Women’s Wrongs: Our Favorite Reads
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” So said Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a historian whose work demonstrates that women’s important contributions to society are often overlooked. Taken wildly out of context, the quote could apply to any of the women highlighted in our five stories below. Often born into struggle and fed up with the men who underestimated them, these women stole, schemed, and conned their way into history. The Victorian Influencer Who Peddled Poisonous Beauty Elixirs By Sabrina Imbler Sarah Rachel Russell grew up poor in London’s East End. After selling rabbit furs, working as a fortune teller, and a brief stint as a prostitute, she set her sights on the beauty industry. Russell sold exotic makeup with a dark twist: it contained a heavy dose of highly toxic arsenic. How the ‘Queen of Thieves’ Conned French Riviera Wealthy By Caroline Elenowitz-Hess From the late 19th century into the early 20th century, Comtesse de Monteil—a cat burglar, jewel thief, and fake countess—wreaked havoc across the Mediterranean’s most lavish tourist destinations. She led a crew of highly skilled thieves, targeting only the wealthiest of victims and establishments until her arrest in 1908. How We Forgot the Bobbed Haired Bandit By Lauren Young The Roaring ‘20s were known for jazz music, speakeasies, and a new generation of female criminals. Celia Cooney wasn’t America’s only “Bobbed Haired Bandit,” just one of several robbers the press glorified as provocative women’s rights icons. Was Minnie Dean Really the Wickedest Woman in New Zealand History? By Natasha Frost The only woman ever executed in New Zealand, Minnie Dean, was labeled a baby farmer, a murderer, and a monster—but was she really any of these things? What we do know is that Frost took in kids without a home, 17 died in her care, and three were buried in her garden. Was she a killer, a crook, or a woman doing what she could to help? New York’s First Female Crime Boss Started Her Own Crime School By Eric Grundhauser Prussian immigrant Marm Mandelbaum, also known as the Queen of Fences, was one of the most influential crime bosses in New York’s history. Not only was she well-versed as a con artist and financial fraud, but she started her own school of crime for young people living on the streets.
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” So said Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a historian whose work demonstrates that women’s important contributions to society are often overlooked. Taken wildly out of context, the quote could apply to any of the women highlighted in our five stories below. Often born into struggle and fed up with the men who underestimated them, these women stole, schemed, and conned their way into history.
The Victorian Influencer Who Peddled Poisonous Beauty Elixirs
By Sabrina Imbler
Sarah Rachel Russell grew up poor in London’s East End. After selling rabbit furs, working as a fortune teller, and a brief stint as a prostitute, she set her sights on the beauty industry. Russell sold exotic makeup with a dark twist: it contained a heavy dose of highly toxic arsenic.
How the ‘Queen of Thieves’ Conned French Riviera Wealthy
By Caroline Elenowitz-Hess
From the late 19th century into the early 20th century, Comtesse de Monteil—a cat burglar, jewel thief, and fake countess—wreaked havoc across the Mediterranean’s most lavish tourist destinations. She led a crew of highly skilled thieves, targeting only the wealthiest of victims and establishments until her arrest in 1908.
How We Forgot the Bobbed Haired Bandit
By Lauren Young
The Roaring ‘20s were known for jazz music, speakeasies, and a new generation of female criminals. Celia Cooney wasn’t America’s only “Bobbed Haired Bandit,” just one of several robbers the press glorified as provocative women’s rights icons.
Was Minnie Dean Really the Wickedest Woman in New Zealand History?
By Natasha Frost
The only woman ever executed in New Zealand, Minnie Dean, was labeled a baby farmer, a murderer, and a monster—but was she really any of these things? What we do know is that Frost took in kids without a home, 17 died in her care, and three were buried in her garden. Was she a killer, a crook, or a woman doing what she could to help?
New York’s First Female Crime Boss Started Her Own Crime School
By Eric Grundhauser
Prussian immigrant Marm Mandelbaum, also known as the Queen of Fences, was one of the most influential crime bosses in New York’s history. Not only was she well-versed as a con artist and financial fraud, but she started her own school of crime for young people living on the streets.
