A Woman to Know: Cassie Chadwick
If anybody had seen this paper and then really believed that I had drawn it up and signed it, I could hardly have been flattered. — Andrew Carnegie
If anybody had seen this paper and then really believed that I had drawn it up and signed it, I could hardly have been flattered. — Andrew Carnegie
(image via Wikimedia Commons)
In 1870, 13-year-old Betty Bigley masterminded her first con. She practiced her uncle’s signature until she could successfully replicate it; when he passed away, she forged a note claiming he’d left her a significant inheritance. The local bank bought Betty’s story and handed over some checks she could cash in advance of the inheritance. But the authorities ultimately discovered there was no inheritance to be had — in fact, her uncle had never even opened an account at the local bank.
When she was 22, Betty — already going by the name “Cassie Chadwick” in some of her scams — whipped up another scheme. She bought fancy stationery and designed false letterhead, printing letters that declared her heiress to a reclusive philanthropist’s fortune.
She later moved to Cleveland and moved in with her sister Alice. She promised Alice she was turning over a new leaf and leaving her life of crime behind. In reality, she was pricing out all of Alice’s valuables and went to the bank, asking for a loan and putting up her sister’s belongings as collateral. When Alice’s husband found out, he ordered Betty gone and forbade her from ever contacting the family again. That’s when she began going by “Cassie Chadwick.”
In 1883, “Cassie” married a prominent Cleveland physician. Once their marriage announcement hit the papers, people showed up to the doctor’s house, demanding his wife pay them for the things she’d stolen or swindled. Cassie’s husband filed for divorce, but his con artist wife was already at work on a new scam — one that would ultimately make her famous.
She masqueraded for years as a clairvoyant, going by the names Mme. Rosa and Mme. Lydia. She faked her own death to avoid repaying clients for false readings, and then began trying her heiress scheme once more. This time, she claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of both General Sherman and Andrew Carnegie, forging promissory notes with their signatures. The fake Carnegie notes impressed enough banks and investors to loan her money when she needed it. When the banks would come calling, she’d issue another note with Andrew Carnegie’s signature, this way using the bank’s own loaned money to repay her past loan. by some accounts, she collected $16.5 million in today’s dollars by pretending to live with these connections.
In 1905, Cassie’s act finally crumbled. Andrew Carnegie himself denied any connection to her, pointing out that he would never sign a note riddled with such typos. A Cleveland court sentenced her to 14 years in prison for conspiracy and fraud. She’d only last one before dying alone in her cell.
Add to your library list:
Women Swindlers in America (Kerry Segrave)
The Incredible Mrs. Chadwick (John S. Crosbie)
She Dared: True Stories of Heroines, Scoundrels and Renegades (Ed Butts)
Read more:
Cassie L. Chadwick (Oberlin College Library)
The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance (Smithsonian Magazine)
Fake a Fortune and Others Who Forged Their Way to the Top (Economic Times)
Hear more:
The Self-Made Heiress (The Grift)
The Daring Imposter Cassie Chadwick (Stuff You Missed in History Class)
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