Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio.

Legendary New York City Police detective Thomas F. Burns described Bertha Hayman as, quote,

one of the smartest confidence women in America.

And she was considered among New York City Police to be quote, the boldest and most expert

of the many female adventurises who infested the country during her lifetime.

So let's meet this so-called confidence queen.

Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Mariette Markey.

And I'm Holly Frye.

Bertha Hayman came to the United States in 1878 during her late 20s.

She was born in 1851 as Bertha Schlesinger, a native of Cubley near Pozen in Prussia.

Prussia at this point was primarily a Germanic kingdom and state,

and it was that until the 1900s.

Today, what was Prussia makes up parts of the modern day nations of Germany, Poland, and Russia.

There are some questions about Bertha's life story, but as she was a con artist,

we suppose we can expect some of that just by nature.

Here is what everyone thinks they know,

with possibly an embellishment here and there from Bertha herself.

Bertha attracted the attention of the New York City Police Department

in the late 1870s, pretty much as soon as she arrived in the city and the country for that matter.

Shortly after relocating to America,

this budding con artist followed in the criminal footsteps of her father,

who was an alleged forger who regularly ended up in jail.

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