#142 Sidebar: Oscar Hartzell and the Sir Francis Drake Estate Scam

Welcome to the first “true crime” episode of the History of the Americans Podcast, the story of Oscar Hartzell and the Sir Francis Drake estate scam, perhaps the most audacious con of the 1920s, the great golden age of the confidence man. Hartzell swindled as many as 200,000 Midwesterners, many from my own state of Iowa, out of millions of dollars posing as the rightful heir to the lost estate of Sir Francis Drake. Eventually, it would drive him insane, at least as adjudged by the director of the behavioral clinic of the criminal court of Cook County, Illinois. Enjoy!

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Selected references for this episode

Richard Rayner, “The Admiral and the Con Man,” The New Yorker, April 15, 2002 (pdf, subscription necessary)

Richard Rayner, Drake’s Fortune: The Fabulous True Story of the World’s Greatest Confidence Artist

John Maynard Keynes, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” 1930 (pdf).

Hartzell v. United States, Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, August 16, 1934.