Key Takeaways
1. The Irresistible Charm: Why We Love Con Women
The con woman’s likability is the single most important tool she has, sharp as a chef’s knife and fake as a theater mask.
Universal appeal. Con women possess an uncanny ability to charm, disarming victims with sincerity and engaging personalities. This likability is their most potent weapon, allowing them to manipulate perceptions and gain trust.
Societal fascination. Our society is strangely obsessed with scammers, often celebrating them in media. This adulation stems partly from the perception that con artists are nonviolent, allowing us to admire their "fabulous" qualities without confronting the true harm.
Secret desire. A darker reason for our fascination might be a secret longing to be them. Con women shatter social barriers, ignoring rules for status, power, and wealth. Their audacious hijinks offer a vicarious thrill of unbridled indulgence.
2. Masters of Reinvention: Crafting New Identities
The con artist doesn’t feel the need to use the correct Social Security number, or keep the name her parents gave her, or put her real eye color on her driver’s license.
Fluid identities. Con women are chameleons, effortlessly shedding old lives and adopting new personas to escape past misdeeds or fit a desired narrative. Lauretta J. Williams, for instance, used dozens of aliases, constantly reinventing herself.
Fabricated pasts. They construct elaborate, often fantastical, personal histories. Cassie Chadwick claimed to be Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter, while Wang Ti presented herself as a "princeling." These fabricated pasts provided both credibility and an aura of untouchability.
Costume and performance. Reinvention extends to physical appearance and demeanor. Roxie Ann Rice adopted a Ghanaian accent and headwrap, and Anna Anderson used her scars and silence to embody Anastasia. These transformations, combined with compelling performances, convinced others of their new, influential identities.
3. Exploiting Desire: The Con Woman's Sharpest Tool
As Jeanne knew well, desire made people defenseless. Desire was a crack in the armor. An opportunity. A little door, just begging to be walked through.
Targeting vulnerabilities. Con women expertly identify and exploit the deepest desires and vulnerabilities of their victims. Jeanne de Saint-Rémy preyed on Cardinal Rohan's longing for Queen Marie Antoinette's favor, manipulating him with fake letters.
Greed and status. Many cons tap into the universal human desire for wealth and social standing. Cassie Chadwick leveraged bankers' greed, and Wang Ti exploited the superficiality of China's elite for exclusive deals on luxury goods.
Hope and belief. Beyond material desires, con women capitalize on people's need for hope, comfort, or belief in something greater. Psychics like Rose Marks and Fu Futtam offered solace through "spiritual work," providing temporary relief while draining victims' resources.
4. The Illusion of Wealth: Appearance Trumps Reality
All the lawyer knew was what he had seen with his own two eyes, and—as Cassie had known for years—aesthetics mattered far more than reality.
Visual deception. Con women understand that perceived wealth is often more convincing than actual wealth. They invest heavily in luxury brands, expensive cars, and lavish lifestyles to project an image of affluence. Wang Ti drove an Audi TT, and Cassie Chadwick bought jewels "by the entire tray."
Official-looking paperwork. Forged or manipulated documents lend an air of legitimacy to their claims. Cassie Chadwick used a real banker's signature on a list of fake assets. Jeanne de Saint-Rémy presented a contract with a forged "Marie Antoinette de France" signature, accepted due to perceived authority.
The power of suggestion. Illusions are reinforced by subtle cues and strategic name-dropping. Wang Ti's phone calls about "huge land deals" and her Bentley convertible created a "smokescreen of wealth." The appearance of success, rather than its substance, was paramount.
5. Profiting from Pain: The Tragediennes' Cruel Game
For the tragediennes, a bombing is a real coup, and a tsunami is a fantastic opportunity for personal advancement.
Exploiting collective grief. "Tragediennes" capitalize on public disasters, seeing crises as "windows of opportunity" for donations or fraudulent claims. They feign empathy, using catastrophe to shield themselves from scrutiny.
