4. The Gilded Age Crook Who Preyed on the Rich
Nineteenth century Lord Gordon-Gordon was no lord. What he was was a successful British confidence trickster who inveigled large sums out of the unwary rich. His real name and identity are unknown, but he first appears in the record in 1868, when he posed as a “Lord Glencairn” in an attempt to secure an estate in Scotland. He did not get the estate, but he did get £25,000 from some London jewelers before fleeing to the US.
The fugitive ended up in Minnesota, where he posed as Lord Gordon-Gordon. He then convinced the Northern Pacific Railway that he wanted to buy a huge tract of land to settle tenants from his over-populated Scottish estates. The Northern Pacific’s land commissioner ended up spending about $45,000 courting and securing the Scottish Lord as a client, in the belief that he would invest millions in return.