Losers, Pretenders & Scoundrels

Alfalfa Bill Murray declared martial law over thirty times, and wrote an autobiography so embarassing that his family would steal it out of libraries. After a political defeat, he tried to start a colony in Bolivia, and failed at that, too. And was SUPER racist.

Gregor MacGregor was a Scotsman who joined revolutionary causes in South America, slowly morphed into a coward, THEN evolved into a fantabulist who tricked hundreds of destitute Scots to starve and die in a fake colony that never existed. And yet, he is buried with honors in Caracas Cathedral as a war hero.

Gregor MacGregor was a Scotsman who joined revolutionary causes in South America, slowly morphed into a coward, THEN evolved into a fantabulist who tricked hundreds of destitute Scots to starve and die in a fake colony that never existed. And yet, he is buried with honors in Caracas Cathedral as a war hero.

Daniel Edgar Sickles was an American Civil War general, and later, a U.S. congressman. While serving in Congress he gunned down a man in broad daylight in front of the White House, and was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity--the first in American history!

Micheal Goleniewski was a Polish intelligence agent but ALSO spying on the Poles on behalf of the Soviets BUT ALSO reporting on all of it to the Americans. 

A triple agent!

Best secret agent ever? We'll explore on this episode. 

Karl Wilhelm Naurndorff made a compelling case that he was the dauphin of France, spirited away by Talleyrand or some other insider after the death of his father, King Louis XVI. He was convincing enough that he kept getting stabbed, shot, and run out of countries, before winding up in the Netherlands as the head of pyrotechnics. 

But WAS he really the king? In this LPS episode, we settle it once and for all!

Cassie Chadwick went from a Canadian nobody to a psychic to the opulent heiress presumed to be Andrew Carnegie's natural born daughter. At the very least, she is the Queen of Cons!

In this second installment on the life and times of John Romulus Brinkley, quack, we follow his incredible career trajectory as he becomes a radio tycoon, political force in the great state of Kansas, and eventually gets driven from America's border by the Mexican Army.

John Romulus Brinkley became wealthy, famous, and powerful as one of America's most colorful, ludicrous quacks. He made his fortune by "curing" male impotence by sewing goat testicles into clients. As well as becoming a radio tycoon, politician, and more. 

What could you get away with if you looked the part? What if you're trying to trick a bunch of German soldiers with a sense of blind obedience? Wilhelm Voigt managed to commandeer a whole squad and take over a city hall long enough to grab a boatload of cash. Heaton and Young dive into how he did it.