If you’re going to accuse a gang of spirit mediums of practicing a banned religion on the down low, you have to prove they’re actually members of that religion. But what if your only understanding of how this religious group worships comes from stories about outrageous magical villains?
A group of spirit mediums found a way to use their psychic prowess to get rich in the physical realm. But when an investigator started looking into a suspiciously successful prosperity scheme, he uncovered a case of divine fraud.
In the second part of our story, the Baron of Arizona has to create a Baroness so he can rise to great heights in Europe and use his connections to keep swindling in America. But while the upper crust in the old country buy into his wild story, Americans are starting to unravel his fraud.
James Reavis was a failed real estate investor, but he had a knack for document forgery. And if you lose all the land you own legally, why not acquire some more with the help of a few doctored papers?
A man named Martin Guerre left his wife and child. Eight years later, a man who called himself Martin Guerre returned. Why would his wife accept her not-quite-the-same husband without raising any questions, and what happened when one member of the family became convinced his nephew had been replaced by an imposter?
A half-baked plot to replace the (maybe) true king of England with an impostor involved mind-controlling ointment, a loyalist uprising that never materialized, and some of the biggest political powers in Europe.
In a follow-up to our episode about one very slick criminal, we’re taking listeners through a tour of Denver’s seedy…
Han van Meegeren might not have been loved by art critics, but his descent into the world of art forgery accidentally turned him into one of his country’s least likely heroes. Join us for the twisted tale of an expert art forger, a high-ranking Nazi art thief, and a Jewish Dutch resistance hero whose espionage investigation turned into a friendship with one of the Netherlands’ most flamboyant criminals.