Bessie starkman biography

STARKMAN, BESHA (Bessie) (Tobin) (also known as Bessie Stark, Bessie Perri (Perry), and Rose Cyceno), organized crime boss; b. 14 April 1889 in Russian Poland, daughter of Shimon (Sam) Starkman and Gello (Gloria)  ———; m. 15 Dec.

1907 Harry Tobsen (Tobin) in Toronto, and they had two daughters; about 1913 she entered into a common-law relationship with Rocco Perri*, and they had a child who died shortly after birth; d. 13 Aug. 1930 in Hamilton, Ont.

The Starkman family arrived in Canada sometime around 1900, and settled in the Ward area of downtown Toronto.

Legends of Besha Starkman’s early life say that she worked as a seamstress in an Eaton’s sweatshop.

Bessie starkman biography

The ambitious young woman found her job and her marriage to Harry Tobin, a Russian who drove for a bakery, frustrating. In 1912 the Tobins rented rooms in their house on Chestnut Street to Rocco Perri, a young immigrant from the Calabria region of Italy.

Within a year, Bessie had aband