Throughout history, the human desire for status, wealth, and adventure has driven some individuals to extraordinary lengths, leading to some of the most audacious deceptions ever recorded. Armed with nothing more than sheer confidence and elaborate backstories, these master manipulators proved that a lie told with enough conviction can easily pass for absolute truth. What makes these historical grifters so fascinating is not just the scale of their deceptions, but the ease with which their victims accepted them.
Alan Conway: The Fake Stanley Kubrick
British-born Alan Conway once posed as US film director Stanley Kubrick, who directed Eyes Wide Shut. In the 1990s, Kubrick became reclusive, and Conway took advantage, managing to get wined and dined around the world by pretending to be the movie mogul—even offering people roles in his films. Clean-shaven, he didn't even look like the famously bearded Kubrick and knew little about his work.
Walter Danecki and Maurice Flitcroft: The Fairway Phonies
Sixteen-stone postal worker Walter Danecki, from Wisconsin, US, successfully pretended to be a golfing pro to play in the 1965 Open, scoring the worst round in its history. He inspired British crane driver Maurice Flitcroft to do the same at the 1976 event, having barely played the game—a story told in the 2021 film The Phantom Of The Open.
George Psalmanazar: The Fake Formosan
In the early 18th century, George Psalmanazar turned up in London claiming to be from the then little-known Asian island of Formosa (modern-day Taiwan). He invented a language for the place and local customs, including cannibalism, even publishing a book and lecturing high society on it, before being exposed as a Frenchman.
Sarah Edmonds: The Union Soldier
Canadian-born Sarah Edmonds moved to the US in the 1800s, where she donned men's clothes and called herself Franklin Thompson to get work. During the American Civil War, she enlisted in the Union army, fighting in several battles, until she got malaria, quietly quitting to work as a nurse.
Princess Caraboo: The Cobbler's Daughter
In 1817, a woman wearing exotic clothes and mumbling unintelligibly was found wandering the streets of Almondsbury, near Bristol. She claimed to be Princess Caraboo, from an island in the Indian Ocean, who had been kidnapped by pirates but escaped. She was finally recognised as Mary Willcocks, a cobbler's daughter from Devon.
Karl Power: The Sports Prankster
British prankster Karl Power dressed up in sports kit to wangle his way onto the winner's podium at a Grand Prix, play tennis on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and, in 2001, pose alongside the Man Utd team for a photo as a player before the side's match against Bayern Munich.
Frank Abagnale: The Master of Disguise
Frank Abagnale conned his way into roles as a lawyer and physician, as well as flying free across the US as a passenger and faking it as a pilot. Leonardo DiCaprio played him in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can.
Stanley Clifford Weyman: The Hocus POTUS
American Stanley Clifford Weyman posed as military leaders and public officials for kicks. In 1921, he organised a meeting between an Afghan princess and US President Warren Harding at the White House. He said: "One man's life is a boring thing. I lived many lives."
