Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion

Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion by Tori Telfer

THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.

From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, the history of confidence artists is long, venerable, and wildly compelling. And as Tori Telfer reveals, its female practitioners are some of the best -- or worst -- in the business. Here, Telfer introduces a host of lady swindlers -- some notorious, others forgotten -- whose scams ranged from the outrageous to the deadly and every shade of grift in between.

In 1700s Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Remy tricked 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.

During the Civil War, Lauretta Williams, aka Loreta Janeta Velasquez, claimed to be a Cuban American soldier and convinced people she worked for the Confederacy -- or the Union -- depending on whom she was talking to.

In the early 1900s, Cassie Chadwick persuaded banks to lend her hundreds of thousands of dollars by saying she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter -- and, men said, by using her hypnotic eyes.

In the 1970s, a teenager named Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL by telling a very strange story.

And today? From Beijing to Fort Lauderdale, their scams continue.

THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.....

HarperCollins, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2021.