“The aim of the department store…was to foment desire,” Margalit Fox writes in The Talented Mrs. Mandlebaum, creating an “epidemic of longing” fueled by advertisements. The American housewife not only longed for a showplace home, it was socially required. But how could a middle class income support such a lifestyle?

Criminals stole goods and fenced them, and then they were sold at discount. The public was happy, and the criminal organization was very happy.

One of the most successful criminal operations was run by Mrs. Fredericka Mandelbaum in whose drawing room could be found the wealthy and priviledged class. She was a remarkable woman, beloved by her family, a philanthropist, involved in her synagogue; a successful business woman and crime boss with a loyal cadre of thieves who called her ‘Marm’–mother.

Margalit Fox takes readers deep into Marm Mandelbaum’s life and world, from her specially designed shopfront with hidden rooms for stolen goods to her luxurious black silk dresses dripping with diamonds. It took decades, but the Pinkertons finally introduced a mole into her operation to get evidence of wrongdoing. Then, she fled and lived for decades in Canada!

A large, imposing woman, characterized in cartoons and newspaper illustrations with grotesque Jewish characteristics, her intelligence must have been remarkable. As a German immigrant in the late 19th c. her options for providing for her family was limited. But I can imagine that had she been a man, she could have been anything–perhaps a tycoon of industry, a Pinkerton detective, or a political boss.

True crime lovers will relish this biography of a forgotten, once infamous, crime boss.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Fox plunges readers into the captivating realm of Fredericka Mandelbaum, a formidable presence in the criminal underworld of New York during the Gilded Age. Rather than simply chronicling Mandelbaum's escapades, Fox dissects our idealized perceptions of the period, uncovering a multifaceted tapestry of power struggles and societal biases.

(3.5)

I’m always curious to learn about different people, places, and periods in history that I have little to no knowledge of. In the case of The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum, I went in with absolutely no foreknowledge. In general, I’m not super well-versed in the era of the 1800s.

The book discusses the rags-to-riches life story of Frederika Mandelbaum. Starting out as a peddler, she ended up with ties to the underworld and ultimately became an entrepreneur. With 19th Century New York as a backdrop, the book offers not only a biography of Mrs. Mandelbaum, but also a look at the climate of the times. The book is rich with photographs which add to the atmosphere.

While I found the topic interesting and I was taken with the setting, I didn’t latch onto Fredericka. The book had a tendency to stray, so maybe that was a contributing factor for me even though I did find the side players interesting as well. The topics of the book were another reason I struggled to connect on a personal level.

Overall, the research is solid and is presented well. A good read for history lovers!

A huge thanks to Random House and NetGalley for inviting me to read a digital ARC of the book!

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for giving me an eARC to review.

I thought this was a well structured and researched book about organized crime in general and specific instances in Mrs. Mandelbaum's life. I especially loved all of the details about bank heists, how her fencing organization worked, and how she was eventually 'caught' and her defense. There was a lot great information that I never knew about organized crime and the excesses of the rich in Golden Age New York.

Unfortunately, this book did suffer a bit from the overabundance of information. I specifically found the footnotes really distracting and wish more of them were incorporated into the text for a smoother reading experience. My eARC also was basically 50% endnotes, which may look different when in printed format. One other minor beef I had was that the author kept writing "a historian" instead of citing which exact writer/researcher/historian stated her fact. Perhaps that was in the end notes, but it happened enough for me to notice the pattern.

Overall though, I think this book was a great read and I'm tempted to see what else Margalit Fox wrote. If you're looking for an interesting read about the Golden Age of Organized Crime in New York, give this one a go.

Fredericka was the daughter of German Jews and immigrated with her husband, Wolf Mandelbaum, a year after the birth of their first child in 1850. Together they settled in Kleindeutschland, or "Little Germany," in New York City. With limited prospects for women at this time, she took the opportunity to become the protégée of master fence, "General Abe" Greenthal. With him she established lucrative relationships and became an expert in appraisal. By the end of the 1850s, "Marm" Mandelbaum was a full-blown entrepreneur. In 1864, she opened her own shop and eventually an entire building in 1873. After years of building an empire, her downfall in 1884 would be at the hands of the one and only Pinkertons.

Fredericka Mandelbaum lived a life quite unlike any other woman of her time and was as successful as any gangster, crime boss, or robber baron. However, by the end of this book, I still felt like I only knew the bare facts of her life. It's said she became "renowned as a mentor to underworld women" and made several connections across state lines, but how? Where's the talent? It's said that her longtime attorneys went to "lavish extremes in her defense" before her final fall but in what way? Of her husband Wolf and her protégée Sophie Lyons, I learned only little, and her son Julius is non-existent until he is arrested. Fox certainly sets the scene with the ins and outs of the game. It covers the rise of the highly-skilled shoplifters and burglars (including major heists,) the corruption of Gilded Age New York City, and even whole chapters on 18th century extortionist Jonathan Wild and detective Allan Pinkerton. Fox describes her as an attentive wife and mother, a generous synagogue-goer, an otherwise upstanding member of her community, but there's nothing in the book to support that. Sadly, Mandelbaum appears as a background character to her own story.

