The Long Con

From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of pieces on hoaxes, con artists, and infamous schemes. View in browser | Update your preferences The Long Con In 1939, Janet Flanner, The New Yorker’s correspondent in Paris, wrote a profile of Marthe Hanau, a notorious con woman who defrauded the French financial markets during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. Hanau, Flanner observed, “was the greatest, brainiest, most convincing and comical confidence woman France ever produced.” Her outlandish actions helped make Hanau a cause célèbre, even after it was revealed that she had defrauded investors of a hundred and fifty-five million francs (more than seventy million contemporary dollars). Her exploits were so egregious, Flanner notes, that they helped spur the rise of the Popular Front and its attendant socialist reforms in France. This week, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces on hoaxes, con artists, and infamous schemes. In “The Great American Quiz-Show Scandal,” from 1959, John Updike contemplates the cultural significance of the TV game-show scandals of the nineteen-fifties. (“We sat there, a nation of suckers, for years. It’s marvellous how long it went on, considering the number of normal Americans who had to be corrupted to keep the cameras whirring.”) In “The Runner,” David Samuels considers the life of a twenty-nine-year-old drifter who transformed himself into an Ivy League track star. Patrick Radden Keefe divulges how one man was able to amass an incredible collection of rare wines, and David Grann profiles Frédéric Bourdin, a French serial impostor who assumed numerous false identities. In “The Perils of Pearl and Olga,” from 1953, St. Clair McKelway chronicles how a former Manhattan salesgirl found herself embroiled in a bizarre true-crime case. In “Friend Game,” Lauren Collins reports on an online hoax that led to a teen-ager’s tragic suicide. In “Crowded House,” Tad Friend examines how a Chelsea photographer created an elaborate apartment-listing scheme. (“They couldn’t all rent the apartment, of course. Unless they could!”) Elizabeth Kolbert explores the origins of the “birther movement” and other popular conspiracy theories, and Alec Wilkinson writes about a prolific art collector who donated dozens of paintings of mysterious provenance to a number of museums. Finally, in “Pedigree,” Walter Kirn reveals how he was duped by a Rockefeller impostor. We hope that the tales in this collection add a measure of suspense and adventure to your weekend. — Erin Overbey, archive editor From The New Yorker’s Archive Annals of Crime The Swindling Presidente—I Marthe Hanau, the greatest, brainiest, most convincing and comical confidence woman France ever produced. By Janet Flanner | August 26, 1939 Comment The Great American Quiz-Show Scandal We sat there, a nation of suckers, for years. By John Updike | October 24, 1959 Profiles The Runner He woke up one morning and decided to become someone else. By David Samuels | September 3, 2001 A Reporter at Large The Jefferson Bottles How could one collector find so much rare fine wine? By Patrick Radden Keefe | September 3, 2007 Annals of Crime The Chameleon The many lives of Frédéric Bourdin. By David Grann | August 4, 2008 Newsletters Sign Up for The New Yorker’s Books & Fiction Newsletter Book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature, twice a week. Annals of Crime The Perils of Pearl and Olga They were complete strangers—until they were drawn into an enraged ex-husband’s terrifying plot. By St. Clair McKelway | August 8, 1953 Our Local Correspondents Crowded House They thought that they’d found the perfect apartment. They weren’t alone. By Tad Friend | May 20, 2013 Books The Things People Say Rumors in an age of unreason. By Elizabeth Kolbert | November 2, 2009 American Chronicles The Giveaway Who was the mysterious man donating all the valuable art? By Alec Wilkinson | August 19, 2013 Personal History Pedigree My Rockefeller friend was neither a Rockefeller nor a friend. Why was I taken in? By Walter Kirn | June 10, 2013 This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.