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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

16. A Tycoon’s Scheme to Kidnap Scammer Almost Triggered a War With Canada

Contemporary cartoon decrying Jay Gould’s power and abuse thereof. Wikimedia

Jay Gould was understandably ticked off at the Canadian authorities’ refusal to extradite Lord Gordon-Gordon. Being a tycoon with nearly unlimited resources, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He financed a Minnesota posse that crossed the border into Canada, and kidnapped Gordon-Gordon off his front porch in Manitoba. The extralegal extradition failed, however, when the kidnappers were stopped at the border, arrested, and thrown into a Canadian jail.

The result was an international incident, with American newspapers urging an invasion of Canada to free the Minnesota kidnappers. Eventually, things simmered down, the Americans were released through diplomacy, and Lord Gordon-Gordon settled down to enjoy his loot. Then in 1874, he was finally identified as the “Lord Glencairn” who had fleeced some London jewelers in 1868 for £25,000. As the Canadian authorities moved to deport him to Britain, Lord Gordon-Gordon, realized that it was all over. Not wishing to spend the rest of his life behind bars, he hosted a farewell party in his hotel room, then shot himself on August 1^st, 1874.

Related: 10 Historic Con Artists.

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.