On July 8, 1849, James Gordon Bennett’s New York Herald launched readers to William Thompson, a person of “genteel look”—and, apparently, limitless charisma—who had been arrested for relieving strangers of their watches. “Have you ever confidence in me to belief me along with your watch till tomorrow?” Thompson would ask his marks after hanging up a dialog and beguiling them together with his attraction. So it was {that a} mass-market, Nineteenth-century broadsheet coined the time period “confidence man,” which the Herald started to make use of somewhat liberally in its pages. (And which you may need seen extra not too long ago within the title of Maggie Haberman’s aptly named Donald Trump biography.) As a Herald editorial subsequently proclaimed of Thompson, “He’s a cheat, a humbug, a delusion, a sham, a mockery!”
These phrases may simply as simply describe George Santos, the fictional-résumé maestro, alleged Burberry scarf thief/dying-dog swindler, and all-around preternatural fabulist who lied his means into the halls of Congress final November, solely to be uncovered as a brazen scammer. In a headline-making second at Tuesday’s State of the Union, the freshman consultant from Queens was met with disgust throughout a run-in with Mitt Romney. “You don’t belong right here,” Romney reportedly barked, little question talking on behalf of a giant swath of America’s citizens.
Santos stands out as probably the most epic frauds the press has contended with. On the similar time, his story is simply the most recent in a prolific oeuvre of grifter exposés which have lit up the media over the previous few years. Scandalous yarns like these have captivated information shoppers for so long as there’s been information to devour, as that age-old Herald article can attest. However within the period of net virality, they’ve taken on a lifetime of their very own, paying profitable dividends for the shops that usher them into the world.
From the Hipster Grifter and the Tinder Swindler, to Soiled John and the Worst Roommate Ever, to Billy McFarland, Elizabeth Holmes, Anna Delvey, and extra notorious names than we will listing on this put up, con artist narratives have turn out to be sizzling-hot IP, drawing huge audiences and elbowing their means into the book-deal-streaming-series-podcast pipeline. On this newest installment of Contained in the Hive, Maggie Coughlan and Joe Pompeo study the current historical past of the grifter style, breaking down how these blockbusters function within the enterprise of stories and Hollywood.
