Episode 28- Madam Queen of Harlem Stephanie St. Clair

Episode Description- In 1920’s Harlem, a young woman of color would make the fateful decision to take the world of organized crime by storm. She would build an empire that was unheard of for women, let alone a woman of color. This badass woman would rise to withstand not only the pressure from the corrupt New York City Police department, but also withstand the pressure of Manhattan’s white mafia bosses. In this episode, we deep dive into the life and times of Madam Queen of Harlem Stephanie St. Clair. 

Original Episode Publication Date- April 7, 2024

Page Last Updated- June 10, 2024

Stephanie St Clair’s actual birthdate is unknown. She’s believed to have been born around 1897 in the French Caribbean town of Martinique. There are some sources that say she may have been born in 1887, a full decade earlier. She chose to keep her true birthdate a mystery. She was born to a single mother named Felicienne who worked her ass off to put her through school. Her mother wanted her to work as a domestic servant of sorts, but Stephanie had other ideas. When her mother became ill, Stephanie had to leave school. Stephanie worked in the kitchen of a wealthy family to help support herself and her mother while her mother was ill. While working for the family, she would take advantage of opportunities when they were away to look through their vast library of books. She found photos in one of New York City and vowed that when the time came, she would go there. Unfortunately, her mother would come to pass from her illness. 

Stephanie is believed to have left the French Caribbean as part of a group of 100 women brought from Guadeloupe to Quebec to work as domestic workers, a precursor to the West Indian Domestic Scheme that would occur from 1955-1967. 

For all her success in the numbers game, it was not without challenges as well. There were rival bankers, corrupt police and government officials, white mafia bosses who wanted to move in on the Harlem numbers game… It was going to take all her fierce energy, wit, and ingenuity to continue to navigate through them.  Like many of the other bankers, Stephanie paid her dues to the police for them to look the other way and leave her numbers runners alone. In 1928, a rival Harlem banker named Casper Holsteen would end up being jumped by four white men while he was on his way to visit a girlfriend. They demanded a $50,000 ransom for his release. The fact that this ransom was able to be paid for a man of color without much to-do would catch the attention of Dutch Schultz, a white mob boss with a legendary temper and violent streak. Schultz was born Arthur Flegenheimer in the Bronx on August 6, 1902, and took his alias from another old-time Bronx gangster. Schultz started out his career with burglaries, but soon got into bootlegging and racketeering. When he got wind of the numbers game in Harlem, he decided that he wanted in. This would end up being more difficult than he expected because of the network of bankers already established. On October 25, 1935, Dutch Schultz was gunned down while on the toilet of the Palace Chophouse in Newark, New Jersey. He took a bullet to the abdomen and was taken to the hospital. I’ve seen conflicting stories on whether Stephanie St. Clair came to see him at the hospital, or whether she sent a telegram, but either way, he would receive a note from her stating “As ye sow, so shall you reap” signed “Madame Queen of Policy”. Schultz would die the day following the shooting, effectively ending the standoff between Stephanie and the Dutchman. Her note would make headlines across the nation. 

Things would take another turn for Stephanie St. Clair when she met a man named Sufi Abdul Hamid. Hamid was a strange and flamboyant character. He claimed to be born in the shadows of Egyptian pyramids, a decedent of pharaohs. He wore colorful outfits, had his head wrapped with turbans, and topped off the look with a lot of jewelry and a gold lined cape.  When the Great Depression hit and unemployment rates for persons of color in Harlem skyrocketed to about 50%, Hamid began to picket and give grand speeches on while standing on step ladders on street corners advocating for the white and Jewish business owners to employ the same persons of color they had no qualms taking money from for their products. His activism and anti-semetic stance led to his nickname as the Black Hitler. He would later recant his anti-semetic stance and would become founder of an organization called the Universal Order of Tranquility. After two months of dating Stephanie St. Clair and Hamid would enter a contract marriage in 1936. Stephanie was in her late 40s and Hamid was in his late 30s. Things did not last long between the two before their marriage exploded. Hamid had a mistress named Dorothy Matthews, a woman of color who claimed to be a psychic of Asian descent who went by the name Madam Fu Futtam. Stephanie considered Futtam to be a friend of hers, until she realized that Futtam was scamming her out of money and caught on to the affair.

Bell, W. A. (n.d.). Black Gangs of Harlem 1920-1939. Retrieved from Crime Library: https://www.crimelibrary.org/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/5.html

Durn, S. (2021, May 21). Stephanie St. Clair, Harlem’s ‘Numbers Queen,’ Dominated the Gambling Underground and Made Millions. Retrieved from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-stephanie-st-clair-immigrant-turned-millionaire-who-dominated-harlems-gambling-underground-180977759/

Colomba, E., & Levy, A. (2023). Queenie Godmother of Harlem. New York: Megascope.

Fortin, N. (2020, September 28). Jamacian Ginger Paralysis. Retrieved from Michigan State University: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/jamaican-ginger-paralysis

Confiant, R., Hartland, P., & Bentali, H. (2020). Madam St. Clair, Queen of Harlem. Gharsallah Nuernberg: Dialogos Books.

Stephanie St. Clair. (2024). Retrieved from The Mob Museum: https://themobmuseum.org/notable_names/stephanie-st-clair/

West Indian Domestic Scheme National Historic Event (1955–1967). (2024, 01 31). Retrieved from Government of Canada: https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/domestiques-domestic#

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, January 14). Stephanie St. Clair. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:27, February 8, 2024, from  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephanie_St._Clair&oldid=1195618048