5fish
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Well @O' Be Joyful , you have hidden another Cincinnati secret form us all here... The guy did shirt the civil war... He was Ocean Eleven before the movie...
When Leslie arrived in New York City, he was met by the repercussions of the Civil War.[3] The city was overcrowded, and the rate of crime was high. The corrupted politicians and police left the city to the many gangs that occupied it. Not long after his arrival, Leslie fell into the criminal lifestyle of the gangs. Due to his architectural skills, he quickly went to the top of the ranks in the criminal world.[2]
Here is story... The Architect...
It’s a cliche of heist movies — that moment when the criminal mastermind runs through his brilliant plan with blueprints and models. Those scenes all owe a debt to George Leslie, one of the greatest burglars in American history. In his new book, “A Burglar’s Guide to the City,” which analyzes the intersection of architecture and crime, author Geoff Manaugh tells his story.
Leslie had been trained as an architect at the University of Cincinnati, where he graduated with honors. He was charismatic, well connected, and could have worked for any of the wealthiest clients in the city, from private bankers to financiers. But his first thoughts upon arrival were not about joining the parade of design and construction on display, still less about how his own remarkable architectural talents might help to beautify the city for those who could never afford to live like kings. His first thoughts were that he could use his architectural skills to rob the place blind.
No one thought twice of it — why would they? Leslie dressed well, he had been trained as an architect, and his illicit spatial knowledge of the city only continued to grow.
At the same time, Leslie went to work cultivating contacts on the opposite end of the social ladder: tradesmen of a different kind, and experts in darker undertakings. Leslie’s secret weapon here was a notorious fence of stolen goods, the Prussian-born Fredericka Mandelbaum, widely known as Marm.
Her eye for trickery and subterfuge extended even to architecture: she had a dumbwaiter installed inside a false chamber in her home chimney, where she could stash sensitive items in a rush. Rather than opening or closing the flue, a small lever in the fireplace would lift her hot goods to safety.
In her own way, Mandelbaum was a Dickensian supervillain, complete with a labyrinthine lair on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her thieves’ den there boasted multiple entrances, unmarked doors, armed guards, and even a disguised access point through a pub on Rivington Street. These all led into a goods yard where deals and trades could be made.
Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum (March 25, 1825 – February 26, 1894)[1] [2][3] operated as a criminal fence to many of the street gangs and criminals of New York's underworld, handling between $1–5 million in stolen goods between 1862 and 1884. Like her principal rival John D. Grady and the Grady Gang, she also became a matriarch to the criminal elements of the city and was involved in financing and organizing numerous burglaries and other criminal operations throughout the post-American Civil War era
George Leonidas Leslie - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
When Leslie arrived in New York City, he was met by the repercussions of the Civil War.[3] The city was overcrowded, and the rate of crime was high. The corrupted politicians and police left the city to the many gangs that occupied it. Not long after his arrival, Leslie fell into the criminal lifestyle of the gangs. Due to his architectural skills, he quickly went to the top of the ranks in the criminal world.[2]
Here is story... The Architect...
An architect turned evil & became the greatest bank robber in history
It’s a cliche of heist movies — that moment when the criminal mastermind runs through his brilliant plan with blueprints and models. Those scenes all owe a debt to George Leslie, one of the greates…
nypost.com
It’s a cliche of heist movies — that moment when the criminal mastermind runs through his brilliant plan with blueprints and models. Those scenes all owe a debt to George Leslie, one of the greatest burglars in American history. In his new book, “A Burglar’s Guide to the City,” which analyzes the intersection of architecture and crime, author Geoff Manaugh tells his story.
Leslie had been trained as an architect at the University of Cincinnati, where he graduated with honors. He was charismatic, well connected, and could have worked for any of the wealthiest clients in the city, from private bankers to financiers. But his first thoughts upon arrival were not about joining the parade of design and construction on display, still less about how his own remarkable architectural talents might help to beautify the city for those who could never afford to live like kings. His first thoughts were that he could use his architectural skills to rob the place blind.
No one thought twice of it — why would they? Leslie dressed well, he had been trained as an architect, and his illicit spatial knowledge of the city only continued to grow.
At the same time, Leslie went to work cultivating contacts on the opposite end of the social ladder: tradesmen of a different kind, and experts in darker undertakings. Leslie’s secret weapon here was a notorious fence of stolen goods, the Prussian-born Fredericka Mandelbaum, widely known as Marm.
Her eye for trickery and subterfuge extended even to architecture: she had a dumbwaiter installed inside a false chamber in her home chimney, where she could stash sensitive items in a rush. Rather than opening or closing the flue, a small lever in the fireplace would lift her hot goods to safety.
In her own way, Mandelbaum was a Dickensian supervillain, complete with a labyrinthine lair on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her thieves’ den there boasted multiple entrances, unmarked doors, armed guards, and even a disguised access point through a pub on Rivington Street. These all led into a goods yard where deals and trades could be made.
Fredericka Mandelbaum - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum (March 25, 1825 – February 26, 1894)[1] [2][3] operated as a criminal fence to many of the street gangs and criminals of New York's underworld, handling between $1–5 million in stolen goods between 1862 and 1884. Like her principal rival John D. Grady and the Grady Gang, she also became a matriarch to the criminal elements of the city and was involved in financing and organizing numerous burglaries and other criminal operations throughout the post-American Civil War era