King Con with Paul Willetts

At the turn of the 20th century, white Americans and Europeans saw the Native American Indian as both a mysterious and exotic figure. Their perceptions were almost entirely informed by horribly inaccurate pop culture, and Edgar Laplante found it all too easy to exploit their ignorance. The "King of Con Men" came from a working class family in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and seemed to have a pathological need to lie and consume an endless tide of praise and attention. His unbelievable adventures would take him from swindling country churches by impersonating a celebrated athlete to an international celebrity doling out handfuls of cash to fawning crowds across Europe. This week's guest on Can't Make This Up is author Paul Willetts. Paul is the author of several books, most of which center on larger-than-life personalities in the true crime genre. In his most recent book, King Con: The Bizarre Adventures of the Jazz Age's Greatest Impostor, Willetts describes the incredible exploits of Edgar Laplante in wonderful detail using a fun, novelistic style. Paul joined me from the U.K. to share some of Edgar's most successful (and outlandish) cons and dive into the psychology that drove him.

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