There are many examples of women becoming prominent criminals. Using the charms given by nature, showing remarkable resourcefulness and composure, the fair sex often cheat on men who consider themselves to be experienced and “beaten by life”.
Sheindlya-Sura Leibovna Solomoniak became one of such adventurers, she is Sophia Blyuvshtein, she is Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka. The biography of this “thief on trust” has become a legend, despite its low reliability and weak documentary exposure.
Year of birth - 1846th, place - Povonzki market town, located on the territory of the present Polish Republic. The family is poor, but with a long criminal tradition. In other words, her father, whose name was Shtendel, was a hairdresser, while he actively earned money by selling stolen goods.
When did Sonya the Golden Handle take the criminal path? The biography began ordinary: an early marriage, the main purpose of which was to leave the disgusting and impoverished parental home. Pan Rosenband, a grocery merchant who had the dubious fortune of becoming the father of Sura's first daughter, also fell victim to this charming adventurer. She stole 500 rubles from him, and then ran away, grabbing the child. By that time, the thieves' experience as a young swindler was already four years.
Over the next six years, Sonya Zolotaya Ruka charmed many men. Her biography is rich in romantic stories.
The surname Blyuvshtein went to Sophia from the train cheater, who became her husband, the story is silent about how it counts. It is only known that it is not the second.
Interestingly, Sophia Blyuvshteyn was by no means considered the standard of female beauty. Height - 153 cm, face in freckles, light brown hair (according to other sources, black or red, but it does not matter, because they knew how to paint them then). The face has no pronounced Semitic features, the nose is wide, lips are thin, brown eyes. According to police records, that was exactly Sonya Golden Handle.
The biography, photos and protocols of interrogations were partially preserved in the archives of the royal gendarme administrations. Obviously, the secret of her success was not in a bright appearance, but in an extraordinary way of thinking and the ability to win over a future victim. The image of a soulless and unscrupulous seducer begs itself, but this also revealed the eccentricity of the nature of a talented thief. She without regret gave the stolen, if she found out that the victim is a needy person.
It is not known what kind of education Sonya Golden Handle received. Her biography does not contain data on graduation, not only from universities, but also from an ordinary elementary school. But the fact remains - fluency in at least five foreign languages and a general level of intelligence, as well as knowledge of manners, made it easy for her to pose as an aristocrat in any of the countries that she had visited with visits.
No matter how much the thief steals, the prison will not pass. This truth is confirmed by an outstanding criminal (just such was Sonya Golden Handle) biography. Her children, and there were, as far as we know, two (both daughters), did not follow in the maternal footsteps. They lived honestly and calmly in Moscow, and the swindler herself, after three attempts to escape from the Sakhalin link, died in the prison infirmary. She was 45. It was the year 1891.
A.P. Chekhov, visiting Sakhalin, expressed a desire to meet with Sofia. He succeeded, and he was disappointed. The writer saw an elderly woman with a murky, mocking look ...