The Imposter Heiress: Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age

Summary

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?