This was 2.5 out of 5 for me, but thank you Netgalley and Random House for approving my request!

The story of Fredericka Mandelbaum is pretty interesting. The tales of how her agents committed crimes are definitely attention grabbing as well, but the real strong points of this book is how it fleshes out the world of the late 1800s, especially New York City, in the U.S. You get a much better appreciation for why certain jobs and criminals existed. Of course a lot of this means that the story meanders a bit into bit players in the overall narrative, which can be distracting at times, though overall not a bad read.

This was a very involved story about “Marm” Mandelbaum and her long successful career as a big-time fence in mid 1800s New York. For several decades, she wielded heady power as she ran her business and amassed a fortune. Mrs. Mandelbaum had an amazing head for crime, and came up with many ways to organize it into a business.

The true tale of how a poor German immigrant to New York City in the late 1800's rose to become arguably the first crime boss in America. Her story is fascinating and Mrs. Fox does a masterful job in weaving historical details and background perspectives to make it all come alive. Mrs. Mandelbaum was a product of the times in terms of her part of the intricate web of corruption that plagued all of New York society, business and government at that time. The author does a good job of documenting the facts and including endnotes and footnotes to help the reader with perspectives on current comparable values of items and wages. I would rate this 5 out of 5 stars. It was well written, and I enjoyed learning about the inner workings of business and the network of corruption as well as how Mrs. Mandelbaum successfully organized her "business". If you enjoy true crime stories or even non fiction history, this would be an excellent choice.

I thought this was fascinating - I was not at all aware of Mrs. Mandelbaum, but am delighted to have peeked behind her nefarious curtains! I hadn't read Fox before, although had heard of her work (most notably the Conan Doyle book). I'm definitely going to have to look into her further now. She does a very nice job painting a picture of a time and place with details that resonate and bring the past to life. I found the level of description to be appropriate to an engaging narrative rather than a textbook-feeling piece of non-fiction.

Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in 1850. Poor and working as a peddler. By 1870, she was a widow with children and a fixture in Society.

She must have married well. No, she was a crime boss.

And if that isn’t intriguing, I don’t know what is!

She was a fence and a very successful criminal. Planning robberies of gold, jewels and cash all over the country. We are talking millions and millions!

What an interesting account this was. I had never known about Marm before and I am very glad I found out.

They may have had gangs in New York, but this lady created a system, and it worked very well.


Excellent Read

NetGalley/ Random House July 02,2024

Forget Bonnie and Clyde, Meet the Original Gangster Grandma: A Review of "The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" by Margalit Fox

Margalit Fox's meticulously researched "The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" isn't just another salacious true crime biography – it's a Trojan horse that upends our romanticized notions of the Gilded Age. This book forces us to re-examine ideas of power, ambition, and how success is defined, especially within the confines of a deeply prejudiced society.

Forget the Carnegies and the Astors; Fredericka Mandelbaum was a ruthless tycoon operating in plain sight. Yes, she was a master fence, but Fox reveals her as an astute businesswoman exploiting a corrupt system. She understood the allure of luxury, the power of networks, and the necessity of bribing the right people. Mandelbaum's criminality was merely a twisted reflection of the 'legitimate' business practices of the era, making us question the thin veil separating the two.

Where the book truly excels is in its exploration of the complex social forces shaping Mandelbaum's rise. As a woman and a Jewish immigrant, she was doubly an outsider. This marginalization, while undeniably oppressive, became a strategic weapon. Fox skillfully shows how Mandelbaum's 'otherness' allowed her to forge a vast underworld network, tapping into disenfranchised communities often ignored by those in power.

Her story is a sobering reminder that for some, especially those systematically excluded from conventional paths to success, defiance and transgression become the only viable means of attaining agency. Fox doesn't lionize Mandelbaum, but she doesn't condemn her either. Rather, she compels us to confront the systemic failures that can push even the most clever and resourceful individuals towards morally dubious choices.

"The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" is an unflinching, thought-provoking read. It doesn't simply offer a gripping crime story; it interrogates how power, ambition, and identity intersect. Fox leaves us unsettled, encouraging us to reconsider the historical figures we exalt and the narratives we tell ourselves about who gets to play the game – and who wins it.

