The Queen of Thieves: the story of the most famous Russian criminal
'17.03.2019'
Source: Lenta.ru
World history knows a lot of talented women who have left their mark on science, art and politics. No exception and criminal fishing. Women never rose to the throne of thieves, but their talents and luck could be the envy of the most authoritative thieves in law. Sonya Golden Handle is undoubtedly the most famous Russian criminal of all time.
Her life is fanned by legends, and sometimes it is difficult to understand where the truth is and where it is fiction. Thanks to her talents, natural artistry and a beautiful life, a girl from a simple Jewish family was able to rise to the heights of the underworld of Czarist Russia. She turned skillful scam, kidnapped fortunes and put into action ingenious tricks. At the same time, Sonya was distinguished by a rare charm, and crowds of fans always hung around her, one of whom eventually passed the Golden Hand of the police ... She remembered the story of the legendary thief "Lenta.ru report».
Difficult childhood
The future legend of the world of thieves was born in 1846 (according to other sources - in 1851) in the village of Powazki near Warsaw. She came from the Jewish family Solomoniak: parents named the girl Sheindley-Sura. Her father Leib provided the family; he was either a skilled hairdresser, or a usurer, who was buying up the stolen goods. The second is more likely, because in the house of Solomoniakov, dubious personalities constantly rotated, mostly foreigners. But thanks to the communication with these guests, little Sheindlya learned to speak tolerably in five languages - later this will help her successfully portray foreign women and aristocrats for her scams.
Sheindla's mother died when she was still young. After a little grief, Leiba brought a new wife into the house, but did not live long in his second marriage: he died a few years later as a result of his illness. Having lost her father, Sheindlya remained in the care of her strict stepmother: the woman, although she had a sharp temper, but to the mercy of the children of her late husband did not give up. She transported Sheindlu and her sister Feigu to her homeland, Odessa, and gave her children a good education.
Among other things, Sheindlya attended music lessons and even succeeded in her studies. However, the girl was not destined to become a famous musician: in 12 years she ran away from home and got a job as a maid to the popular circus actress Julia (Julia) Pastrana.
Due to a genetic disease - hypertrichosis - Pastrana had an incredibly thick hair on his face and body. She has performed at numerous traveling shows and was known as the Bear Woman, or Lady Monkey. At the same time Pastrana was very fond of luxury, which her young assistant quickly got used to. By the way, it is possible that around this time Sheindlya Solomoniak changed her name to something more simple and concise - Sophia. But the age of her mistress was short-lived: in 26 years, Julia Pastrana died because of complications during childbirth. Sophia was out of work.
However, the girl had a strong trump card: despite the lack of classical beauty, she could boast a rare charm. Because of her fans always had enough - and one of them was the young heir to a wealthy Greek family. Shortly after the death of Pastrana, 17-year-old Sophia persuaded the young man to “borrow” money from his parents and flee abroad. True, their union was not strong: after some time the prodigal son parted with the bride and went home to confess. And Sophia returned to Odessa - but with a firm intention to get rich and no longer depend on windy men. It was probably then that she decided that the shortest path to luxury was theft. By the way, Sonya's sister Feiga also became a thief, but she failed to become famous as the Golden Handle.
Dangerous fellow traveler
Sonya's first victim in 1864 was Odessa trader Isaac Rosenband, who had a wallet from the thief. In this case, the theft turned into a complete failure - an inexperienced criminal was actually caught by the hand at the crime scene. However, Isaac did not have time to inform the police about the incident: Sonka used up all her charm and went to the crown instead of prison - Rosenband proposed to her. From this marriage, Golden Handles gave birth to the eldest daughter Sura-Rivka - but after a year and a half Sonya got bored with family life: she was drawn again to adventure. Throwing her husband and daughter, she grabbed 500 rubles from family savings and rushed along with her lover to Moscow.
Despite the unsuccessful first theft, Sonya did not lose interest in the craft of thieves - and began to train on trains. For this, the girl took a ticket to the first-class carriage and began to charm her companions. When they went to bed at night, the thief took away their bags - and there she was. If companions did not hurry to fall asleep, Sonya started to use opium or chloroform.
Her first victim among the passengers was the Odessa banker Dogmar, with whom Sonya rode in the train Odessa - Moscow. Having seized the moment when the fellow traveler left the compartment, Golden Hand introduced sleeping pills into chocolates, and then treated them to Dogmarova. The banker soon fell asleep, and when he woke up, he discovered the disappearance of 23 (according to other data - 43) thousands of rubles. Needless to say, crooks and a trace of a cold.
