The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals

By Mitzi Szereto

This international true crime anthology reveals more than a century of classy crooks and principled pirates from East Chicago to the South China Sea.

Sometimes the nicest people make the best criminals. This volume introduces real-life characters who broke the law for all the right reasons—or committed devious acts with the friendliest of faces. It features incredible stories from across the globe, written by award-winning crime writers, true-crime podcasters, and journalists such as Tom Larsen, David Blumenfeld, and Anthony Ferguson.

You’ll meet Freddie Brenman, the fearsome Chicago street-fighter and trusted friend of John Dillinger; Naún Briones, the Ecuadorian Robin Hood whose outlaw exploits are the stuff of legend; Ching Shih, the nineteenth-century lady pirate who fought Imperial China; and many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781642505696

Mitzi Szereto

Mitzi Szereto is an internationally acclaimed author and anthology editor of fiction and nonfiction books spanning multiple genres. She has written numerous novels within her The Best True Crime Stories series. She's also written crime fiction, gothic fiction, horror, cozy mystery, satire, sci-fi/fantasy, and general fiction and nonfiction. Her anthology, Erotic Travel Tales 2, is the first anthology of erotic fiction to feature a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Mitzi's Web TV channel "Mitzi TV" has attracted an international audience. The Web series segments have ranged from chats with Tiff Needell, Jimmy Choo, and her ursine sidekick, Teddy Tedaloo. Other on-screen credits include Mitzi portraying herself in the pseudo-documentary British film, "Lint: The Movie." She maintains a blog of personal essays at "Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto's Weblog." To learn more about Mitzi follow her on Twitter and Instagram @mitziszereto or visit her website at mitziszereto.com.

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Praise for The Best New True Crime Stories:

Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals

Mitzi has a diamond eye for a good story and assembles her anthologies like carefully crafted pieces of engineering, regardless of genre. An editor with the Midas touch.

—Maxim Jakubowski, The Book of Extraordinary Impossible Crimes and Puzzling Deaths

"Conjuring the spirits of Truman Capote and Damon Runyon (with the ghost of Patricia Highsmith looking on), the stories in The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals thrillingly depict real-life misdeeds throughout history. An Ecuadorian Robin Hood, an art scandal in Paris, new insights into the life and death of a Depression-era bootlegger—what’s not to love?"

—Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park

What a fantastic collection of spellbinding true crime stories from around the world! Each one is deeply researched, thoughtful, and fascinating. This anthology is simply good reading for any fan.

—Kate Winkler Dawson, American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI

Ever since E. W. Hornung—brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle—introduced the public in 1898 to his character A. J. Raffles, genteel, cricket-playing thief, the notion of the nonviolent criminal, from Robin Hood to Danny Ocean, has captured the public’s attention. No blood, no gore: just people trying to scrape a living off the earnings of others. In her latest compendium, Mitzi Szereto has brought together a terrifically readable collection of new and intriguing case histories, including John Dillinger’s bagman and Ching Shih, the nineteenth-century woman pirate of the South China Sea.

—J. P. Smith, author of If She Were Dead and The Summoning

"Mitzi Szereto and a stellar group of authors bring us The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals. Real-life Robin Hoods, smooth-talking charmers, and gentlemen robbers, and an unforgettable cast of criminal characters. True crime storytelling at its very best!"

—Dan Zupansky, author and host of True Murder

Readers have always been fascinated by charismatic criminals, from A. J. Raffles to Tom Ripley, and this anthology examines the nefarious activities of a very diverse bunch of their real-life counterparts.

—Martin Edwards, the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger award-winning author of Mortmain Hall and The Golden Age of Murder

Praise for The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns

Here be monsters! This brilliant collection of gruesome small-town misdeeds spanning a century and four continents will have you running for the comfort and safety of the big city.

—Peter Houlahan, author of Norco ’80

These well-researched, globe-trotting, bite-sized tales are perfect for a lazy summer afternoon—especially at a time when it’s much safer to travel through the pages of a book.

—Dean Jobb, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Remember the saying ‘The devil is in the details’? Well, it’s small towns that deal in details as they unfold in scary, thrilling, and sometimes gruesome fashion. Mitzi Szereto’s new true crime anthology is filled with the devil and the details—great stories and fantastic writing. After reading this book, you will look at your neighbors in a whole new way…. Or perhaps never again!

—Bob Batchelor, cultural historian and author of The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius

An eye-opening excursion into the world of murder, often committed by the neighbors and friends of those who live in these small towns. Without question, it’s a book you won’t soon forget!

