Queen of the Con : From a Spiritualist to the Carnegie Imposter

Kent State University Press

Queen of the ConFrom a Spiritualist to the Carnegie Imposter\nAuthor(s): Thomas Crowl\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Kent State University Press, United States\nImprint: Kent State University Press\nISBN-13: 9781606354292, 978-1606354292\nSynopsis\nThe definitive account of audacious con woman Cassie Chadwick, the Carnegie Imposter.\n\nQueen of the Con tells the true story of Cassie Chadwick, a successful swindler and one of the top 10 imposters of all time, according to Time magazine. Born Betsy Bigley in 1857 in Canada, she first operated as Madame Devere, a European clairvoyant, and in 1890 was arrested for defrauding a Toledo bank of $20,000. In the mid-1890s, while working as a madam in Cleveland, Cassie met and married a widowed physician with a coveted Euclid Avenue address.\n\nAt the dawn of the 20th century, Cassie borrowed $2 million (worth roughly $50 million today) throughout northern Ohio, Pittsburgh, New York, and Boston by convincingly posing as the illegitimate daught.