Stephanie St. Clair

[4][5] Stephanie St. Clair was born of African descent in the West Indies to a single mother, Félicienne, who worked hard to send her daughter to school.

For months afterwards, she employed her own men, bribed policemen, and on April 12, 1917, invested $10,000 of her own money in a clandestine lottery game in Harlem.

As a result of her success running one of the leading numbers games in the city, she became known throughout Manhattan as Queenie, but Harlem residents referred to her as Madame St.

Policy banking wasn't technically legal, but it was one of the few options offered to black Harlem residents who wished to invest their money.

In response, she testified to the Seabury Commission about the kickbacks she had paid police officers and those who had participated in the Harlem numbers game.

[2][page needed] After the end of Prohibition, Jewish and Italian-American crime families saw a decrease in profits and decided to move in on the Harlem gambling scene.

Bronx-based mob boss Dutch Schultz was the first to move in, beating and killing numbers operators who would not pay him protection.

St. Clair and her chief enforcer Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson refused to pay protection to Schultz despite the violence and intimidation by police they faced.

St. Clair responded by attacking the storefronts of businesses that ran Dutch Schultz's betting operations and tipping off the police about him.

[7] The marriage officially ended in January 1938 when St. Clair shot Hamid during a fight over his relationship with Futtam and was sentenced to two to 10 years at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.

[5] After she was released from prison in the early 1940s, St. Clair lived a secluded life and was reported as having successfully transitioned from underworld figure to a legitimate “prosperous business woman.”[5] She continued to write columns in the local newspaper about discrimination, police brutality, illegal search raids, and other issues facing the Black community.