One would think it was easier to cover one's tracks in those days
Lately brought to my attention by way of a scholarly mailing list: A Singular Aspect of Plausibility: The Trajectory of a Victorian Serial Con Artist.
Thia adduces a contemporary account which indicates that it had been quite possible to trace the intricacies of the you-could-not-make-it-up career of the great and ingenious humbug, Alexander Charles Tucker, alias Marco Emile de St. Hilaire, alias Marquise [sic] de St. Hilaire, alias Alessandro Vittalinian Borromeo M. D., M. A., "one of the elect Counts of the Holy Roman Empire in the Pontifical degree," heir apparent to the Duc de Garibaldi (!), lecturer on mesmerism, revolutionary orator, and candidate for the town council of Bradford.
not to mention, serial bigamist. (Maybe he was of the mind of the man in the limerick: 'When asked why the third/he replied, One's absurd/And bigamy, sir, is a crime.')
Like some squalid reptile, wherever he crawled he left his poisonous slime behind him -- a train of misery and suffering that followed him, and more or less affected every one with whom he came in contact.
This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2784569.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
comments.