How to Commit Insurance Fraud. Or, Banana Anna's Banana Bamboozle.

From 1906-1910, a woman allegedly slipped on a banana peel a dozen times and each time got a hernia. Or, maybe she was just committing insurance fraud. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of humans. Everyone's crying about eggs right now and
how expensive they are. Really it's quite unfortunate. But something
that seems to still be very cheap is uh, bananas.

(00:29):
You guys have had these bananas before. Yeah, bananas are
ubiquitous fruit in American culture, in the American diet, But
if you gotta believe it, it wasn't always that way. Americans
started eating bananas during the Civil War, but back then
it was a luxury item. Shipping bananas to America was

(00:51):
difficult without modern refrigeration. But then the future arrived, their
improvements in shipping and logistics and refrigeration, and yes, don't
worry slave like working conditions on banana farms and boil
at the banana quickly became a staple in the American diet.
People are like, bananas could never surpass apples as the

(01:14):
produce of choice, and then the banana nears were like,
hold my banana bread were coming for you. Apples, Yes,
a banana near. That is somebody who does bananas for
a living. A banana near. I made it up. Sorry,
but the problem with bananas at the turn of the
twentieth century in the United States was that we weren't

(01:37):
really throwing things in trash cans yet, you know, a
trash can that was still a newer invention. So people
just like to throw their trash on the ground. And
that's a problem with bananas because they're quite slippery. You
know the comedic trope of someone slipping on a banana peel, Well,

(01:58):
that came from real life, a tragic past, because people
were quite literally slipping on banana appeals and hurting themselves
on a regular basis back in the day. As slippery
banana peals became a public health crisis, some folks are like, hmm,
I could actually use this to my advantage. I could

(02:21):
pretend to slip on a banana peel, fake an injury,
and then sue the sidewalk. Well, really sue whoever owned
the building that I was falling over in because it
was sort of their responsibility to clean up the trash
so I wouldn't fall. And thus, a woman who the

(02:41):
newspapers would dub banana Anna, found her calling committing insurance fraud.
You know, they say, if you do what you love,
you'll never work a day in your life, and that
was really the case for Anna. During these years, she
found something she was really good at. She had an
aptitude for what she would do is she would fake

(03:03):
injuries that she got from falling, usually due to slipping
on a banana peel. Then she would demand money for
her injuries and get some cold hard cash. Cue the
theme song, This is American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts.

(03:25):
Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history.
This week's episode Banana Anna's Banana Bamboozle, and by bamboozle,
I mean fraud. Do do do do do do do
do do do do. Who was this Banana Anna, Well,

(03:54):
her name was Anna Sterla, and she was one tricky lady.
At first, she just seemed like a woman who had
a lot of bad luck or was perhaps the clumsiest
woman in existence, which is saying a lot because women
we all have very weak, dainty ankles and are defined
by our physical weakness. Obviously, that was satire, by the way,

(04:20):
Happy Women's History Month. Between nineteen oh six and nineteen ten, Stirla,
who lived in New Jersey and New York City during
those years, reported seventeen falling accidents while on the property
of railroad and ferry companies and one time at a store,

(04:44):
and after almost all of those accidents, she had a
dreadful injury. Usually she'd get a hernia in her abdomen,
and you had to take her word for it, because
in the early twentieth century it was really hard for
doctors to tell if you had one of those. What
a convenient injury. The thing is, many of her accidents

(05:08):
resulted from slipping on a banana peel. She didn't win
all of her seventeen claims, but over those four years
of falls she made about three thousand dollars. That's more
than one hundred thousand dollars in today's money. Banana anna

(05:30):
she was getting that dull or that potassium. Perhaps. According
to the New York Times, her first fall happened in
June nineteen oh six, and while she seemed to have
the mind of a grifter already, this one might have
been real, and it might have given her the idea

(05:52):
to do the rest of her crimes. What happened was
she was on a ferry boat from New York City
to New Jersey, where she was living in a lodging house.
While she was on board, one of the faery's air
pumps broke me I do not know how boats work,

(06:16):
but that's not a good thing. Take the New York
Times's word for it. The fairy effectively stopped running, but
unfortunately it was close to a peer. There was no
time to break before a violent collision. On impact, Sterla
was thrown across her seat and injured. This seems plausible

(06:38):
that it happened for real. Other passengers also got injured,
but Sterla she knew an opportunity when she saw one.
She was rushed to the hospital diagnosed with an abdominal hernia.
Where her injuries actually that bad, we don't know. But
Sterla she was ready. She demanded five thousand dollars from

