'Cazique' Gregor MacGregor, the Man Who Fabricated a Country
Poyais: a magical place, and the picture of Caribbean paradise. And according to Scottish swindler Gregor MacGregor, it could all be yours … if you invested in his land, Poyais. In the early 19th cent...
7 Maalis 202338min
Lord Gordon-Gordon, the Robber of Robber-Barons
Between the years 1869 and 1874, a man calling himself Lord Gordon-Gordon swindled the wealthy populations of Scotland, England, the United States, and Canada. Until he began pulling cons in the late ...
28 Helmi 202325min
Ann O'Delia Diss Debar, Spirit Princess and Worst Woman In The World
Ann O'Delia Diss Debar was a medium and a fortune teller who was once described by the famous performer Harry Houdini as, quote, “one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mystery swindlers the w...
21 Helmi 202346min
Lonely Hearts: 'They're Not Your Honey if They're Asking for Money'
Back in the mid-20th century, a widow named Susanna Mildred Hill began placing newspaper ads posing as a much younger woman looking for love. Once she had fraudulently won the affection of hundreds of...
14 Helmi 202326min
William A. Rockefeller Sr.: The Vagabond Lothario of the Family
Bill Rockefeller Sr. once bragged that he taught his sons about business by swindling them: "I trade with the boys and skin 'em. I want to make 'em sharp.” But the Rockefeller name and money were esta...
7 Helmi 202338min
'May I Borrow Your Watch?': William Thompson, America's Original Confidence Man
William Thompson certainly was not the first person involved in the con game. We can assume people have been tricking and cheating each other likely since there were people to trick and cheat. We real...
31 Tammi 202327min
Bertha Heyman: America's 'Confidence Queen'
Legendary New York City police detective Thomas F. Byrnes once described Bertha Heyman as "one of the smartest confidence women in America." And she was considered among New York City police to be, “t...
24 Tammi 202333min
Dr. Albert Abrams and His Oscilloclast: Charlatan or Visionary
His medical contemporaries once considered him to be a "clever, money-mad neuropath." But what makes Dr. Albert Abrams a bit different than other charlatans we’ll meet this season is that though he wa...
17 Tammi 202332min
