Why the Inquisition pursued Casanova and other facts from the life of famous swindlers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Charlatans and swindlers will always be, as long as human naivety and lack of education coexist side by side with human greed and thirst for glory. Some people just as if they cannot help lying the more the more willingly they believe them, even without great benefit for themselves. Here are just a few of the names that have gone down in history.

Giacomo Casanova

Now Casanova is mentioned most often in connection with his love affairs - he kindly left detailed memoirs about them, and during his lifetime he was wanted for theft, blasphemy, abuse of trust … Even the Inquisition was interested in him! To all this, he constantly tried on roles for which he had no right, for example, he could introduce himself as an officer. Among his amorous adventures - a short romance with another swindler, a young girl posing as a castrato (in case of checking with a hand, adopted by Catholic priests, to avoid deception, she attached an imitation of mutilated male genitals to her body).

However, this is one of the ugliest stories of Casanova - after all, he just bought her and her younger sisters (including the eleven-year-old) from a greedy mother for money for an hour or two of joy. And many of his other adventures smell bad. For example, he frightened one person with a corpse dug up on purpose for this purpose … to the point of complete paralysis. In addition, he constantly entered into the trust of the rich and noble people in order to acquire money.

One of the most amazing stories of Casanova - escaping from a prison that did not know escapes before, where he was thrown for a warlock - has long been considered fiction. Have you ever seen a case, during a walk, find and drag an iron rod into the cell, grind it, hand it over to the priest detained in the cell below, convince the neighbor in his cell (spy) to keep quiet, dismantle the ceilings of two cells (first the priest, then Casanova) and get out of the prison gate, convincing that you were simply locked during work. However, documents on that very prison have survived, and they do indeed mention the repair of the ceilings in two cells in the right year.

Anna Laminitis

Can you get half of Europe to worship you just by telling you that you don't go to the toilet? Not at all! Because you don't eat or drink either. And at the same time to live in a community of beguines, where everyone seems to be in full view of each other … One German lady named Anna Laminit at the beginning of the sixteenth century succeeded perfectly.

Without stopping to play the saint, she accepted rich donations and urged the mighty of this world to arrange religious processions, in which the laity would walk in black robes, humbly bowing their heads. One such move was led by the Empress. At the same time, Laminitis started romances - for example, with her confessor and with one merchant. Anna gave birth to a son from a merchant, and the father regularly paid maintenance and listened with bated breath to the news about how his boy was growing and developing. That's just … That's right, there was no child. He died very young, and Laminitis continued to pull money.

The false saint was exposed twice. First, the sister of the Emperor Kunigunda invited her to visit the monastery, where she had lived since she was widowed, and, together with the witnesses, followed Anna when she was left alone in her cell. And somehow it immediately turned out that Laminitis eats and drinks, and gets rid of digestive products - through the window. Kunigunda shamed Laminitis, took her word not to deceive people anymore and … Out of her kindness, she simply let go.

Of course, Anna continued her lucrative business. When rumors about this reached Kunigunda, she, in anger, ordered to expel Anna from the city. She, having left, immediately found a lover, a widower with a child in her arms. Meanwhile, the merchant demanded that his son be sent to him for training. Anna, without any hesitation, sent instead of her seven-year plan (which, as we remember, did not exist) someone else's four-year plan. It was then that the second exposure took place. The merchant officially charged him with the theft of his child and the possible misappropriation of alimony. The investigation revealed many different deeds. Both Anna and her lover were sentenced to death.

Charles Hatfield

Here he is, a real "rain man" - at least Hatfield for a long time made money by making it rain a miracle with powder for money. A portion of the powder was given out for fifty dollars, it had to be placed on some high place and wait for rain. If it did not rain during the agreed warranty period, Hatfield will refund the money.

Whoever tried to reproduce the recipe of a brilliant chemist, and all in vain, because Hatfield was a brilliant meteorologist and a brilliant businessman. He studied all possible signs of the weather and sometimes gave out the powder with a slowdown, as if he was waiting for some time. As a result, the amount of money left over from satisfied customers (who would have had it raining at the time Hatfield calculated) significantly exceeded the amount of money that had to be returned - and far exceeded the income from the sale of sewing machines, Hatfield's former profession.

In the end, success turned Charles's head, and he accepted a large government order for rain from Canada. He was to irrigate the Yukon, one of the driest areas in Canada. For this he was offered a large sum. Needless to say, Hatfield had to leave Canada in disgrace and without money? But he went bankrupt only during the Great Depression, when his main clients - farmers - were left without money as one. Charles again had to sell sewing machines.

Adventure seekers and money seekers were active not only in the West. Prophets, oprichniks and spies: How did the fate of foreign adventurers who ended up in Russia.