The Crime Book

66

PEOPLE TOOK

THEIR HATS OFF

TO SUCH A SUM

THE CRAWFORD INHERITANCE, 1879–1902

I

n 1898, on the verge of

bankruptcy, a French banker

named Girard contacted the

woman with whom he had invested

his fortune, begging for some of the

money he was owed. When wealthy

socialite Thérèse Humbert refused,

Girard put a gun to his head and

pulled the trigger in despair.

Girard’s suicide was the beginning

of the end of Humbert’s 20-year

career swindling the French elite

of nearly 100 million francs (about

£430 million today).

Fake inheritance

Born Thérèse Daurignac in France,

she grew up an impoverished

peasant. Although she was neither

wealthy nor well educated, Thérèse

was charming and adept at lying

and manipulation. She claimed she

was of noble blood and convinced

her first cousin, Frédéric Humbert,

the son of a prominent French

mayor, to marry her. The two then

moved to Paris, where her father-in-

law’s connections helped Thérèse

to gain fame and influence among

F rench societ y.

In 1879, Thérèse told a tale of an

unusual inheritance, claiming that

she saved the life of American

millionaire Robert Crawford while

on a train journey. As a reward,

Crawford supposedly made Thérèse

the beneficiary of his will, with a

provision that the fortune be kept

in a safe until her younger sister

was old enough to marry one of

Crawford’s nephews. However,

Robert Crawford did not exist and

nor did the inheritance.

Using the fictional inheritance

as collateral, Thérèse began to

borrow money from rich friends.

The scandal attracted the interest of

the press across Europe. This image

of the arrest in Madrid was published

in the Italian newspaper La Domenica

del Corriere.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Paris, France

THEME

Fake inheritance scam

BEFORE

1821–1837 Scottish soldier

and con man General Gregor

MacGregor extorts money from

British and French investors

looking to settle in a fictional

Central American territory.

AFTER

1880s American con woman

Bertha Heyman, also known

as “Big Bertha”, persuades

dozens of rich men to lend her

money with the promise that

she will pay them back from a

fictional inheritance.

1897–1904 Canadian forger

and con artist Cassie L.

Chadwick claims to be the

illegitimate daughter and

heiress of steel tycoon Andrew

Carnegie, and swindles banks

out of millions of dollars.

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67

See also: The Affair of the Diamond Necklace 64–65 ■ Charles Ponzi 102–07 ■ Bernie Madoff 116–21

CON ARTISTS

While her husband may have been

a dupe at first, he became her

accomplice and the pair lived

lavishly on the borrowed funds.

The Humberts went on spending

sprees, buying country mansions,

a steam yacht, and fine clothing.

In total, they borrowed 50 million

francs (£215 million) on the promise

of their mysterious fortune.

Dissatisfied with the sizable

sums she appropriated, in 1893,

Thérèse launched a fraudulent

insurance company, Rent Viagere.

The company targeted small

businessmen with the promise of

large returns on small investments.

Thérèse and Frédéric went on to

squander more than 40 million

francs (£174 million), with old

investors paid using the funds of

new victims.

Borrowed time

Following Girard’s suicide,

French investigators began to

look into the Humberts’ financial

affairs. But it was her creditors

rather than the police who

ultimately exposed the fraud. By

the late 1890s, many of the people

she had borrowed from joined

forces and concluded that even her

significant “inheritance” would not

be sufficient to repay all of her

extensive loans.

Her schemes finally unravelled

in 1901, when one of her creditors

sued her. A Parisian court judge

ordered the safe opened, to reveal

nothing but a brick and an English

halfpenny. By then, Thérèse and

her husband had fled the country.

In December 1902, the couple were

arrested in Madrid and extradited

to Paris.

Both Thérèse and Frédéric were

sentenced to five years’ hard

labour. Thérèse emigrated to the

US and she died penniless in

Chicago, Illinois, in 1918. ■

Common

traits of a

con artist

Narcissism Machiavellianism

Psychopathy

The power of persuasion

Con artists use the power of

persuasion to swindle their

victims. After identifying a

target, a fraudster will study

them, researching their

behaviour and talking with

them to determine weaknesses.

The con artist will then guide

them towards their scam, using

flattery, fear, or the promise of

wealth to gain the subject’s

trust and confidence. Typically,

the lies are laced with enough

truth to distract the victim

and make the patter more

believable. If the victim objects,

the swindler may play on their

emotions to gain sympathy. The

goal is to lie, cheat, and fool

people with empty promises.

Many successful con artists

exhibit the same three traits –

psychopathy, narcissism, and

machiavellianism – known

collectively as the “Dark Triad”.

These characteristics allow con

artists to swindle people out

of their money without the

perpetrators feeling a sense of

either remorse or guilt.

She persuaded me to

lend her my money, first a

little, and then more, until

all I have in the world has gone

into her pockets.

Victim of

Thérèse Humbert

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