SPEAKER_00: Reboot your credit card with Apple Card. It gives you unlimited daily cash back that can earn 4.15% annual percentage yield when you open a savings account. A high yield, low effort way to grow your money with no fees. Apply for Apple Card now in the Wallet app on iPhone to start earning and growing your daily cash with savings today. Apple Card subject to credit approval. Savings is available to Apple Card owners subject to eligibility. Savings accounts by Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Member FDIC, terms apply.
SPEAKER_04: Warning, the following message contains an app recommendation you won't be able to resist.
SPEAKER_05: Girl, how do you keep getting all these things for free? Coffee, makeup, and now lunch?
SPEAKER_01: You haven't heard of the Drop app? Drop is a free app that rewards you for shopping at places like Ulta, Adidas, and Sam's Club. I've already earned $100 this month.
SPEAKER_03: Download the Drop app and get $5. Use invite code GETDROP222.
SPEAKER_02: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're talking about mischief makers, oddballs, chameleons, and nonconformists, queens of quick wit. Today's Womanican was a New York City socialite and one of Broadway's hottest producers, until she was outed as a major white collar fraud. Please welcome Adela Holzer. Adela Sanchez was born in Madrid, Spain in 1928, or was it 1923 as her death certificate states? Or perhaps 1926, like her travel records said. Her father was an engineer, but Adela would have told you he was a rich industrialist and that her mother was a member of the Guinness Brewing Family. In 1954, Adela fled Spain, leaving her family and an unhappy marriage behind. She arrived in the US alone and pregnant. Adela told the press about her early days in New York City. She worked as an interpreter at the United Nations and taught Spanish literature at Columbia University. That part is not true. In reality, Adela had one of her first brushes with the law in 1963. She was allegedly working as a call girl and offered sex to an undercover police officer for $25. She started to undress and she was promptly arrested. According to Adela, the officer was visiting a call girl next door when he pulled his gun on Adela and forced her to have sex with him. Whatever the case may be, the charge was dismissed. Just a few years after that, Adela started to dip her toes into the Broadway pool. Her first big success was investing in the musical Hair. Articles at the time reported she invested $57,000 and that she made $2 million. But New York Magazine later reported the sums were a few decimal points less impressive, that she actually invested $7,500. Regardless of the amount, Adela's success with Hair inspired her to continue producing. She started out writing checks. But eventually became more and more involved as a hands-on producer. She produced the hits Lenny, Sleuth, and All Over Town, directed by Dustin Hoffman. She was profiled in People Magazine. In 1975, the New York Times called her Broadway's hottest producer. In that article, Adela said she owed her good taste to her three college degrees, which she had no proof of possessing. Adela was at the height of her career. But just two years later, she would suffer a meteoric fall from grace. Her shows all started to flop. They closed in previews and failed to get any traction. She filed for bankruptcy, and then in 1977, she was arrested on fraud charges and released on a $50,000 bail. Finally, in 1979, Adela was indicted for a Ponzi scheme. She had been selling shares, supposedly, in theater productions. In reality, the money was tied up in a Toyota dealership in Indonesia and real estate in Spain. Adela served two years in state prison. By that time, she'd lost many people's trust. Adela's former PR rep, Michael Alpert, later said, "'If she told me the sun was shining, "'I'd go out and look, and I'd take an umbrella.'" Still, Adela was determined to regain her Broadway success. She produced a pop opera about Senator Joseph McCarthy called Senator Joe, but it never opened. In February of 1989, three investigators walked up to Adela while she was on 43rd Street in Manhattan. She tried to flee. They pinned her to the hood of the car, handcuffed her, and put a sack over her head. Adela later said she thought she was being mugged. Instead, she was being arrested for grand larceny. Adela had been securing oil and mineral investments and telling her clients that the money was guaranteed by David Rockefeller. Yes, that Rockefeller. Adela claimed the two were secretly married. She even forged a marriage contract and placed a photo of him, which she'd cut out from a magazine, in a frame on her bedside table to prove it. After the charge, Adela took a plea deal and served four years in prison. During those four years, she kept busy. In the midst of the Gulf War in 1991, Adela told a reporter that she wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein, offering herself in exchange for American hostages. When she wasn't attempting peace negotiations, she was planning her next creative endeavors. Adela wanted to write an autobiography, which she hoped would get her the big money. When Adela was released in 1994, her unlawful antics continued. This time, she targeted immigrants. She told them she had connections in Congress who could make them permanent residents for a fee of more than $2,000 each. In 2002, Adela was charged with 39 counts of fraud and was sentenced to nine to 18 years in prison. She had conned more than 90 immigrants out of more than $200,000. On her way out of the courtroom, she turned to the prosecutor and declared, I'll see you dead like me. In 2010, Adela was once again released from prison. She was probably 80 years old, give or take a few years. In any case, she spent much of her adult life behind bars. Adela passed away on September 1st, 2019 in Boca Raton, Florida. She was likely between 90 and 95 years old, depending on who you believe. All month, we're talking about mischief makers. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
