The Confidence Queen
Where is Bertha Heyman's HBO Series?
Happy Wednesday my friends! This past week has been draining and upsetting. Between heinous anti-trans bills, aggressive legislative attacks on abortion, and the murder of Daunte Wright, it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that progress is unsustainable. For every step forward, we’re shoved three steps back.
Knowing all of this, I wanted to keep things light this week. A little media palate cleanser. Today, we are learning about Bertha Heyman aka the Confidence Queen aka the 1800’s version of Anna Delvey. Let’s get into it!
Bertha Heyman
Bertha was a grade-A scamstress (is that a word? Spell check seems to think not). Her focus was conning rich men by pretending she was a very rich woman unable to access her fortune. In order to gain access to her fortune, she needed to borrow a small amount of money to get into her account. Of course, she offered to pay a handsome sum from her fortune to any kind gentleman who loaned her the small amount required to regain control of her account.
On its face, that’s not very convincing. But Bertha was a con artist (emphasis on artist). She made it believable by only staying in fancy-schmancy hotels and always having a maid and manservant in her service. She constantly bragged about all her influential friends creating a believable façade that she was just a rich woman in a tough spot. It didn’t hurt that she was charismatic AF. Anna Delvey must have taken a page out of Bertha’s book. If you don’t know about Anna Delvey, you should read about her here.
Bertha wasn’t limited to her “help, I’m a rich mistress in distress” scam. She would also steal jewelry and watches as well as forge checks. She was such a convincing con artist she conned a man out of his life savings ($900 which would be like $20,000 now) while she serving prison time for another con! Her brain should be studied.
One of her most notorious scams involved a rabbi and his brother-in-law. Long story short, Bertha moved to San Francisco with a man named Willie. She claimed Willie was her son from a now-deceased husband. She found a rabbi she knew from childhood. She told him that she made a mistake marrying outside the Jewish faith and needed the rabbi to help her find a Jewish husband. Did I mention she also claimed her fake dead husband left her a fortune? So, the rabbi is more than happy to help and sets her up with his brother-in-law. The BIL was so into Bertha he proposed within a few weeks. During this time, Bertha is spending up a storm buying new outfits on bad checks and fake credit. Before Bertha and the BIL were to get married, her fake son Willie gets the BIL to give him $500 and all of his jewelry, claiming he will reset it in a modern way that Bertha likes. Once the jewels were acquired, Bertha and Willie skip town.
They were eventually caught and Willie was sentenced to jail but Bertha was acquitted. The trial and her notoriety led to Bertha running a one-woman show about her scams while also starring as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (can’t really explain that one).
Although she was an expert scammer, Bertha wasn’t a totally heartless person. She would only scam overly confident rich men. She was quoted saying “the moment I discover a man’s a fool I let him drop, but I delight in getting into the confidence and pockets of men who think they can’t be ‘skinned.’ It ministers my intellectual pride.” What a way to get revenge on the patriarchy. She also claimed she gave the majority of the money she conned to the poor, but there’s nothing proving that.
I think the most interesting thing about Bertha is that she wasn’t traditionally good-looking. She was often described as a stout woman with some even going so far as to say she was built like a tank. #rude. But, she was so charismatic, charming, and believable, she repeatedly conned men and got away with it. Hence her nickname, The Confidence Queen.
Fundraisers You Should Know About
Three fundraisers you should save up your pennies to donate to or participate in.
Traci from The Stacks (Podcast) Book Fundraiser
Traci is raising money for the Million Book Project, which provides books and brings authors to prisons across the country. Highly recommend you listen to her podcast episode from last week where she interviews the founder of the Million Book Project. Her goal is to raise $50,000! You can donate here.
N Street Village Flower Arranging Class
N Street Village, an organization that provides housing and resources to low-income and homeless women in DC, is holding a virtual flower arranging class with Poppy Flowers. The class is on April 27 at 7 PM over Zoom. It’s $15 to join and you use your own flowers (or you can buy a kit from Poppy Flowers). All the info is here.
PS – The class is for Mother’s Day in case that might be difficult for anyone.
N Street Village Charcuterie Class
Niccara Campbell of Urban Charcuterie is holding a virtual cheeseboard class! She will teach you how to build a cheeseboard and the best pairings for some yum yum in the tum tum. The class is on May 5th at 7 PM over Zoom. It’s $15 to join and you use your own ingredients. All info is here.
Citations
The Prussian Grifter Who Swindled Her Way to Her Own One-Woman Show