Autumn's Oddities

The Great Impostor


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Ferdinand Waldo Demara held a lot of careers in his lifetime: he was a surgeon who successfully amputated a man's leg on a Canadian Naval ship, a Trappist monk, a prison warden, a pastor, and a professor of philosophy. How, you ask, could one man have mastered so many different skills? Well, he didn’t. Demara was possibly the greatest conman the world has ever seen and was only found out when his photo was put in a newspaper article commending his good work.

SOURCES

https://www.influenceatwork.com/7-principles-of-persuasion/

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/09/obituaries/ferdinand-waldo-demara-60-an-impostor-in-varied-fields.html

The Great Impostor: The Amazing Career of Ferdinand Waldo Demara, who Posed as a Surgeon, a Prison Warden, a Doctor of Philosophy, A Trappist Monk and Many, Many Others; by Robert Crichton


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Autumn's OdditiesBy Autumn Grube

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