In 1866, the Golden Hand stole a suitcase from Junker Mikhail Gorozhansky, who had the imprudence to meet a smiling fellow traveler. But the fortune turned away from Sonya - the cadet in time made a fuss and a thief was caught up by the arriving law enforcement officers. In the neighborhood she began to skillfully portray bewilderment and swear - they say she herself was the victim of thieves who stole 300 rubles from her, and the cadet’s suitcase was grabbed not from malicious intent, but by mistake ... Sonya was so convincing that they believed her - and were released.
It is curious that soon after this story Gorozhansky left a military career and, taking the pseudonym Reshimov, became one of the leading artists of the Maly Theater. Sonya also visited his performances: she sent the actor a bouquet of flowers with a gold clock and a note with an inscription "from the first teacher." And in 1868, the Golden Handle again went under the crown: this time, her chosen one was an old rich man, Shel Shkolnik. But a happy marriage did not work out again: soon after the wedding, Sonya cleaned out her husband and disappeared to return to her criminal trade.
Noble thief
For a while, the Golden Handle for a couple with her next lover, Mikhail Brenner, robbed the villas of wealthy victims. One of them was a widow of a small-ranking official: a woman could barely make ends meet, pulled two daughters, and the five thousand rubles that the thief had stolen were all her savings. Upon learning of whom she had cleaned, Sonya anonymously returned her money to the widow, adding on top of her own. Together with them, the woman received a few tips on where and how to hide the savings so that they would not get the burglar.
If you believe the legends, it was not the only case when Sonka showed nobility. Once, having penetrated into a strange hotel room, the thief read the letters lying on the table. In them, the lodger - a young man who slept in bed rooms - asked for forgiveness from his relatives and employers for having spent the state-owned 300 rubles for the treatment of his sister. The pistol next to the letters left no doubt - the squander was planning to commit suicide. Golden Pen put next to the weapon 500 rubles and left the room.
However, no matter how beautiful the image of a noble thief might be, he was hardly consistent with reality. Sometimes Sonka committed such crimes, after which her victims committed suicide. At the same time, thanks to the talents of Golden Pen, these were not just crimes, but real theatrical performances. For example, she deceived the retired head of the Saratov men's gymnasium, Mikhail Dinkevich. After retiring, he sold all the property in the province for the sake of returning to his native Moscow.
But about the fact that in the hands of Dinkevich was a large sum of money, she learned the Golden Hand: soon she personally met Mikhail, posing as a countess, and offered to sell him his mansion. The naive Dinkevich didn’t even know that the luxurious mansions were taken from the Muscovites who had left for Italy for the time being. The role of the notary at the conclusion of the transaction played Isaac Rosenband - the former husband of Sonka, whom she left. However, by that time he had forgiven Golden Pen for her escape and agreed to play along for her indiscreet reward. As a result, the swindlers of 122 became thousands of rubles, and the deceived Dinkevich committed suicide.
Uninvited guest
Meanwhile, Sonya turned into performances not only serious scams, but also banal hotel thefts. For example, in the 70-s of the XIX century, she often traded in a hotel in St. Petersburg. At first the thief settled there under the guise of a rich traveler; at the same time thanks to the skillful make-up, various wigs and outfits every time she remained unrecognized. A little accustomed to the new place, Golden Hand began the search for wealthy victims among the guests - usually men.
The thief was waiting for the early morning, put on silent shoes from felt and penetrated into the room. And while his master was fast asleep, Sonya calmly took away his valuables. At times, very large sums became her prey: for example, she stole a bag with 240 from thousands of rubles from the chambers of General Frolov.
Of course, there was always the risk that the owner of the room would wake up - and in this case, Golden Handles were always ready to deceit. She just started to undress, pretending to have the wrong number. Especially for this, the thief, before going to work, missed a glass or two of brandy: the aroma of alcohol only confirmed that the lady had gone over a little - and was mistaken by the door. And when the owner of the room revealed himself, Sonka so sincerely portrayed perplexity that he finally convinced himself of the veracity of her legend.
