fraud
Con artists, charlatans, and people who sold what they didn't have.
Sir Roger Had Gotten So Stout
A slim, asthmatic, French-speaking heir to a Hampshire baronetcy was lost off Rio in 1854; twelve years later a butcher from Wagga Wagga arrived at Tilbury weighing eighteen stone, unable to speak one word of French, and the family's old valet accepted him.
The Apprentice Salesman
What do you do after selling the Eiffel Tower to a scrap dealer and getting away with it?
The Formosan
How did a blonde Frenchman convince 1700s London he was from Formosa?
This Way to the Egress
He painted a sign over the back door reading THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS, and patrons walked through it expecting a beast.
The Lady Must Go Home
What kind of master criminal steals a Gainsborough, then sleeps on top of her for twenty-five years?
The Only Englishman to Win the Iron Cross
What does a Soho safecracker have to do to get personally decorated by the Nazis?
The Verdict She Kept
A woman in a Manhattan parlor convinced the nineteenth century that Tibetan Masters were mailing her letters through the ceiling, and somehow we are all still speaking her language.
The Liar's Liar
What happens when a wanted gem thief decides he's the right person to publish someone else's tall tales?
The Man Who Was Emperor of America
Joshua Norton declared himself Emperor, and San Francisco largely agreed.