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SPEAKER_01: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanika. This month we're talking about mischief makers, oddballs, chameleons, and nonconformists, queens of quick wit. Today we're talking about a woman who spent the majority of her life conning the people of New Zealand. She was once labeled the champion crook of the century. Let's talk about Amy Bach. Amy Bach was born on May 18th, 1859 in Hobart, Tasmania. She was the oldest child of Mary Ann Parkinson and Alfred Bach. Mary Ann suffered from mental illness and entered a psychiatric hospital when Amy was 10 years old. That was the last time Amy saw her mother. Little is known about Amy's childhood, but according to a classmate, she was clever and popular at school. As a teenager, Amy enjoyed horseback riding and playing the piano. She also got involved in amateur theater. Her father, an artist and photographer, would organize performances for charity. Amy loved playing the boy parts. We also know that her proclivity for taking things that weren't hers started when she was very young. In one instance, Amy went into town and bought a bunch of books on her father's account without his knowledge. But she didn't buy the books for herself. She gave them away. This would prove to be a pattern for Amy. She would convince people to give her money and then buy things she'd give away for free. When Amy started behaving in ways that reminded her father of her mother, her father sent Amy to a rural part of Australia to work as a teacher. Unfortunately, all this did was give Amy a new setting for her trickery. Her salary depended on the number of children in her class, so she'd fudge attendance numbers. She'd buy school supplies on credit then never pay the shop owner back. In the mid-1880s, Amy's father convinced her to join him in Auckland, back in New Zealand. She served as a governess before being accused of defrauding her boss. In court, Amy tearfully confessed and the judge let her go with a warning. This set off a string of petty crimes that would land Amy in and out of jail for the next decade. She had two methods. One, get a job and graciate herself with her employer and carry out some elaborately complex plan to get money, then disappear. Two, play the role of the worried friend or the damsel in distress in need of just a little money and before her mark could follow up, Amy was gone. In practice, this looked like getting a job as a housekeeper and then pawning the homeowner's furniture or convincing the Salvation Army to lend her enough money to buy and furnish a six bedroom house or buying goods on credit and then disappearing before paying her dues. None of her crimes were violent or physically harmful. If Casper was the friendly ghost, Amy was the friendly kleptomaniac. While Amy may have been a masterful con artist, she was terrible at covering her tracks. The authorities would always find her and send her to court. In front of the judge, Amy would weaponize her tears and blame her crimes on her kleptomania and her mother's history of mental illness. Sometimes her theatrics would work and she'd leave with a few months of prison time. Others, she'd be sent away for multiple years. Between 1895 and 1902, Amy's antics went quiet. It's believed that she spent some of those years in the Magdalene asylum for fallen women. In 1902, she reappeared under a new name. This time, Amy used the art of deception to borrow enough money to buy a chicken farm. Crimes like these were what made Amy the darling of the New Zealand press. They viewed her scams as entertaining and portrayed her deceit as clever rather than nefarious. One reporter wrote, "'The outstanding fact is that this woman stands supreme in her cleverness over other female criminals.'" In 1908, Amy set her most elaborate plan in motion. She transformed herself into a man known as Percival Leonard Carroll Redwood. Percy was a former jockey turned wealthy sheep farmer who vacationed at Nugget Point on the southern coast of New Zealand. He became known as a charming chap who had enough money and connections to get you whatever you wanted. Because of this reputation, he had no problem slipping into old habits of convincing people to loan him money. While on Nugget Point, Percy stayed at the Albion boarding house. There, he met Agnes Ottaway, the landlady's daughter. Percy courted Agnes, and within weeks, the two were engaged. By this point, there were whispers about Percy's financial situation. On April 21st, 1909, Percy and Agnes got married at the bride's home. The whole town was there, and the food and drinks flowed freely. But so did the suspicion and frustration around Percy's unpaid debts. These conversations continued after the wedding and eventually made their way to the police. Detective Henry Hunt was familiar with Amy's antics, and when he heard about what was going on, he knew Percy had to be Amy. She was the only one clever enough to pull this off, and it fit the bill of her past crimes. Less than a week into the union, Detective Hunt knocked on Amy's door at the Albion house. The game's up, Amy, he said. Amy, knowing she had been caught, went willingly. On May 27th, the court charged Amy with two counts of false pretenses and one of forgery. After two decades of delinquency, Amy was finally classified as a habitual criminal. Her crimes were worth 16 years. But ever herself, she bargained her time down to four years of hard labor and lifelong probation. Amy Bach died in Bombay in the south of Auckland on August 29th, 1943.
SPEAKER_01: All month, we're talking about mischief makers. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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