(07:01):
the Faery company. The company compromised by paying her a thousand,
which obviously means whenever you enter a negotiation, start very
high getting a new job, demand a starting salary of
one billion dollars. This is really good career advice that
you should definitely listen to. So whether or not her

(07:25):
injury was real, After that incident, Anna Sterla was off
to the races, and by the races, I specifically mean
the slip and fall insurance fraud races, Everyone's favorite race.
Two months after that, Fery accident. Sterla was on a

(07:47):
train on the Erie Railroad and she said she got
injured when the train was backing up. The car she
was in suddenly lurched and she was injured. And wow,
they actually gave her some money for that. Wasn't that easy?
And then two months after that event, she started incorporating
her signature element, the banana. This time she was in

(08:11):
New York City at a train station. She was walking
up the stairs and oh no, she slipped on a
banana peal and fell to the floor. Ugh, who put
that there? Not me? Anna Sterla. She was taken to
the hospital and stayed there overnight because she was overcome
with pain from another abdominal hernia. Yes, the hernia was

(08:36):
so serious that she was able to leave the next
day completely fine. Incredible. She went back to that same
train station right after leaving the hospital and she was
on the stairs again when she slipped and fell a
second time. Can you believe it? Two men came and
assisted her, and oh my god, wouldn't you know? They

(08:57):
found what it tripped up, miss Anna Sterla, a banana peal.
She made a claim. The railroad company paid her five
hundred dollars, but Stla was like, hey, I also fell yesterday,
so you should give me more money. I want a thousand,
and then the railroad people were like, fuck that go away,

(09:17):
we're not paying it show. So see, she didn't always
get what she wanted, but she knew if she just
did time and time again, she would get more money.
Over the next few months, Banana Anna slipped and fell
many more times and was obviously terribly injured after each fall.
She fell at a station under the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company,

(09:41):
on a ferry boat that was part of the Central
Railroad of New Jersey, on the Philadelphia Reading Railroad, the
Union Ferry Company, the New Haven Railroad, all from bananas,
if you can believe it. And yeah, she always got
an abdominal hernia. Yeah she got called Banana Anna, but
she could also be Sterla Hernia. And you might wondering

(10:05):
to yourself right now, how is she so convincing, Like,
even though she didn't win all of her claims, why
did she win any of them at all? Well? Anna
Stirla was a middle aged, dopey looking woman who people
would not expect to be a criminal mastermind. I mean,

(10:25):
at least she was getting b pluses in criminal school.
A retrospective about Banana Anna was in a newspaper called
The News Messenger dated December second, nineteen twenty eight. It
was written by Jay Wilson Ferguson, who, at the time

(10:48):
that Banana Anna was doing her crimes, was an insurance
adjuster and journalist. In fact, he worked at one of
the insurance companies as she committed fraud against, and you
seem to respect Anna's hustle even though his article had
a lot of really delightful sexism running through it rampantly.

(11:09):
In his article, he talked about why she was able
to get away with so many scams. He wrote, demure
and sedate, looking the part of a motherly housewife setting
forth on a trip to visit her children in the
country or to take a short vacation back home. The
woman known as Banana Anna proved to be one of
the greatest fake insurance claimants the nation has ever known.

(11:31):
To investigators, she showed a wistful and benign side of
her nature, and they suspected no deep intrigue. But beneath
her motherly exterior there was a quick mind of a rat,
and she could, if need be, show a perfect set
of claws. It seems here that Jay Wilson Ferguson had

(11:53):
had some bad run ins with rats, or perhaps he's
mixing his metaphors. I personally have never thought of the
claws of a rat, maybe of a cat. Usually rats
it's less claws in more plague. But you know, he
was writing the nineteen twenties. They spoke differently back then.
But here's some of the good sexism. Ferguson said. The

(12:16):
reason why she was so successful was because Anasterla had
a quote aptness for acting, which is found in women
more than men. Yes, women are better at lying than men.
They are also always faking their pain ha ha ha.
And you know another reason why she was being taken

(12:38):
seriously was because a lot of people were actually suffering
from banana related injuries. In the early twentieth century, in
New York City, bananas were extremely popular. They were even
sold on the street as a street food, So people
they just get a banana and then they just throw
the peel on the ground. This was even happening in

(13:01):
eighteen eighty four. The New York Times reported that quote
a wealthy merchant age seventy slipped on a banana peel
in front of his home and broke his right leg
near the hip. He is not expected to recover. Most
of the injuries were broken hips, bones, hernias, but there

(13:23):
were even a few deaths because of bananas. Another article
from the New York Times had the headline banana peel
causes death. What happened is there's a factory worker who
had slipped on a banana and then that caused him
to get hit by a truck. So yeah, it wasn't
directly the banana peel, but the banana peel did indirectly

(13:46):
cause his death. And the thing is people were also
slipping on other types of trash like apple and orange peels,
potato skins, but it was the banana that was the
most slippery. You guys know the classic idiom. An apple
a day keeps the doctor away and a banana could
send you to your grave. Yes, that is the idiom.

