Book
The talented Mrs. Mandelbaum : the rise and fall of an American organized-crime boss / Margalit Fox.
"In 1850, Fredericka Mandelbaum emigrated to New York from Germany and worked as a rag peddler on the streets of the Lower East Side. By the 1870s she was a widow with four children, a popular society hostess, and a philanthropist. What enabled a woman on the margins of nineteenth-century American life to ascend from tenement poverty to immense wealth? In the intervening years, Mrs. Mandelbaum had become the country's most notorious "fence" -- a receiver of stolen goods and a successful criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as 10 million dollars worth of purloined property (the equivalent of nearly 300 million dollars in today's money) had passed through her little haberdashery shop. She planned, financed, and profited from robberies of cash, gold, and diamonds throughout New York and beyond. But she wasn't just a successful crook, she was a visionary. Called "the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City" by the New York Times, Mandelbaum was the first person in American history to systemize formerly scattershot property crime enterprises. Handpicking a cadre of New York's foremost bank robbers, housebreakers, and shoplifters and bribing a corresponding group of the city's police and politicians, she handled logistics and organized supply chains -- turning theft into a proper, scaled business"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780593243855 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: xxiv, 301 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Random House, [2024]
- Copyright: ©2024
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Biographies. Personal narratives. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud Branch | 364.109747092 Mande-F | 31681010379659 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"In 1850, Fredericka Mandelbaum emigrated to New York from Germany and worked as a rag peddler on the streets of the Lower East Side. By the 1870s she was a widow with four children, a popular society hostess, and a philanthropist. What enabled a woman on the margins of nineteenth-century American life to ascend from tenement poverty to immense wealth? In the intervening years, Mrs. Mandelbaum had become the country's most notorious "fence"--a receiver of stolen goods and a successful criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as $10 million worth of purloined property (the equivalent of nearly $300 million in today's money) had passed through her little haberdashery shop. She planned, financed, and profited from robberies of cash, gold, and diamonds throughout New York and beyond. But she wasn't just a successful crook, she was a visionary. Called "the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime in New York City" by the New York Times, Mandelbaum was the first person in American history to systemize formerly scattershot property crime enterprises. Handpicking a cadre of New York's foremost bank robbers, housebreakers, and shoplifters and bribing a corresponding group of the city's police and politicians, she handled logistics and organized supply chains--turning theft into a proper, scaled business"-- - Baker & Taylor
Painting a vibrant portrait of Gilded Age New York?â?and of a once-famous, now-forgotten heroine, this unforgettable story of Americaâs first lady of organized crime who, by the mid-1880s, amassed a huge fortune, recounts how she turned theft into a viable, scalable business. Illustrations. - Random House, Inc.
Americaâs first great organized-crime lord was a ladyâa nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum.
âA tour de force . . . With a pickpocketâs finesse, Margalit Fox lures us into the criminal underworld of Gilded Age New York.ââLiza Mundy, author of The Sisterhood
A PARADE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth?
In the intervening years, âMarmâ Mandelbaum had become the countryâs most notorious âfenceââa receiver of stolen goodsâand a criminal mastermind. By the mid-1880s as much as $10 million worth of purloined luxury goods (nearly $300 million today) had passed through her Lower East Side shop. Called âthe nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime,â she planned robberies of cash, gold and diamonds throughout the country.
But Mrs. Mandelbaum wasnât just a successful crook: She was a business visionaryâone of the first entrepreneurs in America to systemize the scattershot enterprise of property crime. Handpicking a cadre of the finest bank robbers, housebreakers and shoplifters, she handled logistics and organized supply chainsâturning theft into a viable, scalable business.
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum paints a vivid portrait of Gilded Age New Yorkâa city teeming with nefarious rogues, capitalist power brokers and Tammany Hall bigwigs, all straddling the line between underworld enterprise and âlegitimateâ commerce. Combining deep historical research with the narrative flair for which she is celebrated, Margalit Fox tells the unforgettable true story of a once-famous heroine whose life exemplifies Americaâs cherished rags-to-riches narrative while simultaneously upending it entirely.
