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(#4) Charmaine Roman
Drug lord Charmaine Roman used a concert promotion business as a front for her illegal activity very successfully for a time. She was the head of a violent Jamaican drug ring, responsible for bringing thousands of pounds of marijuana into Florida. It took years of surveillance for the police to finally catch her with a 400-pound shipment, eventually seizing over 3,000 pounds of marijuana, $200,000, 15 guns, and several cars.
She was also found with various passports and ID cards with many different identities. Besides being a drug kingpin, she had a love of lottery scratch cards, reportedly winning almost $200,000.
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(#10) Thelma Wright
A Catholic school girl who turned to the dark side and then eventually straightened out again, Thelma Wright has a rollercoaster story. She married a heroin supplier, Jackie Wright, who had ties to Philadelphia's Black Mafia. When he ended up with a bullet in his head (and wrapped in a rug), Thelma stepped up her game and earned herself the nickname "Boss Lady."
At the height of her heroin and coke empire, she was thought to take in $400,000 a month. But she eventually left the business behind and worked as a motivational speaker, warning people to stay away from drugs.
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(#2) Stephanie St. Clair
Known as Queenie or Madame St. Claire, Stephanie St. Claire started her own numbers racket in 1923 and was soon making over a quarter of a million a year - a substantial amount of money in those days.
Aside from partaking in the illegal activity of racketeering, St. Claire was very supportive of her community, regularly publishing newspaper ads to educate community members about their rights, agitate for voting rights, and arguing against police brutality, even getting corrupt cops fired. When the mob tried to move in on her uptown territory during the Depression, she had those sent to intimidate her "taken care of," then tipped off the police about mob businesses and had their storefronts attacked. She then took out newspaper ads bragging to the mob about what she'd done and daring them to stop her. In reference to her arch-rival, she said, “I’m not afraid of Dutch Schultz or any other man living. He’ll never touch me.”
When her nemesis Schultz was eventually assassinated with a shot in the stomach, she promptly sent a telegraph to his deathbed that read “So You Sow - So Shall Ye Reap," signed “Madam Queen of Policy.”
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(#11) Kathleen Pettingill
Kathleen Pettingill, known as "The Matriarch," was the mother of an Australian crime family.
Involved in drug trafficking, arms dealing, and once a sex workers herself, she ran brothels and two of her sons have murder convictions under their belts. She was once even shot in a scuffle and now has a glass eye.
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(#8) Ma Barker
- Dec. at 62 (1873-1935)
Being called "the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade" by J. Edgar Hoover is no small feat, but Ma Barker was just that. The mother of a string of criminals who committed highway robberies - and occasional murder - at the beginning of the 20th century, her role in the group has been debated, but many consider her the cold-blooded matriarch of this crime family.
Of her four sons (Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, and Fred), Herman took his life to avoid arrest, while the other three were arrested. But when Fred was released, he and Ma continued their criminal ways before they were both killed in an FBI shootout in 1935. With such a dramatic story, there's no surprise Ma has been featured in multiple movies and many criminal matriarch characters have been based on her real-life doings.
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(#12) Pearl Elliot
Though she was linked to big names like John Dillinger and Harry Pierpont, this madam stood on her own two feet. Born in 1887, Pearl Elliot ran a number of her own enterprises in the early part of the 20th century, including a brothel in Kokomo, IN, that had its own security.
Working as a "treasurer" for Dillinger, she risked being taken out by his enemies and allowed her brothel to be used as a hideout for bank robbers. She died in 1935 at 47 years old - from illness, not crime.
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About This Tool
When it comes to criminal groups, many people think of gangster men with large tattoos. In the male-dominated crime industry, any female leader must have some advantages. Some dangerous, cruel, and wealthy female criminal lords are unexpectedly powerful. In many cases, most of the crime is related to the image of the old criminal gang. Most people would not think that a woman who can be a mother or wife can be a capable and violent crime lord.
The random tool introduced 12 famous and fatal female crime lords around the world, bloody gang wars, constant threats to family members, and police officers are all waiting to put these terrible women in jail.
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