History's Most Daring Rogues and Villains

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Nigel Blundell

• Publisher: Pen and Sword True Crime
• eBook ISBN:
  9781399017688
• Year: 2022

Gathered together within the pages of this book is a roguish array of artful tricksters, fantastic fakers, rascally fraudsters and cunning conmen. They all bend the rules and usually the law. Yet however reprehensible their misdeeds, these thoroughly rotten scoundrels often display the very essence of enterprise and adventure. It would be wrong to condone their antics, of course, but it is difficult not to admire their artifice. After all, this sort of raffish crime has spawned scores of anti-heroes in books, movies and TV series. But the stories told here are all true – among the most barely-believable dodgy misdeeds of the past two centuries. Powerful motives drive this book's extraordinary characters as they rampage on the wrong side of the law. Greed is the most usual, ambition is another, lust sometimes plays a compelling part. But many are compelled by no other cause than a perverted sense of adventure. It is these various forces that link the disparate bunch of characters in this fascinating catalogue of crime. If, as the saying goes, 'the Devil has the best tunes', he certainly also has some of the best stories – and here are some of the most startling case histories. Together they're the diabolically fiendish work of History's Most Daring Rogues and Villains.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Eddie Chapman: The Cool Spy Codenamed ‘Zigzag’
• Phineas T. Barnum: Fortune from Freaks and Frauds
• Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart: Ungodly Gospellers
• Frank Abagnale: Escapades of a High-Flying Fake
• Anthony Williams: The Lowly ‘Laird of Tomintoul’
• Brazen Burglars who ‘Mass Produced’ the Mona Lisa
• Joyce McKinney: Kinky Lady who Kidnapped for Love
• Charles Ingram and Charles Van Doren: TV Quiz Cheats
• Peter Foster: Wild Life of the Wily Wizard of Oz
• Wild West’s Most Lawless ‘Goodies’ and ‘Baddies’
• Konrad Kujau: Author of Hitler’s Dodgy Diaries
• Philip Arnold and John Slack: ‘All That Glitters…’
• ‘D. B. Cooper’: Mystery of the Missing Skyjacker
• John Stonehouse: VIP’s Amazing Vanishing Act
• Art Forgers: Masters of the Trickster’s Trade
• Han Van Meegeren: Hapless Forger was Hailed a Hero
• Daniel Faries: Boss of the ‘Jailhouse Shopping Co.’
• Thérèse Humbert: Custodian of the Locked Chest
• Rosemary Aberdour: Spending Spree of a Fake ‘Lady’
• Arthur Orton: Tubby Imposter Branded a Big Fat Liar
• Clifford Irving: The Billion-Dollar Storyteller
• Ronnie Biggs: Rip-Roaring Life of a Runaway Robber
• Photo Phoneys: Creating Psychic Images of the Dead
• Cynthia Payne: Bawdy House Parties of Madame Cyn
• ‘Count’ Victor Lustig: Cheek of the Bouncing Czech
• Landmark Cases: Monumental Coups of the Kings of Con
• Plate section