Art of deception
However, Golden Handles most of all loved to steal jewelry in jewelry stores. For this, Sonya got a special dress with hidden voluminous pockets, where she put gold jewelry unnoticed by sellers. That is how in 1869, a thief surrounded a jewelry store on Rishelyevskaya Street in Odessa: jewels for more than 10 thousand rubles became her prey. The owner of the store went to the police - but the guards of order from all that was stolen could only find cheap silver earrings.
Golden Handle managed to adapt even her long nails for thefts: a thief specially grew them to hide small diamonds under them. Another trick helped her to leave with the nose of the next jeweler: depicting an interested customer, Sonya accidentally dropped a precious stone on the floor. Together with the seller, she spent more than half an hour searching for the jewel - and then left, depicting sincere sympathy. A fallen diamond “went away” with it: the Golden Handle carried it on the sole of its shoes, which was prudently smeared with resin.
But Sonya did not always "work" alone: sometimes a little trained monkey performed as her accomplice, whom the thief taught to swallow the jewels. However, this Golden Handle method didn’t complain much - after all, it was then necessary to search for prey in monkey feces.
In the networks of psychiatry
One of the most skillful crimes of the legendary thief was theft from jeweler Karl von Mel, committed in May 1883. In his shop, Sonya appeared under the guise of Sophia Andreevna - the wife of a famous psychiatrist. After reviewing the entire assortment, the crooked woman stopped at the ring, brooches and necklace with diamonds made by Parisian jewelers with a total value of 30 thousand rubles.
“Sofya Andreevna” explained von Melu that the husband was in charge of the finances in their family — and invited him to come to the psychiatrist’s mansion along with the jewels, saying that the settlement would take place there. The jeweler went to the psychiatrist on the same day. “The hostess” met him at the door: she led her husband to the office of her husband and at the same time asked to try on expensive jewelry again. Von Mel, unsuspecting, handed over the jewels to "Sophia Andreevna", which immediately disappeared in an unknown direction, and stepped into the doctor's office. But the psychiatrist did not even pay the bill. More than that, the orderlies rushed into the room, who twisted the jeweler and took him to a psychiatric clinic.
True opened only half a day later. It turned out that shortly before the trip to the jewelry salon, Sonka turned to a psychiatrist with a request to examine her husband, who was supposedly obsessed with jewelry. The doctor, not knowing that he had become an unwitting participant in the scam, made an appointment in his office. When all the participants in this performance realized what was happening, it was already too late - Sonya lay down on the bottom.
By the way, after especially difficult frauds, she arranged for herself a well-deserved vacation - went to Pyatigorsk on the water, sunbathed in the Crimea, traveled around Europe, stopping in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Paris, Nice ... Sonya lived one day and did not regret money: she could calmly to lodge stolen things for a few tens of thousands of rubles to a pawnshop — and to lower everything in one evening.
Betrayal Sharper
For all their "exploits" in 1872, Golden Handle was awarded membership in the famous "Club of Hearts of Jacks" - a kind of organized criminal gang (OCG) of the tsarist times, which included experienced speculators and fraudsters. According to others, Sonya organized her own "Club", which included her former and real lovers, husbands, thieves, and even some Swedish filed by the name of Martin Jacobson. All of them helped their leader - for example, distracted the victims' attention so that the Golden Pen could continue to steal without being noticed.
In addition to conquering the heights of the underworld, the 70s of the 19th century were marked for Sonka by the birth of two daughters - Tabba and Mikhaylina. It was rumored that the thief also had a son Mordokh, but their blood relationship was never confirmed. Golden Pen did not directly participate in the lives of her daughters, but helped them with money — for example, paid for her education in France. Both girls inherited the artistic gift of the mother, but, fortunately, did not follow in her footsteps, but became theater actresses.
At the same time, the heirs Sonya were terribly offended by her - and in every possible way tried to hide their relationship. The girls' father was another thief's spouse, the swindler Mikhail Bluestein; it was under his name that the Golden Handle became known to the world. This happened because at some point luck left the crook, and the law overtook her. The fact is that with all the advantages their accomplices made Sonka vulnerable: knowing all the details of her scams, they could easily turn in the thief of the police. That is exactly what happened in 1880: the next beloved Golden Hand, 20-year-old sharper Wolf Bromberg, also known as Vladimir Kochubchik, informed the guards during the “tour” in Odessa.
