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Title details for The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum by Margalit Fox - Wait list

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum

The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss

by Margalit Fox
Saskia Maarleveld
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America’s first great organized-crime lord was a lady—a nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum.
“A tour de force . . . With a pickpocket’s finesse, Margalit Fox lures us into the criminal underworld of Gilded Age New York.”—Liza 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, “Marm” Mandelbaum had become the country’s most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and 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 “the nucleus and center of the whole organization of crime,” she planned robberies of cash, gold and diamonds throughout the country.
But Mrs. Mandelbaum wasn’t just a successful crook: She was a business visionary—one 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 chains—turning theft into a viable, scalable business.
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum paints a vivid portrait of Gilded Age New York—a city teeming with nefarious rogues, capitalist power brokers and Tammany Hall bigwigs, all straddling the line between underworld enterprise and “legitimate” 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 America’s cherished rags-to-riches narrative while simultaneously upending it entirely.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 2, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593908372
      • File size: 181442 KB
      • Duration: 06:18:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from May 20, 2024
      Journalist Fox (The Confidence Men) pieces together a captivating biography of Fredericka Mandelbaum (1825–1894), who oversaw one of America’s first large-scale criminal enterprises. Characterizing Mandelbaum as a crook with a conscience whose “reputation honesty in criminal matters was absolute,” Fox showcases how her skyrocketing success over several decades—which eventually propelled her into the highest echelons of New York society—was due to her careful masterminding of complex heists, talent for bribery, cultivation of loyalty among her associates, and innovation in the business of property crime, which Fox says Mandelbaum elevated from a scattershot local operation to a national network. Beginning with a stable of mostly female shoplifters, Mandelbaum, who worked behind the scenes as a fence for the stolen goods, expanded her operation to include home burglaries and bank robberies. Her greatest caper was the 1869 burglary of New York City’s Ocean National Bank (“a canonical example of the bank burglar’s art”), which netted $800,000 and required monthslong planning: a shell company rented an office below the bank, where a team of thieves invented new tools to cut through the cement ceiling. In the 1870s, Pinkerton private detectives began investigating property crimes on behalf of wealthy clients who distrusted corrupt police; Mandelbaum was arrested in 1884, but escaped to Canada before her trial. Fox’s detailed descriptions of intricate heists make for a transfixing tale. Readers will be swept up.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This relatively brief audiobook chronicles one of New York City's most colorful and flagrant criminals. German Jewish immigrant Fredericka Mandelbaum rose to shadowy eminence after the Civil War. Six feet tall, stout, and supremely wily, "Marm" Mandelbaum operated out of a store whose stock consisted mainly of stolen goods. Narrator Saskia Maarleveld keeps to a steady pace throughout a narrative that falls a little short on biographical information and fills in the gaps with background. The history of the Pinkerton agency, the evolution of modern crime-fighting methods, the rise of a leisure class in New York City are all fascinating but hardly fresh research. Maarleveld, happily, is a spirited narrator who holds the story together and keeps it moving, however wide its leaps. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      December 6, 2024

      Journalist Fox (The Confidence Men) offers a captivating biography of Fredericka Mandelbaum, a German Jewish immigrant who became one of America's first organized crime bosses during the Gilded Age. Mandelbaum operated as a criminal fence, maintaining a network of thieves within her efficient organization. Thieves were paid 30 percent of fair market value, and the stolen goods were later sold in her store at a steep discount, a perpetual sale that attracted eager buyers. Mandelbaum set up a system where sellers entered on one block and exited on another. Her crew expertly altered items, resetting jewels and erasing engravings, ensuring they were untraceable. Silk, a prized commodity at the time, was meticulously stripped of identifying marks, making it indistinguishable from other pieces. Narrator Saskia Maarleveld delivers a first-rate performance, capturing both the gravity and the grandeur of Mandelbaum's life. Maarleveld conveys an air of admiration for Mandelbaum's boldness and success while never glossing over the criminal nature of her enterprise. Her pacing is impeccable, keeping listeners engaged as the story of Mandelbaum's rise unfolds and her empire expands. VERDICT This audiobook offers a nuanced, empathetic portrayal of Mandelbaum, considering her criminal enterprises while spotlighting her as a pioneering figure and astute businessperson.--Christa Van Herreweghe

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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