Fabricated victimhood. These women invent elaborate stories of personal loss or survival. Ruksana Ashraf claimed to be a survivor of multiple terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire for insurance claims. Ashley Bemis fabricated a firefighter husband and faked pregnancies for donations.
The 9/11 faker. Tania Head epitomized this, crafting a horrific, detailed account of surviving 9/11, including a severed arm. She led survivor groups, gaining authority and attention, despite never having been in the towers.
6. Selling the Supernatural: Exploiting Hope and Fear
The dead may never return, as Maggie Fox declared, but the movement itself had come alive thanks to the power of the grieving human heart—which had always beat so faithfully beneath the fraud.
Grief as a gateway. Spiritualist mediums and psychics thrive on humanity's longing for connection with the deceased or a better future. The Fox sisters and later figures like Mary Ann Scannell exploited grief, offering comfort through rappings and "spirit guides."
Entrepreneurial mysticism. The occult offered economic independence for many women. Fu Futtam built an empire selling "dream books" and "magical oils" in Harlem, leveraging exotic branding and savvy marketing during the Great Depression.
The dark side of belief. Some cons were deeply exploitative. Ann O’Delia Diss Debar founded cults involving sexual abuse. Rose Marks defrauded vulnerable clients of millions, exploiting fears of curses for "cleansing" rituals.
7. The Endless Chase: A Life of Drifting and Deceit
She was always running away from the storm. Or maybe she was the storm.
Nomadic existence. Many con women are perpetual drifters, constantly moving to escape consequences. Their scams inevitably unravel, forcing them to seek new hunting grounds and identities. Lauretta J. Williams crisscrossed the United States, leaving a trail of debts.
Serial embezzlement. Margaret Lydia Burton exemplified this, moving between countries and states, consistently embezzling from employers. She would skim money, then vanish with her daughter and show dogs, only to resurface with a new alias.
The illusion of escape. While constantly on the move, these women maintain an outward appearance of success. Margaret, despite serial fraud, lived in expensive homes and drove a pink Lincoln. This created a stark contrast between her glamorous facade and the underlying chaos of her life.
8. Beyond Deception: The Violent Extremes of Control
It was as though she needed a hundred backup plans: backup men, backup money, backup schemes.
Pathological control. Some con women escalate beyond financial deception into extreme violence and manipulation. Sante Kimes, driven by an obsessive need for control, enslaved maids, committed arson, and ultimately, murder. Her life was a "constant influx of drama and insanity."
Coercion and abuse. Sante's methods included physical abuse, psychological torment, and dehumanization of victims. She held young immigrant girls captive, threatening violence and writing chilling rules like "CONTROL! CONTROL! CONTROL!" This extended to her sons, whom she groomed for crime.
Murder as a solution. For Sante, murder became a tool to eliminate problems and secure wealth. With her son Kenny, she drugged and drowned a banker, and later shot a former associate. Her final victim, Irene Silverman, was strangled. These acts reveal the terrifying endpoint of unchecked confidence.
9. The Confidence Paradox: Our Humanity as Vulnerability
Our confidence—the very thing that she uses to trick us—is the best part of us.
Weaponized trust. The con woman's ultimate weapon is our inherent human capacity for trust and hope. She exploits our "beautiful vulnerability," our willingness to believe in others and a better future. When victims realize they've been swindled, their confidence in themselves and humanity is shattered.
The cost of cynicism. To eliminate the threat of the con woman, humanity would have to abandon trust, becoming suspicious and closed off. This cynical existence would be a far greater loss than any damage inflicted by a con, suggesting the con woman is "the small, bitter price we pay for the ability to trust."
Enduring fascination. Despite the bleak reality of their crimes, the allure of the con woman persists. We are drawn to their audacity and glamour. This fascination, however, carries a risk: the temptation to believe we are too smart to be fooled, potentially leading us to fall victim once more.
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