—Kevin M. Sullivan, author of

Through an Unlocked Door: In Walks Murder

A well-curated and considered collection comprising some well-written essays/stories that explore the origins of each crime…. These stories get to the human cost behind the terrible events that suddenly vault a small town into the public gaze.

—Paul Burke, NB Magazine

Mitzi Szereto has assembled a group of today’s brightest and best authors for this truly extraordinary anthology. Brilliant!

—Dan Zupansky, author and host of True Murder

"The Best New True Crime Stories is a must for any true crime reader."

—MyShelf

A very thought-provoking compilation in the true crime milieu.

—Gary Jenkins, mob author and host of

the popular mob podcast, Gangland Wire

Praise for The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers

Mitzi Szereto collects some of the day’s very best true crime writing focused on one (troubling, fascinating, compelling) strand of the crime world: serial killers.

—CrimeReads

From the virtually crime-free, ultra-respectable suburbs of Japan to the mean streets of South America where life is cheap; from the peaceful, but forever-tainted, English cathedral town of Gloucester to a Native Indian Reservation in Minneapolis; from the fjords of Norway to the idyll of a Midwest farm in the USA, this book travels the world, examining the history and psychology of some of the world’s most gruesome serial killers.

—Robin Bowles, Australia’s true crime queen

This compelling collection of serial killer stories is more than its beautifully told parts—it adds up to a clear and startling portrait of murder as an addiction and the very human demons that haunt the lives of killers and victims alike.

—Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz-Age New York

An engrossing and multi-faceted anthology for a new era of true crime writing. This fascinating collection goes beyond the procedural to raise important questions about how man’s darkest impulses both threaten and consume us—as individuals and as a culture.

—Piper Weiss, author of You All Grow Up and Leave Me

Chilling, very moving (those poor victims), but above all, essential reading.

—Peter Guttridge, critic and crime fiction author

True Crime addicts will devour this book. The portraits of these psychopaths will mesmerize and horrify everyone who reads it.

—Aphrodite Jones, bestselling true crime author

"The stories in The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers provide insight into a compulsion that’s unfathomable to the average person. Can’t get enough true crime? This thought-provoking, highly readable collection will scratch that itch."

—Alma Katsu, author of The Hunger

Wonderfully written, these stories will take you on a journey that will chill you to the bone, horrify you, even terrify you, but it’s a journey you will be compelled to finish. Amazing book, one of the best true crime books I’ve read in a long time.

—Readers’ Favorite

Can’t get enough true crime stories? Anthologist Mitzi Szereto has put together a collection of short pieces about serial killers that will help to satisfy the needs of any true crime junkie…. This book will be a must-have for any fans of true crime literature.

—Manhattan Book Review

The

Best New

True Crime

Stories

Well-Mannered Crooks,

Rogues & Criminals

Edited by Mitzi Szereto

Coral Gables

Copyright © 2021 by Mitzi Szereto.

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design: Gabi Mechaber

Cover Photo: Diane/Adobe Stock

Layout & Design: Roberto Núñez

The accounts in this book are true and accurate to the best of our knowledge. They may contain some speculation by the author(s) and opinions/analyses from psychology, criminology, and forensics experts. This book is offered without guarantee on the part of the editor, authors, or publisher. The editor, authors, and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our author’s rights.

For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

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Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

[e-mail]

For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at [e-mail]. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at [e-mail] or +1.800.509.4887.

The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2021934946

ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-568-9, (ebook) 978-1-64250-569-6

BISAC category code TRU002000—TRUE CRIME / Murder / General

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Mitzi Szereto

Uncle Freddie and Gentleman John Dillinger

David Blumenfeld

Alan Bond: The Aussie Larrikin Who Went from Riches to Rags and Back Again

Anthony Ferguson

Ching Shih: The Woman Who Dominated the South China Sea

Morgan Barbour

They Wanted Something for Nothing: The Many Cons of the Yellow Kid

Dean Jobb

A One-Way Ticket to Poyais

Janel Comeau

The American Dream

Mitzi Szereto

Champs-Élysées Noir

Paul Willetts

The Bandolero Lojano

Tom Larsen

Little Nicky: The Tragedy of the King of Atlantic City

T. Fox Dunham

The Prince of Swindlers

Paul Williams

The Socialite’s Poisonous Plight

Jackie Barrow

The Monk, The Brain, and the Marlborough Diamond

David Breakspear

The Bombay Godmother

Shashi Kadapa

The Count of Blinville: The Illusive Lives of Charles Marchandon

Deirdre Pirro

About the Editor

About the Contributors

Introduction

Mitzi Szereto

The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.

