Helga de La Brache - The Real Story

The Real Story

In 1876–77, it was proved that she was born in Stockholm as Aurora Florentina Magnusson to the custom caretaker Anders Magnusson (died 1826). Her mother was left a poor widow with five children, and Magnusson only received one year of school education. At the confirmation of Aurora Magnusson, her mother was overheard saying, that Aurora was not her biological daughter, but a foster child. She named her biological parents and both belonging to the upper classes: her father as Count De Geer, and her mother as a "Förnäm fröken" (Unmarried noblewoman). This may have been either true or false, as no information has been confirmed one way or the other. True or false, it is nevertheless believed to have affected Aurora Magnusson greatly.

In 1835, she was a maid to a book-keeper named Hedman, where the family said that she always had the mind to "rise above her status". In 1838, she was employed by the wealthy merchant Henrik Aspegren on Västerlånggatan 78, whose daughter, Henrika, became deeply devoted to her, dressed her in elegant clothes and left her family for her. She was originally hired as a sewing help for the daughter's of the Aspegren family to prepare for a ball. When the Aspegren's was about to leave for the ball, Magnusson burst into tears and told them that she was homeless and had nowhere to sleep for the night, and she was thereby invited to stay. It was Henrika Aspegren who later became her companion and accomplice in the fraud.

When the two women moved to Finland in 1844, Aurora Florentina had the name de la Brache on her passport, and when she returned to Sweden in 1845, she changed her name to Anna Florentina de la Brache. She was named : "De la Brache, Anna Florentina, Miss, formerly known by the name Aurora Magnusson". She managed to have her name changed from her birth certificate to Helga. Aurora Magnusson was reported drowned. The two women can be traced to have moved around from one city to another in both Sweden and Finland - Helga was often supported by her friend, who worked as a teacher. In 1846 they were in Turku, where they managed a girl's school advertised by the noble name of de la Brache, and where Helga, as it was said, mastered the art of fainting upon uncomfortable questions from parents. In 1848, they lived in Örebro, in 1857–59 in Sala, where they tried to start a fashion shop, before they arrived in Stockholm in the 1860s to commence their fraud.