However, there is another version: allegedly Bromberg gave Sonya a huge blue diamond for his birthday, which for four thousand rubles and a fake mortgage on a house he bought from one jeweler. But then, driven by greed, the sharper decided to return the money spent - and went to return the seller is already a fake stone. The fraud was uncovered the same day: the police detained Bromberg, who immediately placed all the blame on the unsuspecting Golden Pen. As a result, the 34-year-old thief was detained, transferred to Moscow and sent to the dock.
Restless prisoner
They followed the work of fame: during the trial, many victims of the thief appeared as witnesses for the prosecution. And although Sonya, out of habit, arranged a real show, in which she tried to prove that she had fallen prey to slander, she failed to get dry.
Having received a decent time, the fraudster went to serve her sentence in the village of Luzhki (Irkutsk Province). The guards, seeing a small one in front of him (Sonka’s height was only 153 centimeters) and a fragile woman, underestimated her perfidy: after a few months, Golden Pen ran away from the place of exile. In search of the fugitive, they threw all their forces - but Sonka successfully hid for four years. It fell into the hands of the police only in the 1885 year, during its “tours” in Smolensk.
This time, the thief was severely punished: three years of hard labor and fifty lashes were added to her sentence. But even this did not break Sonka’s spirit: being in the correctional facility of Smolensk, she started a romance with one of the wardens. The jailer fell under the charm of the Golden Handle - and in 1886, he helped her escape again. For this, he lost his job, and Sonya, who was caught in Nizhny Novgorod four months later, went to work on Sakhalin.
Broken by Sakhalin
Even being on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, the swindler did not let up. According to the tradition, the Golden Hand, as well as all the criminals who arrived on Sakhalin, was first settled in the apartment, where it was under supervision. But already in 1891, she was caught trying to escape again: having dressed in men's clothes, the prisoner tried to leave the island. For this 15 strikes with lashes struck her the most ferocious Russian executioner of that time - the former convict Komlev. After that, Sonya was shackled and placed in a tiny chamber where she spent more than two years.
The only entertainment - however, rather dubious - for the prisoner was her next role: a local photographer decided to make money on the glory of Golden Pen. He agreed with the wardens, and they sometimes took the prisoner to the prison yard, where, under camera flashes, the scene of shackling Sonya was shackled over and over again. The photos were a great success not only in Russia, but also abroad: there the legendary fraudster also gained popularity.
In the nineteenth-century 90, the writer Anton Chekhov came to see the living legend of the thieves' world. Seeing Sonya, exhausted and drastically aged, the writer began to doubt - was the Golden Hand the only one in penal servitude? Too bad for her 44 years looked like a con artist. The same impression remained with the writer Vlas Doroshevich: he visited Sakhalin soon after Chekhov. However, Doroshevich, who had seen the criminal during the trial, recognized her by his eyes; the rest of her appearance, according to the publicist, was only “remnants of that Sonya.”
The Last Escape
In 1899, Sophia Bluestein adopted Orthodoxy: she was baptized under the name of Mary. After serving her sentence, she remained on Sakhalin as a free settler. In the last years of her life, Sonya contained a dubious eatery, more like a den. She sold kvass, but all the initiates knew that she could buy vodka from under the floor. Sonya’s last love was a seasoned repeat offender Nikolai Bogdanov, who was noted for his brutal cruelty and often beat the Golden Hand.
It was rumored that in order to break this vicious bond, in 1902, Sonya decided on the last escape in her life. However, the woman’s health has already been severely undermined - she could not leave far from Sakhalin. In addition, the Golden Handle had a cold and died shortly after the onset of the illness.
However, as in many other episodes from Sonya's biography, there is an alternative version about the end of her life. Allegedly, the Golden Handle still managed to get to Moscow - and quietly lived out its last years with the daughters who had forgiven it. The legendary criminal allegedly found her last refuge in an unmarked grave at the Vagankovo cemetery. Proponents of this categorically refuse to believe in a much more plausible version: according to her, the spouse of the Italian, who lived in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, rests in the grave.
Whatever it was, but to the grave of Sonya at the Vagankovsky cemetery to this day does not overgrow the folk path - it comes to scammers, fraudsters, thieves and ordinary onlookers. On a dilapidated monument, which, according to legend, was ordered in Milan by the thieves' comrades, they were again and again writing their wishes - and they hope that the Golden Handle will help them to come true.
"Sonia, help us become good thieves"
“Sonechka, rest in peace to you! From the Belarusian lads "
“Sonya, teach me to be wise and lucky”
“Sonya !!! Help to survive in this world "