This quote originated from the prolific pen of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936), the English writer, philosopher, and critic. Chesterton is probably best known to us as the creator of the Roman Catholic priest/amateur sleuth character, Father Brown (adapted into a popular BBC TV mystery series). It was the fictitious Father Brown who actually spoke these words in the author’s seminal short story The Blue Cross, his first featuring the crime-solving priest.

Perhaps Mr. Chesterton and his famous literary creation may have been familiar with some of the individuals you’re about to meet. For when it comes to creative artists, the criminals covered in this book have elevated criminality to a fine art. You won’t find these real-life culprits skulking in dark alleyways, waiting to pounce on some hapless victim. That would be too ordinary, too predictable—and these lawbreakers are anything but ordinary and predictable. No wonder so many of their victims never saw them coming.

Although we don’t tend to think of gentlemanly and gentlewomanly behavior as characteristic of the criminal temperament, it has often been instrumental in the making of a successful career in crime. We’ve all heard of Robin Hood, the English folkloric hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Although the verdict is still out as to whether he truly existed (or existed as he was portrayed in legend), there are real-life Robin Hoods whom we know for certain did. These rebels with a cause weren’t in it only for themselves; they used their criminal activities to help improve the lives of others. In the eyes of the poor and the downtrodden, they were heroes.

Of course, it’s far more common for criminals to commit crimes strictly for personal gain. They can appear before their victims in many guises, from smooth-talking charmers and devilish rogues to high-society movers and shakers, even underdogs down on their luck. In fact, some of these criminals have so much style and sophistication, they’d look more at home on the silver screen than in a jail cell. Many adhere to a strict code of ethics, even if that code makes sense only to themselves or, for that matter, would be considered immoral by the average law-abiding citizen. But criminals play by a different set of rules, especially the ones in this anthology. Whether they’ve spent their lives stuck on the lowest rungs of society’s ladder or have made a place for themselves at the very top, these well-mannered criminals have one thing in common: they’re more likely to doff their hat to you than shoot you.

Con artists, fraudsters, mobsters, swindlers, pirates, bigamists, garden-variety robbers and thieves, and even those who defy classification—you’ll find them all right here in The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals.

Mitzi Szereto

Uncle Freddie and Gentleman John Dillinger

David Blumenfeld

Freddie Brenman, Depression-era bootlegger, notorious street fighter, and jack-of-all-trades thug, was a close friend of my family. So close, in fact, that I called him Uncle Freddie and thought of him almost as though he were my real uncle. Freddie was also a trusted friend of the most famous—and the most courteous—criminal of his day, Gentleman John Dillinger. This is the story of Uncle Freddie’s—and, somewhat more tangentially, of my father Max Blumenfeld’s—involvement with Gentleman John.

It all started in East Chicago, Indiana, a small steel-mill town where I was born about a decade after the key events took place. Freddie was indicted for his involvement in a murder that took place on St. Valentine’s Day, 1928. Two bootleggers from East Chicago—Nick Sudovich, a so-called beer baron, and one of his competitors, Urosh Marovich—got into a disagreement, during which Urosh and his brother pushed Nick Sudovich around a bit. Nick, who was the more established and the more powerful bootlegger, decided to have Urosh killed. Several witnesses swore that Sudovich paid Uncle Freddie $2,500 to arrange to have a couple of other guys, Al Armstrong (a petty criminal from Chicago) and a mysterious individual named Charles Kelley, assist him in murdering Urosh.

Freddie was tried twice for his role in the killing. In the first trial, he was acquitted of first-degree murder when Al Armstrong admitted to being present at the killing, but refused to implicate anyone other than Charles Kelley, who Armstrong said had actually fired the fatal shot. No one could locate Kelley, and no trace of him ever turned up. As a result, many people believe that Kelley was a fictitious person, invented so that the most serious crime could be attributed to him.

Armstrong later recanted his story and claimed that, although Kelley pulled the trigger, Freddie had actually arranged the crime and been present at it. Armstrong was serving a life sentence from his earlier trial, but came in from Leavenworth, Kansas, to testify to the new charge, which landed Uncle Freddie in the penitentiary in Michigan City, Indiana.

