I have no fear of anybody. — Stephanie (image via The Mob Museum) People knew her Madame Queenie, Ruler of the Harlem Numbers Rackets, mentor to mobster "Bumpy" Johnson and enemy of gangster Dutch Schultz. When Stephanie St. Clair first entered New York's organized crime world in the early 1910s, she was the only woman in the game. She built a reputation around her Prohibition Era business savvy, and after years raking in the millions, she put her fortune toward community organizing. When other mobsters threatened her numbers empire, she'd take out full-page ads in the Harlem newspapers, boasting her prowess but also advocating for local political reform.
A Woman to Know: Stephanie St. Clair
A Woman to Know: Stephanie St. Clair
A Woman to Know: Stephanie St. Clair
I have no fear of anybody. — Stephanie (image via The Mob Museum) People knew her Madame Queenie, Ruler of the Harlem Numbers Rackets, mentor to mobster "Bumpy" Johnson and enemy of gangster Dutch Schultz. When Stephanie St. Clair first entered New York's organized crime world in the early 1910s, she was the only woman in the game. She built a reputation around her Prohibition Era business savvy, and after years raking in the millions, she put her fortune toward community organizing. When other mobsters threatened her numbers empire, she'd take out full-page ads in the Harlem newspapers, boasting her prowess but also advocating for local political reform.