Beggars, Cheats and Forgers. A History of Frauds throughout the ages

210 Pages·2014·12.39 MB·English

by  David Thomas

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
PEN & SWORD HISTORY
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright © David Thomas, 2014
ISBN 978-1-78159-327-1
eISBN 9781473838178
The right of David Thomas to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Greatest Con Men
2. The Document Forgers
3. Begging Letter Writers
4. The Spanish Prisoner
5. Sturdy Beggars
6. Conclusion
Appendix: Street Entertainers
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Illustration by ‘Phiz’ from Charles Dickens’s, Little Dorrit.
John Payne Collier’s forged petition, purportedly produced in 1596 by William
Shakespeare and his fellow players concerning the Blackfriars Theatre.
Confirmation that the 1596 petition was forged.
Begging letter from Alice Hammond to Mrs Jones Bennett of Bickley, 1925.
The second page of the letter from Alice Hammond to Mrs Jones Bennett.
The forged death certificate of ‘Spanish Prisoner’ Louis Ramos Bonet, dated
1905, sent as a follow-up to an initial letter.
Photograph of the Spanish Prisoner’s daughter, ‘Amelie Morrell’, enclosed with
a letter in 1897.
Letter dated 1897 from the ‘Spanish prisoner’s daughter’, ‘Amelie Maria’, who
was allegedly residing at the College of St Vincent de Paul.
Note from the ‘Spanish Prisoner’ to M. Dubois, dated 1895, giving the precise
location of the buried treasure in Orpington, Kent.
Account of Inspector Charles Arrow of Scotland Yard’s unsuccessful attempt to
find the Orpington treasure.
Map showing the alleged location of the Orpington treasure.
Warning sent out by the Spanish Government in 1908, urging travellers not to
visit Spain in the hope of obtaining a large treasure hidden by a Spanish Prisoner.
Twentieth century beggar from London Nights (1933).
Nineteenth century beggar from Henry Mayhew, London’s Underworld (1862).
Luke Hutton, The Blacke Dogge of Newgate (c.1596).
Thomas Harman, Caveat for Common Cursitors (1567).
Nicholas Jennings, the notorious Elizabethan beggar, who lived as a gentleman
while not begging. Jennings is shown in both his suits of clothes from
Groundwork of Cony-Catching (1592).
Jennings in the pillory, dressed as both a gentleman and a beggar, from Harman,
Caveat for Common Cursitors (1566).
Joe Johnson, the famed black beggar, who walked round London with a ship on
his head in the 1870s.
Richard Watts founded a charity in Rochester, which provided a night’s
accommodation plus meals and four pence, to six poor travellers who were
neither rogues nor travellers.
The interior of a room in Watts’s charity in Rochester.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank Simon Fowler for much valuable advice and Andrea
Thomas and Amanda Spencer for commenting on the text, Hope Thomas for
photography and Philip Hall for map making.
Introduction
The internet has changed nothing. Despite the widespread belief that it has
opened up a whole new realm of criminal activity, there is nothing new about the
ways in which people extort money from others by cheating. People who
commit financial frauds, forge documents, pretend to be disabled, hungry or in
prison are the same in the modern era as they were in the past.
However, by looking at a range of dishonest activities, we can learn a lot
about the psychology of the criminals and their victims and how the most
talented villains have learned to prey on their victims’ greed, credulity and
kindness. The essence of a great beggar, a successful begging letter writer, a
leading con man or a forger is to get a deep understanding of their potential
victims – what motivates them and how to exploit their human weaknesses for
profit. As we will discover, there is little difference between a sixteenth century
cheat and modern cyber criminals whose ‘spear fishing’ and ‘watering holes’ are
merely fancy names for techniques which have been in use for hundreds of
years.
In the end, if we live long enough, it is likely that we will all fall victim to
some sort of scam. The best thing we can do is to hope to postpone the event and
minimize the damage. By learning about the behaviours of the cheats, we are
giving ourselves a fighting chance of escaping from their clutches.
This book describes the careers of some of the greatest practitioners of these
dark arts: Mark Hofmann from Salt Lake City, surely the world’s greatest forger;
Bernie Madoff who, until the roof fell in, was the most successful con man ever;
as well as a supporting cast of dozens of other rogues, sturdy beggars, forgers
and con artists. It covers both real cheats and their fictional equivalents.