This is a fascinating book about an immigrant woman who migrates to the US in 1850 and through skill and force of personality builds and runs an extensive criminal fencing activity in New York City. I had never heard of Mrs. Mandelbaum before reading this book, which really surprised me since I am a New York native and very familiar with NYC History. It is a very fast read with extensive research and footnotes – and the footnotes add a lot to the story and are well worth reading.

Really interesting biography of a woman of whom I’d never heard - an immigrant Jewish lady crime lord in Gilded Age New York? Sign me up right now. This is very much one of those biographies which is “life and times” more than it is a personal biography - personal information about Mandelbaum comes from public interviews, court proceedings, and other people; she didn’t exactly leave papers or a memoir lying around - but Fox (unsurprisingly, given her past as an obituary writer) does well pulling all that information together into a cohesive, engaging whole. We learn not only about Mandelbaum but about how her crime empire functioned, and the ways in which she both exploited and was exploited by New York’s notorious nineteenth-century corruption. It was interesting and fun to read, absolutely the kind of book I’ll be recommending to friends and aunts for the next year or so.

That said, if I never read “a historian has written” again it will probably be too soon; Fox quotes extensively and loves, loves, loves that construction. Can’t she just say “wrote?” Evidently not. And while on the one hand I appreciate how meticulously she sourced all of her quotations, on the other, I really wished she would paraphrase more often, if only to get rid of all those quotation tags - they felt really obtrusive by the end. Minor complaint? Absolutely. Did it bug me? Also yes.

Magalit Fox creates a New York in a women's world at its finest, I enjoyed this adventure. Mrs. Mandelbaum is one worth knowing and one to be mentioned as this was such an intriguing story. As her life comes into view one is mesmerized by her brilliance and strength. After this book, I have a whole new view of organized crime. Wonderfully written and easy to follow this is a must for historical fiction fans. After the last page, I found myself wondering what else to read in this genre. I will be telling friends that this is a must-read in 2024.

"The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" was a fascinating book. I had never heard of Fredericka Mandelbaum, but her success as one of the earliest organized crime bosses was quite impressive. Especially considering that she was running her organization in the 1860s to 1880s, when transportation was by train or horse-drawn wagon and when communication was largely by mail or telegraph (with the telephone not invented until 1876), I was surprised by the reach of her organization and the number of spectacular crimes that occurred far from New York City. There were some rather colorful characters in her life, from her attorneys to the primary crooks she worked with to various city officials. There were interesting discussions about how she operated her business, the history of various types of property crimes, and the details of some of the major "jobs" she helped facilitate.

This is a fascinating account of Fredericka Mandelbaum, who ran an enormous empire of stolen goods and was the money behind various bank heists in the New York of the so-called Gilded Age, when economic disparity grew by leaps and bounds. Fox chronicles Mandelbaum--aka "Marm"--from her arrival in New York to her flight to Canada after being arrested, recounting Marm's training of thieves, her rivals in organized crime, and her upper-crust social life as a hostess to judges and others in the social elite. Some of the quotes run a little long, but I appreciate the context Fox gives for Marm's activities. The title of the book and the titles of several chapters refer to current pop culture and will draw in some readers, but may not age well. i realize that Fox uses Mandelbaum's first name in order not to have pages and pages full of "Marm" and "Mandelbaum," but authors have traditionally used women's first names and men's last names as a way of showing the relative importance of them; I prefer that everyone is called by their last name, only using first names when there is the possibility of confusion, although here, "Marm" is clear and doesn't diminish Mandelbaum.

This was a interesting concept in the true crime nonfiction book. It was a great idea where I learned about a female crime boss. I thought it was well written and educational. Margalit Fox has a grea writing style and works with a historical nonfiction book.

A rags to riches story, but on the other side of the law, and focusing on a woman. That alone makes it worth picking up, if only to satisfy one's curiosity.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. "The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" was an immigrant who came to New York city in the mid 1800s. she was poor lost her first baby girl. Married and had four more children. She became a widow and had to find a way to support her young family. So she became a criminal a "fence" for other thieves who brought her the Jewelry they shoplifted. expensive pieces of clothing like silk, furs, and many other expensive items that would take into her small shop. she became an expert in changing the stolen goods like jewelry, furs, expensive clothing goods so they would not be traced and resell them. By the mid 1880s she was a millionaire off other people's goods. Of course after about 20 years of being one of the most successful thieves she would be caught, sent for trial only to escape to Canada where she could not be brought back to the states. Got to say although this woman was a thief, I was impressed by how she managed to get away for so long. like wow! Good and interesting read.

Wow! How is it that I have never heard of this woman before? Such an interesting story and how she got away with what she did for as long as she did is baffling. One can only imagine what she could have been and done with her life in a different time. The author was dedicated to telling her tale and includes pictures and terrific footnotes. Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.