The Impostor Heiress

Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age

De: Annie Reed

Narrado por: Kate Udall

Before there was Anna Delvey or Elizabeth Holmes, there was Cassie Chadwick. The first woman—using criminal cunning, some confidence, and a bit of charm—to bring down a federal agent, a bank, and a city's worth of men.

Cassie Chadwick, one of history's most successful con artists, was a master of the trade. She swept from town to town, assuming new identities and running new swindles at each railroad stop. In the dusk of the Gilded Age, years after the robber barons had amassed their fortunes, she was amassing her own.

Using her wits and a series of forged documents, Cassie convinced prominent men from Cleveland to New York City that she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter. The con made her impossibly rich. The crash shattered banks and bankers alike. Her sensational trial drew the eyes of a nation that couldn't get enough of the woman, who newspapers called the Queen of Swindlers, the Duchess of Diamonds, the High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance.

Interspersing Cassie's crimes with stories of an unsuspecting Andrew Carnegie, author Annie Reed spins an enthralling tale of true crime. Could the rumors be true? Can Cassie's money last? Will she escape the electric chair?

©2024 Annie Reed (P)2024 Tantor

Get into the Mind of a Con Artist Extraordinaire

The book not only presents the intricate details of the cons but also presents the strategies, personalities and the manipulative interplay between them. The book reads like a fast paced action novel and the narrator is a perfect fit.