Confident women : swindlers, grifters, and shapeshifters of the feminine persuasion / Tori Telfer.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2021]Edition: First editionDescription: xiv, 336 pages ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780062956033
- 0062956035
- 9780063065130
- 0063065134
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 364.163 T271 | Available | 33111010497390 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A thoroughly entertaining and darkly humorous roundup of history's notorious but often forgotten female con artists and their bold, outrageous scams--by the acclaimed author of Lady Killers.
From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, audacious scams and charismatic scammers continue to intrigue us as a culture. As Tori Telfer reveals in Confident Women, the art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best--or worst.
In the 1700s in Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed the royal jewelers out of a necklace made from six hundred and forty-seven diamonds by pretending she was best friends with Queen Marie Antoinette.
In the mid-1800s, sisters Kate and Maggie Fox began pretending they could speak to spirits and accidentally started a religious movement that was soon crawling with female con artists. A gal calling herself Loreta Janeta Velasquez claimed to be a soldier and convinced people she worked for the Confederacy--or the Union, depending on who she was talking to. Meanwhile, Cassie Chadwick was forging paperwork and getting banks to loan her upwards of $40,000 by telling people she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter.
In the 1900s, a 40something woman named Margaret Lydia Burton embezzled money all over the country and stole upwards of forty prized show dogs, while a few decades later, a teenager named Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL. And since the death of the Romanovs, women claiming to be Anastasia have been selling their stories to magazines. What about today Spoiler alert: these "artists" are still conning.
Confident Women asks the provocative question: Where does chutzpah intersect with a uniquely female pathology--and how were these notorious women able to so spectacularly dupe and swindle their victims
Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-336).
Introduction: Charming -- The glitterati. Jeanne de Saint-Rémy ; Cassie Chadwick ; Wang Ti -- The seers. The spiritualists ; Fu Futtam ; Rose Marks -- The fabulists. The Anastasias ; Roxie Ann Rice ; The tragediennes ; Bonny Lee Bakley -- The drifters. Lauretta J. Williams ; Margaret Lydia Burton Sante Kimes -- Conclusion: Confident.
"Why do we love stories about scammers so much? Journalist Tori Telfer dives into the stories of historical female con women and explains why we are so enamored by their scams"-- Provided by publisher.
The art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best-- or worst. Telfer introduces us to a host of lady swindlers whose scams ranged from the outrageous to the deadly. Among them: In 1700s Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed the royal jewelers out of a necklace made from six hundred and forty-seven diamonds by pretending she was best friends with Queen Marie Antoinette. Cassie Chadwick got banks to loan her upwards of $40,000 by telling people she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter. In the 1970s teenager Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL. And the scams continue.... -- adapted from jacket