(14:08):
I did not just add that second part. And officials
in New York City tried to take the banana epidemic seriously.
There were penalties for people who threw the peels on
the ground. Even Teddy Roosevelt was part of this conversation
before he was the president. He was New York City's
Chief of Police, and he gave a public speech talking

(14:32):
about how dangerous bananas were. He was like the bad
habits of the banana skin, with its tendency to toss
people into the air and bring them down with terrific
force on the hard pavement. Another reason Anna Stirla was

(14:56):
so successful at her scheme was because of the time
period she was operating in. She started doing her banana
scam before the establishment of any se centralized fraud tracking organization.
But I don't know if you guys can believe this,
but as time passes, things change, and while she was
doing her scams, they were actually local and federal groups

(15:20):
being established to prevent fraud. They were called the Alliances
against Accident Fraud. And what they would do again quoting
the New York Times, is they would quote catalog names, addresses,
and descriptions together with descriptions of the accident injuries of
all claimants, and they would cover every accident in the

(15:43):
United States, meaning they would notice if you were like, hey,
I fell and tripped on a banana appeal on this
one railroad, and then you went to another railroad and
were like, I also tripped on a banan appeal here
and then I was also on this ferry and also

(16:04):
fell because a banana peal. These alliances would get that
information and be like, methinks this woman has the worst
luck of any woman, or methinks she's doing a little
bit of fraud. And let's just say banana Anna was
about to do a misstep. She was about to slip up,

(16:28):
if you know what I'm saying, and this time not
just on bananas. We'll be right back. After these soothing advertisements,
Anna Sterla kept falling upstairs, downstairs, on trains, on ferries

(16:53):
at a store, once constantly plagued by the banana peals
that seemed to stalk her. And the thing is, even
when she won her claim, insurance agents were often suspicious
of her. During a few of her meetings, she gave
a fake name, but then when they were actually about

(17:16):
to cut the check, she'd be like, Wow, this is
so silly of me, but could you actually write it
out to Anna Stirla instead, that's my real name. I
just didn't want my friends to worry about me if
they found out. You know, pretty suss other people are

(17:36):
onto her as well, Like she was on a train
in Buffalo, New York. She was walking down the aisle
of one of the cars and she fell forward. A
man helped her to her feet and lo and behold.
She said that he picked up a banana peal that
was behind her. But this train company refused to give

(17:56):
her any money. She remained determined. She called up a lawyer,
but after hearing what she had to say, the lawyer
refused to help her. He knew something was up, and
then Anna Stla made a huge mistake. Banana Anna was

(18:17):
at a train station in Philadelphia under the Pennsylvania Railroad system,
and if you can believe it, as she was walking
down some stairs, she slipped on a banana peel and
fell again. She claimed that she had an abdominal hernia.
But the thing is she had already made a claim
against the Pennsylvania Railroad a couple years before for the

(18:41):
exact same injury from the exact same scenario slipping on
a banana. An insurance agent came to see her and
was like, Hey, what's up with that banana Anna. She
skid daddled from Philadelphia and they never heard from her again.

(19:01):
She had a couple more banana related injuries in nineteen
oh nine. But at this point she was already on
the radar of the Alliance Against Accident Fraud in New
York City, and they had already found out a lot
of info. They had discovered that she had made seventeen
acclaims about falling and getting injured, and eleven of those

(19:26):
the reason she fell was because of mysteriously discarded banana peals.
In totals, she had collected two thousand, nine hundred and
fifty dollars without evidence. Her case was put in the
hands of the District Attorney's office in New York in
June nineteen oh nine. Banana Anna, her time doing her

(19:50):
banana bamboozles was running out. Do you like this inspirational music? Guys?
I want you to eat a banana for Banana Anna
right now. A hustler, a grifter for women history months,
women can do it all. And you remember that guy

(20:12):
Jay Wilson Ferguson who wrote that retrospective about her. Well,
when all that evidence had been collected about her, he
actually followed Banana Anna around New York City to try
to catch her in the act, and what he found
was very dramatic. He discovered that Sterla was not acting alone.

