The Encyclopaedia of Liars and Deceivers
Roelf Bolt
Language: English
Pages: 256
ISBN: 1780235089
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
To collect these stories of deceit, Roelf Bolt travels from ancient times to the present day, documenting a huge assortment of legerdemain: infamous quacks, fraudulent scientists, crooks who committed “pseudocides” by faking their own deaths, and forgers of artworks, design objects, archaeological finds, and documents. From false royal claims, fake dragon’s eggs, and bogus perpetual motion machines to rare books, mermaid skeletons, and Stradivari violins, Bolt reveals that almost everything has been forged or faked by someone at some point in history. His short, accessible narratives in each entry offer biographies and general observations on specific categories of deceit, and Bolt captures an impressive number of famous figures—including Albert Einstein, Cicero, Ptolemy, Ernest Hemingway, François Mitterand, and Marco Polo—as well as people who would have remained anonymous had their duplicity not come to light.
Funny, shocking, and even awe-inspiring, the stories of deception in this catalog of shame make The Encyclopaedia of Liars and Deceivers the perfect gift for all those who enjoy a good tall tale—and those people who like to tell them.
be sure to find it. JOBSEEKING, GERT POSTEL STYLE Postman Gert Postel (b. 1958) had no chance of studying medicine, as he did not have even so much as a secondary school certificate. But what he did have was a silver tongue, which he used on several occasions to be taken on as a doctor. His preferred discipline was psychiatry. Under the name Dr Clemens Bartholdy he was employed by the health service in the north German town of Flensburg. He worked there for several months until he lost his
the flow of the animal magnetism we are going to remove this blockage. When the blockage has been removed, your hysteria will be healed.’ Mesmer knew how to present this in a sufficiently persuasive way to influence how the patient experienced her own body. Although Mesmer would have hated the idea, as he thought he was dealing with a purely physical force, he is considered one of the founders of psychology. The reason the group treatment in Paris worked better than individual treatment was
understanding when he had to tap his hoofs. Krall remained convinced of the intelligence of his horses, and until his death published extensively on the theme. NOTHING’S SO NICE AS BASMATI RICE Connoisseurs consider basmati rice, which grows in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India and Pakistan, one of the finest and most delicious kinds of rice in the world. As basmati is difficult to grow, little is produced and the price is high. This makes it the perfect prey for fakers. Because
currently stood at an enormous $25,000. Lustig offered him a way out. Using a key provided by his prisoner, the Sheriff collected a package from a luggage locker. It contained a wooden box about the size of a shoebox, with impressive-looking knobs, slots and levers. Lustig told the sheriff it was a money duplicator and that he would demonstrate how it worked. He explained that it did not produce counterfeit money, but a duplicate of an existing note. He took a $100 bill from his own wallet and
discrepancy between this result and the ORI’S estimate of 107 cases of lying and forgery among nearly 23 million scientists. Let’s take a conservative view and say that half of the cases of scientific fraud are never discovered. That pushes the number of offenders up again, from the original one in 215,000 to one in 25,000. What we should not underestimate is how great an impact a forger can have. In Numismatic Forgery, Charles M. Larson calculates that, in the United States with a population of