The Man with a Thousand Faces: Noble Fraud Stanley Clifford Weyman (6 photos)

The Bender case is alive. And at different times to a non-dusty way various characters resorted to earning money on the gullibility of citizens. After all Fraud is not such a crime. Not murder, robbery or theft. The main thing is to ask correctly. And they will definitely give everything.





And for this character, pretense was more of an art, the meaning of life, and not a way to make money.



Princeton - Weyman's Dream

In 1890, in the family of a New York real estate agent Steven Jacob Weinberg is born. which later became be considered almost the king of scammers. The boy did not like the name, he I tried different variations and eventually settled on the one under which and went down in history - Stanley Clifford Weyman.

The guy studied well, but dreams of a prestigious university crashed against the harsh reality: the father, who had younger children on the way Stanley brothers, tritely did not give money. Wishing the son first worked, and then got an earthly profession, and did not dream of Princeton and Harvard.

The guy started working. I tried myself as an agent for real estate, worked in a photo studio. Owner Harry Pinkus refused pay for a month, and the indignant guy left, taking as compensation for the most expensive camera. But it was all too small and brought neither money nor pleasure. Then there were searches for myself, and the guy worked as a messenger, a salesman, an employee of a printed publication.

Realizing that he would have to collect more than one year for his studies, he decided to change direction. And he showed creativity, managing to organize a banquet in honor of the US consul in Algiers (in the role of which he himself acted). He sent out invitations to representatives of high society who came to event to show respect to the consul serving in Algiers. Check for a banquet, costume and invitations sent to my father. To whom (and what do?) I had to pay for everything.



Stanley Clifford Weyman

The next day, the young "consul" invited especially the imbued judge. And said he had a surprise for Stanley. The surprise was a success: a photographer, who was called, entered the office, to capture the judge and the consul together. And to them, according to the law of meanness turned out to be a former employer, Pincus, whose "consul" stole the road camera.

Everything was revealed, the amazed judge called the police. Case managed a suspended sentence, but the young adventurer became depressed and went to a sanatorium to improve his health. After Stanley's 20th birthday regularly got into the police, because he did not come to check in on time, as required by the parole rules (of course, for a good reason - he was busy pretending to be other people). A total of Weiman spent about a third of his life behind bars.

All subsequent episodes took place approximately the same way. the same scenario. Weiman pretended to be the Consul General of Romania, naval officer, doctor, medical lieutenant, accountant, State Department officer and not only. During the next performance, being in the image of a marine officer, managed to get married. The wife knew about her husband's activities. And the daughter born in marriage, having learned about the "career" of the parent, subsequently refused from him and changed her name.



Stanley especially respected the uniform of a naval officer.

I must say that when creating a new personality, he even with I didn’t particularly bother with the data, leaving the surname. did not change and appearance: a remarkable feature of the charming swindler remained a thin mustache that made him look a bit like Charlie Chaplin.

By the way, all punishments after the disclosure of scams turned out to be pretty soft. While he was serving time, his wife and daughter were taken care of brothers of the many-faced adventurer who, remarkably, unlike the eldest became respectable businessmen.



A famous adventurer died here

Despite a rich criminal record, died Wayman as a hero. After another release, the man got a job night porter at the hotel. On August 27, 1960, two robbers broke into building and demanded to pay the proceeds. Anxious guests, hearing the sound of gunshots called the police. Guardians of the law found only a corpse Veyman, who did not hand over the box of money, but rushed at the robbers with with bare hands. And he died like a hero.

In total, the charming swindler managed to repeatedly visit doctors and lawyers, military men of various ranksth (even admiral), health inspector, pilot, consul, even a UN employee. Never did not impersonate real people - all the images were invented.



Weiman knew different times. But, as he himself said closer to In the end, human life is too boring. And not to get stuck in this swamp, he lived through them a lot and never got bored.