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The Scheme to Hook Up a King With the Wasp Woman and Other Wild Plans

Khalid Elhassan August 31, 2020 34 min

Susan Cabot - Hussein of Jordan — Susan Cabot and King Hussein. Veja

21. The Fake Lord

The first bridge of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Historical Society

Nineteenth-century con artist Lord Gordon-Gordon was no lord. However, he successfully used that aristocratic title to gain entry to upper society circles, and con large sums from the unwary rich. His real name and identity are unknown, but he first appears in the record in 1868, when he posed as a “Lord Glencairn” as part of a scheme to secure an estate in Scotland. He did not get the estate, but he did get £25,000 from some London jewelers before fleeing to the US.

He ended up in Minnesota, where he made a splash, presenting himself at the National Exchange Bank of Minneapolis, sharply dressed in patent leather and a silk hat, as Lord Gordon-Gordon. He deposited several thousand pounds from his London loot, and in subsequent days and weeks, he let it be known that he was heir to the earls of Gordon, and a collateral relative of the romantic poet Lord Byron. It was the start of his next scheme.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.