Sonya Golden Hand

Sofia Ivanovna Blyuvshtein (also spelled as Bluvstein, Bluvsztejn; better known as Sonia (Son'ka) the Golden Hand; 1846–1902), was a female con artist who lived in the Russian Empire and was eventually convicted of theft.

A headless statue by an unmarked grave in Moscow's Vagankovo Cemetery is used as a shrine to Sonia; worshippers, who believe Sonya to be buried there, ask for her spiritual assistance in their own crimes.

When the jeweler made a compliment on the sophisticated taste of his gorgeous wife and persistently insisted to be paid for the items he had just delivered, medical orderlies captured him and took him away to a mental hospital.

During October 1884 in Odessa at cafe "Fanconi" the banker Mr. Dogmarov noticed quite a beautiful lady who identified herself as Mrs. Sofia San Donato.

She took the jewelry and left in a hurry after the requested amount, leaving as the guarantee accompanying her relatives – gray haired father and a little baby girl on governess' hands.

When two hours later the owner of the store reported the robbery to the police station they found out that these "relatives" were hired on Khitrovka market by an advertisement published in a newspaper.

Furthermore, she spent the enormous amount of money on her two daughters' education, who, inheriting the artistic talent of the mother, came out subsequently on the musical-comedy scene, but thoroughly hid their origin.

Chekhov wrote: "Looking at her, it is impossible to believe that not long ago she was beautiful to such a degree that she charmed her prison guards, as she did in Smolensk, for example, where the overseer helped her to escape and himself ran away with her.

"[citation needed] By the time of this meeting, Blyuvshtein—perhaps in her mid-40s—was a "small, skinny, already graying woman with a crumpled, old-womanish face," Chekhov wrote.