(20:38):
She had an accomplice, a bearded man. Here's how he
described it, after he had followed Anna into a railroad station.
My suspicions were first aroused when a bearded man who
apparently never knew Anna existed, walked up to a station man. Say,

(20:59):
old fellow. He counseled, you better watch your step. Somebody
dropped a banana peece up the way there. He pointed
up the platform. I just slipped on it. It's a
good thing I didn't fall, or there might be a
damage suit. The station man went up, looked over the platform,

(21:20):
but found no banana peel. He returned to his post.
About five minutes later, I heard a terrific scream with
scores of others. I rushed forward, and there saw Anna
in an apparently unconscious condition. Water water. Somebody shouted, stand back,

(21:43):
give her air. Water was dashed into her face, and
she soon was revived. The bearded man, who had told
the station man of the banana peel was the one
who helped her rise. Beneath her were the remains of
a banana peal, Aha, said the bearded man. He picked

(22:04):
the station man out of the crowd. See here sir,
he commanded, there's the banana peel I was telling you
about you, remember that? Sheepishly. The station man bowed his
head in a gesture of admission. The bearded man turned
to the injured woman. You have a pretty claim for damages,
he said, raising his voice so all could hear a

(22:27):
pretty case. That's awfully good of you, weakly stammered Anna,
How how can I do this? That's easy, he replied,
I'll appear as a witness. We'll take the names here
of two or three others who saw the accident, and
I know they'll be chivalrous enough to testify for a poor,
defenseless woman. While Anna attempted to walk and made a

(22:54):
successful failure of it, if you understand me, he was
busy taking names. When he was through, he turned to Anna,
Can you walk at all? He asked, I'm in great,
great pain. She sobbed, tears streaming down her face. I
then she collapsed again. A dozen persons aided her to

(23:18):
stand again. The audience, by this time was thoroughly aroused.
They cursed the station man in the guard for carelessness
and negligence, and promised faithfully to aid her. The act
was a polished affair all right, and I had seen enough.
I decided I would take no action now, realizing she

(23:38):
had a damaged suit pending against my company, so I
strolled away. After this, Ferguson went back to his office
and there he was like, yeah, I got her. I'm
gonna get her to sign a settlement form and then
I'm gonna arrest her, because I guess insurance adjusters can

(23:59):
do that, just arress people. He was able to find
the name of the male accomplice as well well, because
he had given it to the police when also turning
in the names of the other witnesses. Ferguson started following
him around as well, and he realized that the bearded
man was visiting Sterla frequently. Ferguson stalked the pair until

(24:20):
the man was making a house call. Then Ferguson barged in,
telling Anna that the insurance company was ready to make
a settlement. She signed it, and then Ferguson wrote quote
a moment later, my detective had his revolver drawn, covering
them both, and I went forward snapping the manacles on
them again. He's an insurance adjuster. I don't think he's

(24:43):
supposed to be the one who literally arrests people. But whatever,
Sterla and her accomplice, the Bearded Man, were in a rage,
according to Ferguson, But then he took them down the
headquarters and they confessed, and Ferguson made a discovery about
the bananas. He said, quote, we found two bananappels in

(25:05):
the pocket of Sterla's skirts, carefully wrapped in oiled paper
to keep them fairly fresh for use. After that, Banana
Anna was sent to the Tombs aka the Manhattan Detention Center.
What a nice nickname. She spent six months in jail

(25:25):
awaiting trial. Many newspapers reported about the fallen fraud queen.
The Herald News said, Banana Anna has fallen into the
hands of the law. She must work in the future
for a living, even though it may be in the workhouse.
Her vocation has been swept from under her. No longer

(25:46):
will the meek and lowly bananappealing furnish her with a livelihood.
In November nineteen ten, Sterla pleaded guilty before I Judge
in New York to the charge of grand larceny. She
spent another six months in prison, and to our knowledge,

(26:08):
she never slipped on a banana peel again. Every episode
of American Filth we learn a lesson, and I think
the lesson we learned this one is obvious, which is,
if you're gonna commit fraud, do it against different companies.
No repeats, That's right. American Filth teaches all of us

(26:29):
how to be better criminals. Or maybe the lesson is, yeah,
if you do what you love, you'll never work a
day in your life. But you gotta stay vigilant because
sometimes the things you love get taken away from you,
especially if what you love to do is commit fraud.
Cue the credits. American Filt is a production of School

(26:51):
of Humans and iHeart Podcast. This episode was written, hosted
and all of that jazz by me Gabby Watts. Our
theme song is by Jesse Niswanger. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott,
Elsie Crowley, Brandon Farr. Follow along with a pod on
end Instagram at American Filth pod and also leave us
a review, leave us some stars, and uh, go do

(27:12):
some fraud. Why not see what happens? I mean, I
think we have better, you know, precautions in place now,
but still, why not? Life is a nightmare? Go do
some crime for legal purposes. I didn't just say that,
but I will talk at you guys next time. Bye

(27:34):
School of Humans.