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.960 we'll talk about how Bertha developed a stage career during 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:58.560 the time she lived in San Francisco. Welcome back to Criminalia. Yes, 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.160 Bertha had a side hustle that involved Romeo and Juliet 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.880 and a man who called himself Oofty Goofty. Where to begin. 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.040 Bertha did live a life in and out of jail, 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:16.080 but she also lived a life on and off the stage. Yes, no, 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:20.000 doubt you have questions will tell this story. During her 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.840 time in San Francisco, Bertha was asked to perform and 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.600 a one woman show. Manager and promoter Ned Foster saw 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.040 an opportunity with Bertha, and, after bailing her out of jail, 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.240 launched her new career in theater. He booked her first 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.200 into Woodwards Gardens. Woodwards Gardens was a popular public amusement 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.040 resort in the late eighteen hundred. It filled two square 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.320 blocks in the Mission District and included, among many things, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.520 an amusement park, a museum, and an animal collection featuring 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:54.120 a grizzly bear, grotto, sea lions, and an aviary. As 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.000 many as eighteen thousand people went to see her perform 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:01.240 her poem The Confidence Queen, which I will now read 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:05.640 to you. So when vain grasping men pant for glittering 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.640 gold and find their bonanza in me? Is it wicked 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.240 to show up how badly they're sold? And the robes 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:18.000 that men can sometimes be? Birtha's theatrical career continued to 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.520 grow beyond that poem with a booking at the Belly Union, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:26.280 san Francisco's most popular music hall. Foster cast her and 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.080 an actor named Leonard bore Sharp, who went by the 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.400 stage name Oofti Goofty. These two played in scenes from 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:37.320 Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Leonard, it was reported in the 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.480 local papers, had turned himself into one of the city's 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:44.480 first celebrities. He did so by acting as a human 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:49.280 punching bag, and his stick was physical comedy and performance 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.560 art and a little side show work thrown in. So 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.640 he was known to yell the phrase Oofti goofty at 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:59.200 his audience from within a cage while he was covered 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.679 with glue and hair. There are so many layers of 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.520 problems to this. Off stage, he was known for his 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.800 offbeat antics. He once shipped himself through the postal service 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.320 wrapped in a large box. Strike that more than once. 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.639 He also attached a leather pad to the seat of 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.919 his pants and got people to for a small fee 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:25.359 kick oofty goof dy. There was a sliding scale based 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:29.359 on how severely you wanted to kick him, so, for instance, 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.480 for ten cents, you could kick his backside once. For 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.919 a little more money, you could hit his behind with 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.560 a cane. For two bucks, you could use a baseball bat. 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:43.400 According to the San Francisco Gate on a busy Saturday, 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:45.760 Leonard was known to end his night with as much 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.440 as ten dollars in his pocket. That's equivalent in purchasing 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:54.720 power to roughly fifty dollars today being hit by a bat. Sure. 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.840 It was also during this time he earned a second nickname, 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:04.439 Professor hart Miss, because, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, quote, 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:11.159 he combined spartan fortitude with unusual doscility. In addition to 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.560 large promotional posters that were placed around the city, Foster 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:17.639 had cabinet photos taken to Bertha to promote her stage career. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:20.520 A cabinet photo is a photograph mounted on a stiff 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.840 piece of cardboard, and it was a really popular format 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:26.080 in the late nineteenth century, and people would buy them 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:30.680 as souvenirs of her new stage appearance. The San Francisco 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:34.399 Examiner reported quote her costume was a nun's veiling dress, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:38.320 black hat and feather to match, gloves, fan and jewelry. 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:42.280 When it came to their Romeo and Juliet show, Foster 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.120 show was a hit. Bertha even picked up a few 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.399 tips from Leonard, and the local California papers began to 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.120 report she was engaging in wrestling matches with any man 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:54.160 who dared go against her, and of course for a fee. 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:57.720 Bertha was strong, and she was skilled, and she knocked 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:02.680 out every one of them off stage and at her 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:07.200 trial in San Francisco, Bertha willingly talked to newspaper reporters 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.840 about the charges she was facing. She maintained that any 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:13.520 man who was interested in her was really interested in 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:17.439 her for her money. Bertha admitted that she preferred to 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.520 target people who really should know better. According to carry 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:26.000 Seagraves book Women Swindlers in America in eight three, Bertha 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:28.840 told a police chief in Jersey City after one of 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:32.919 her many many arrests, quote, the moment I discover a 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:36.200 man's a fool, I let him drop, but I delight 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:39.359 in getting into the confidence and pockets of men who 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:44.280 think they can't be skinned. It ministers to my intellectual pride. 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:47.720 She's not alone in her thoughts and approach to the 0:24:47.720 --> 0:24:52.000 flim flam business. Now. Celebrity con artist Frank adam Nel Jr. 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:54.680 Author of the memoir Catch Me If You Can, which 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:56.600 the two thousand and two movie of the same name 0:24:56.720 --> 0:25:00.000 is based on, has famously said of the con busy 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:04.360 nous quote a hood planning a bank hold up, might 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:07.800 case the treasury for rudimentary facts, but in the end 0:25:08.000 --> 0:25:11.919 he depends on his gun. A con artist's only weapon 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:16.760 is his brain, admits another now retired confidence artist, quote, 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:20.800 this was less than number one. Swindling is really acting, 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:24.680 and you play a character who will help you appear legitimate, confident, 0:25:24.800 --> 0:25:30.320 and successful even when you are not. Bertha was a smart, 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:34.199 interesting woman to report on, and can you imagine the 0:25:34.280 --> 0:25:37.800 stories that she could tell. But a lot of newspaper 0:25:37.840 --> 0:25:41.000 reports of her and her cons focus not on her 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:45.359