FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
In reality, many women have played the game of crime just as well as men.
We've all seen mobster movies like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas," but where are the women? In such films, they are often relegated to the roles of mothers and "prostitutes."
But in reality, many women have played the game of crime just as well as men.
From mafia bosses to "femmes fatales," certain women have not hesitated to use illegal means to achieve what they wanted. Here are some of them:
Stephen St. Clair
Born in the French Caribbean in 1887, Stephanie St. Clair faced many obstacles after immigrating to the United States in the early 1910s. This was not uncommon for people of color in what was, by standards, a socially conservative country.
However, thanks to her determination and great strength, St. Clair finally broke through the boundaries. In the 1920s, she led a gang of extortionists in the Harlem neighborhood of New York. St. Clair never forgot her roots. She fought for the rights of black people, exposed the corruption of the local police (many officers were fired), and created jobs for her black brothers.
After the Prohibition era, gangsters from other countries tried to encroach on the territory she controlled. But she refused to give up even an inch, not even to her sworn enemy, Daç Schultz.
St. Clair eventually turned her criminal enterprise over to law enforcement chief Ellsworth Johnson. He became famous as the “Godfather of Harlem.” St. Clair died in 1969, but she continues to be remembered as “The Queen” and “Madame St. Clair.”
Griselda Blanco
Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco had many nicknames, such as “The Black Widow” and “The Grandmother of Cocaine.” For several decades, from the 1970s to the 2000s, Griselda was active in the illegal drug trade between Colombia and the United States.
“She would kill anyone who made her angry,” an American lawyer later said of Griselda. “Because of a debt, because they had made a mistake with a shipment, or because she didn’t like the way they looked at her,” he added.
Griselda did not carry out the murders herself. Her assistants, the Pistoleros, did that. Blanco was shot dead in her hometown in 2012. In 2024, Colombian actress Sofía Vergara played the role of Griselda (to much acclaim) in the Netflix series of the same name.
Ma Barker
Born in Missouri, USA in 1873, Ma Barker certainly became infamous, but was she really the ruthless godmother of crime? Legendary FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover thought so.
He called the woman “the most ferocious, dangerous and resourceful criminal mastermind of the last decade.” But a closer look at what we actually know about Ma’s life paints a completely different picture.
She was the mother of several members of the Barker-Karpis Gang, one of the most feared criminal organizations of the Depression-era 1930s. However, there is no clear evidence that she was directly involved in the group's lawbreaking.
Instead, it seems highly likely that she simply accompanied her sons as they traveled across the United States to commit kidnappings and bank robberies.
Ma was murdered by FBI agents in 1935, and Hoover allegedly exaggerated her sins just to justify authorizing that deadly shootout for the woman.
Pupeta Mareska
Asunta Mareska was born on January 19, 1935, near Naples, into a family with a notable connection to crime. The Mareska family made most of their illicit money from cigarette smuggling. Commonly nicknamed "Pupeta" (little doll) for her beautiful appearance, Asunta won a beauty pageant while still a teenager.
In 1955, she married Pasquale Simonetti, a member of the Camorra, one of the main organizations of the Italian mafia. Months later, Simonetti was murdered on the orders of his rival Antonio Esposito.
As the police seemed unwilling to prosecute Esposito, Pupetta took matters into her own hands. Just weeks after her husband's death, Pupetta took revenge by shooting Esposito to death. The ensuing media frenzy made Pupetta a household name.
She was found guilty of Esposito's murder and served 10 years and 4 months of an initial sentence of 18 years in prison. Later, Pupeta began a romantic relationship with drug lord Umberto Amaturo. She is said to have supported his criminal activities and was charged with two other murders.
Pupeta passed away at the age of 86 on December 29, 2021./ Adapted from "Pamphlet"
Lini një Përgjigje