My father claimed that Freddie agreed to take the rap for the mobsters who were actually behind all of this and that he was well paid for it. In Max’s account, Uncle Freddie was an innocent, though voluntary, fall guy. My dad was in the courtroom, seated next to Freddie, at the trial in which he was convicted. Freddie knew that the mob had paid off appropriate officials, and he had been assured of a lenient sentence. My uncle was so confident of these things, Max reported, that when the verdict was announced, Freddie was casually munching on a Hershey’s bar with both feet propped up on the back of the bench in front of him, paying no attention whatsoever to the judge. Sudovich got two to twenty-one years and Freddie got two to fourteen in the Indiana State Prison, with time off for good behavior, as had been arranged. When all was said and done, Freddie served only a few years, as also had been arranged.

I have not been able to find independent evidence for this Uncle-Freddie-takes-the-rap story, and I have seen a good bit of evidence that makes it seem dubious. Several people who had no obvious reason to do so testified that Freddie was involved either in arranging the murder, being present at the act, or both. Of course, if it was a setup and the appropriate people were paid off to testify that Freddie was involved, that is exactly what one would have expected them to say.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Freddie went to the Indiana State Prison, where he met and befriended several interesting characters. One of them, according to my father, was a well-educated white-collar criminal who was Freddie’s cellmate, someone rather famous, or infamous, at the time. Because Freddie’s cellmate had been in the public eye, my dad was interested to learn if Freddie had gotten to know him well and, if so, what the man was like. Uncle Freddie said that the man preferred to keep his distance and, despite their being cellmates, managed to stay at arm’s length. When my father inquired if the man had explained why he did this, Freddie replied: Because the guy said ‘Fam-uh-larity breeds contempt.’  It is hard to avoid fam-uh-larity with one’s partner in a tiny jail cell, but apparently Freddie’s cellmate managed to do it.

Although they were never cellmates, Freddie developed a much closer relationship with John Dillinger, who landed in the Indiana State Prison by a slightly circuitous route. On September 16, 1924, at the age of twenty-one, Dillinger was sent to the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton for a drunken attempt to rob an elderly grocer in Mooresville, Indiana, where the Dillinger family was living. Prior to that, Dillinger had certainly been in trouble. He deserted from the US Navy, from which he was dishonorably discharged. He had also committed various petty crimes and pranks, such as stealing forty-one chickens from a man named Homer Zook and tying an annoying neighbor’s outhouse to a train that dragged it away. Until Dillinger’s trip to Pendleton, however, his career had not included serious jail time.

On July 15, 1929, Dillinger was transferred from Pendleton to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he and Freddie became fast friends while working in the prison’s shirt-making shop. This paved the way for Freddie to act as Dillinger’s protector in East Chicago after they got out of prison. Shortly after his release, Dillinger and several of his shirt-making friends formed a bank-robbing team known as The Shirt Shop Boys. Although Freddie wasn’t a member of that group, he later joined a short-lived Dillinger crew known as the Kentucky/Illinois Bunch, so named for the areas in which they carried out their heists.

When Dillinger was paroled on May 22, 1933, he hitchhiked to Gary, Indiana. Less than three weeks later, he robbed a bank in New Carlisle, Ohio, of $10,600. During the next few months, he robbed a tavern and four more banks, and was suspected of robbing several others. By the end of September 1933, having been charged with bank robberies in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, Dillinger found himself in jail in Lima, Ohio. Within a month, five members of Dillinger’s gang freed him from the Lima jail, killing Sheriff Jesse Sarber in the process. From there, Dillinger hightailed it to East Chicago and the company and protection of his friend Freddie Brenman, who was already out of the clink and waiting for him with open arms.

According to newspaper accounts and city lore, Dillinger walked the streets of East Chicago freely and openly. That Dillinger walked around openly in town was not surprising in itself, since he was unusually bold about that sort of thing throughout his career. But he enjoyed a special level of freedom and comfort in East Chicago, courtesy of Uncle Freddie and other local dignitaries. Dillinger was chummy with the local police. He hung out and gambled in the Big House, the luxurious illegal East Chicago casino where Uncle Freddie had his base of operations. At first, Dillinger lived at the home of Sonny Sheetz, who was Al Capone’s lieutenant in the region, one-third owner of the Big House, and one of the biggest African-American criminals in the country. After getting oriented to East Chicago, Dillinger’s residence was the Palace Hotel, a five-minute walk from the Big House and only a few steps from the East Chicago police station. Dary Matera, author of John Dillinger: The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal, suggests that Freddie may have assisted Dillinger in one of his early bank robberies as part of the Kentucky/Illinois Bunch. It is also possible that he participated with Lester Gillis, a.k.a. Baby Face Nelson, in robbing the People’s Savings Bank of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in August 1933. At that time, Matera says, Nelson and his crew often hung out in East Chicago…which was quickly becoming a popular layover for criminals of every ilk. Moreover, Matera reports, Baby Face’s Grand Rapids job included, among other well-known criminals, a ‘Freddie,’ who managed to keep his last name secret. My uncle was the best-known criminal Freddie in town and seems the likeliest candidate for being the mystery man. In any event, until John Dillinger left East Chicago, he remained under Uncle Freddie Brenman’s watchful eye and strong, protective arm.

