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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eves, and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that uncovers a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: every day. Today is March sixteen. The day was March six,

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Speaker 1: nineteen o five. It was day one of the trial

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Speaker 1: of Cassie Chadwick, a career con artists whose most lucrative

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Speaker 1: act was posing as an heiress to swindle banks out

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Speaker 1: of millions of dollars. Cassie had been pretending to be

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Speaker 1: the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish American steel

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Speaker 1: tycoon and philanthropists. Cassie forged notes with Carnegie's name, and

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Speaker 1: from there she was able to obtain documents validating claims

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Speaker 1: that she was entitled to millions of dollars. Because she

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Speaker 1: had this proof she was worth millions, she was able

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Speaker 1: to get huge loans from banks. She used the money

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Speaker 1: she amassed from this scheme to fund a lavish lifestyle.

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Speaker 1: But after years of defrauding people, Cassie was caught when

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Speaker 1: a Massachusetts banker discovered her debt and suit her as

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Speaker 1: convoluted and unbelievable as all of this sounds, the full

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Speaker 1: story of Cassie Chadwick's fraudulent life, is even more incredible.

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Speaker 1: Cassie was born Elizabeth Bigley in Ontario, Canada, but Cassie

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Speaker 1: had to have many names over the course of her

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Speaker 1: life to keep up her cons. She was also known

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Speaker 1: as Madame Lydia de Bear, Lydia Springsteen, and Madame Marie

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Speaker 1: Laurose at times. So I'll keep it simple and call

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Speaker 1: her Cassie Chadwick from here on out. Cassie was already

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Speaker 1: sharpening her con artist knife by the time she was

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Speaker 1: a teenager. When she was fourteen years old, Cassie opened

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Speaker 1: a bank account under the guys that she was getting

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Speaker 1: money from an uncle in England, and she started writing

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Speaker 1: bad checks. At that tender age, Cassie was arrested for forgery,

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Speaker 1: though she was soon released, and when she was twenty two,

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Speaker 1: Cassie again pretended to be an heiress, this time rounding

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Speaker 1: out her story with fake calling cards and fancy letter head.

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Speaker 1: Apparently not at all scared by her arrest, she took

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Speaker 1: her con a step further by writing fraudulent checks for

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Speaker 1: more than the purchase amounts of things she was buying

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Speaker 1: and getting cash back from the shopkeepers. Cassie moved on

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Speaker 1: to a scheme of a more ambitious sort when she

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Speaker 1: took on the role of a psychic and started up

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Speaker 1: a fortune telling business. By this time, Cassie was married

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Speaker 1: to a man named Dr. Wallace Springsteen and living in Ohio.

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Speaker 1: But not long after the couple married in eighty two,

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Speaker 1: Cassie was exposed as a scammer and they split. The

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Speaker 1: story continued pretty much in this fashion. Cassie continued to

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Speaker 1: pose as a psychic, got married again, got divorced again,

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Speaker 1: forged in cash more promissory notes, got locked up for fraud,

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Speaker 1: and opened a brothel. And along the way she had

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Speaker 1: a child named a Meal. But the chapter of cassie

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Speaker 1: scam ridden life that brings us to her final trial

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Speaker 1: is the one that starts. In the spring of nineteen

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Speaker 1: o two. Cassie was married to Leroy Chadwick, a wealthy

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Speaker 1: man with important connections. Leroy and Cassie were on a

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Speaker 1: trip to New York when Cassie managed to convince a

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Speaker 1: lawyer and friend named James Dillon to escort her to

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Speaker 1: her father's house. Well, her father's house turned out to

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Speaker 1: be that of Andrew Carnegie. Cassie went into the mansion,

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Speaker 1: spoke with a housekeeper for a little less than thirty

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Speaker 1: minutes and ain't back out to Dylan with the two

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Speaker 1: million dollar promissory note signed by Carnegie. She told Dylan

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Speaker 1: that she was Carnegie's illegitimate child and that Carnegie had

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Speaker 1: been giving her money for a while. She was even

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Speaker 1: set to inherit millions when Carnegie died, she told Dylan,

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Speaker 1: and she urged him not to tell anyone, knowing that

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Speaker 1: he would lending credibility to her made up tail. From

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Speaker 1: this lie, baton was built. Cassie started using forged documents

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Speaker 1: supposedly signed by Carnegie to get banks to let her

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Speaker 1: borrow millions of dollars, but the card pyramid fail When

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Speaker 1: a suspicious banker named Herbert Newton revealed her scam and

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Speaker 1: incited an investigation, Cassie was arrested yet again, this time

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Speaker 1: in New York City, wearing a money built filled with

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Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. News of Cassie's case blew up

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Speaker 1: in Ohio. Her cons had even caused the Citizens National

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Speaker 1: Bank of Oberlin, Ohio, to declare bankruptcy after they had

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Speaker 1: loaned her eight hundred thousand dollars. Along with Cassie, Bank

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Speaker 1: president Charles Beckwith and Cashier A. B. Spear, who worked

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Speaker 1: at the Oberland Bank, were also accused of conspiracy. Charles

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Speaker 1: Beckwith died before he could go to trial, and Spear

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Speaker 1: was sentenced to seven years in prison, but Cassie's trial

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Speaker 1: was the talk of the town. Andrew Carnegie attended the trial,

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Speaker 1: which started on March six, nineteen o five. At the

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Speaker 1: end of her trial, Cassie pleaded not guilty and said

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Speaker 1: she had never pretended that Carnegie was her father. But

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Speaker 1: she was found guilty of conspiracy to bankrupt the Citizens

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Speaker 1: National Bank and conspiracy against the government find seventy thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Cassie died

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Speaker 1: in prison in Columbus, Ohio, in nineteen o seven, but

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Speaker 1: over the course of her life, Cassie had managed to

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Speaker 1: use her charm and cleverness to deceive countless people. I'm

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Speaker 1: Eve Jeff Coote, and hopefully you know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like

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Speaker 1: to learn more about Cassie Chadwick, listen to the episode

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Speaker 1: of Stuff you missed in history class called The Daring

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Speaker 1: Impostor Cassie Chadwick. If you haven't gotten your fill of

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Speaker 1: history after listening to today's episode. You can follow us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t d i h

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Speaker 1: C Podcast. Thanks for joining me on this trip through history.

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Speaker 1: See you here, same place tomorrow