imposters
People who wore someone else's life and made it fit.
Pantographia
In April 1817 a woman in a black turban walked into a Gloucestershire village speaking a language no one recognised; within weeks Oxford scholars had studied her script, a Portuguese sailor had translated her backstory of pirates and peacock palanquins, and Bath had thrown her a ball.
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?
The Saint Who Never Applied
What happens when colonists canonize a dead chief they never asked, dress up in bucktail hats, and dance "in the style of those people" while actual Native delegations watch from the docks?
The Man Who Left Nothing Behind
If a man dripping in diamonds dies owning only razors, combs, and a pair of sunglasses, where did the diamonds go?
The Man Who Was Emperor of America
Joshua Norton declared himself Emperor, and San Francisco largely agreed.