Sometime during this period, my father Max got to know Dillinger. He never told me any of this, I suspect because it involved his rubbing shoulders a little too closely with a man who—despite being known for his good manners and exceptional courtesy—also became Public Enemy Number One. Whatever the reason, I learned about the relationship on January 16, 1957, at my father’s surprise fiftieth birthday party. After a celebratory meal, some of my dad’s best friends took turns roasting him and telling stories about him. Peter Pinky Friedland, an East Chicago buddy, recounted the Max-meets-Gentleman-John-Dillinger tale.

Dillinger had patronized Max’s earliest business venture, a struggling speakeasy, the Island Queen. According to Pinky, the Island Queen was located somewhere on the waterfront on the south side of Chicago, next to a place called Roepke’s Fish House. The Island Queen took its name from two famous sidewheeler steamboats that cruised the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, one built in 1896, the other in 1925. The first of these vessels was lost in a fire in 1922. The second was destroyed by its chief engineer in 1947 when he accidentally cut into her fuel tank with a welding torch. My dad’s landlocked Queen went under in 1933, shortly before the end of Prohibition, a financial casualty of the Great Depression.

The Queen had a kitchen and a bar with bootleg liquor, which qualified it as a true speakeasy. Since the liquor was supplied by the Brenman distillery, Uncle Freddie was doing himself, as well as my father, a favor by bringing his loose-spending, hard-drinking friends on board. Actually, I am only assuming it was Freddie who brought the Dillinger gang to the club, but who else could it have been? Also, my mother Milly kept a copy of Pinky Friedland’s speech, which included the following statement: If Max didn’t know their identity when they first began operations, it was not too long before he put two and two together and understood that the leader was John Dillinger and members of his graduating class at Michigan City, Indiana [Penitentiary]. Interestingly, in her copy of Pinky’s speech, my mother penciled out and members of his graduating class at Michigan City, Indiana, perhaps at Freddie’s behest. The contents of the clause came to light only when I carefully erased the pencil marks some sixty years later. Uncle Freddie brought Gentleman John and his crew around to the club to drum up a little honest business for Max in the hope of keeping the Island Queen afloat.

In addition to food and lots of bootleg booze, the Island Queen had a band that played loud music while flappers and their partners danced the night away doing the Charleston, the black bottom, and the shimmy. Unfortunately, the speakeasy was expensive to run and, except for the brief period when Freddie’s shady pals used the Queen as a place to hold court, it lost money. Pinky said that the Dillinger gang hosted parties at the club, after which they would load their cars with food and liquor to take with them. The group would run a tab and, after unexplained periods of absence, they’d show up and pay their bill. According to Pinky, It always developed that during their absence, the papers mentioned a holdup or a bank robbery or a sheriff’s office ransacked and prisoners released. Eventually, Dillinger’s stay in the area came to an end, and the big spending stopped. That was when my dad and his partner went bust and the Island Queen sank.

Dillinger liked my dad. Pinky reported that at some point Gentleman John asked Max if he’d like to go for a drive to see the sights in Chicago. The trip was one more example of Dillinger’s famous gentlemanly behavior—reciprocation, as it were, for Max’s hospitality in letting the gang use the Island Queen as their meeting place and after-work playground. So John chauffeured my father Max around the city—presumably in his superfast Hudson Terraplane, his favorite getaway car—and the two of them had a pleasant chat. I’d give anything to have been a fly inside the windshield of the Terraplane and heard that conversation. Max may have been the only person to be able to say that John Dillinger took him for a ride, yet lived to tell the tale.

According to my father, Freddie was Dillinger’s bagman, that is, the person who holds illicitly acquired cash for a criminal and performs other useful services for said criminal. Because of the ever-present danger of capture, if an outlaw like Dillinger acquired a large amount of money, it made sense to keep