The Great Con-Woman of the Gilded Age, Part 1

Summary

Summary of "The Great Con-Woman of the Gilded Age, Part 1"

Podcast: The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told, Season 2
Host/Author: Mary Kay McBrayer (iHeartPodcasts)
Episode Title: The Great Con-Woman of the Gilded Age, Part 1
Release Date: April 8, 2025

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Introduction

Mary Kay McBrayer opens the episode by introducing Cassie Chadwick, the subject of a two-part series. Cassie is portrayed as a masterful con artist during the Gilded Age, whose schemes allowed her to infiltrate the highest echelons of East Coast high society. Drawing parallels to modern-day tales like HBO's "The Gilded Age," McBrayer emphasizes the historical significance and cunning of Cassie’s exploits.

Early Life and Initial Schemes

Elizabeth "Betty" Bigley, later known as Cassie Chadwick, began her life in a humble setting in Ontario, Canada, as the fifth of eight children. Despite not fitting the conventional mold of beauty and suffering from hearing loss in one ear, Betty was determined to rise above her circumstances.

At 13 years old, Betty embarked on her first con involving promissory notes. She forged a letter declaring herself the heiress of a non-existent uncle and approached a local bank to receive checks from a fake account. Her ingenuity allowed her to bypass the traditional promissory note system, enabling her to write personal checks that appeared legitimate. However, her youthful venture was short-lived; she was arrested and warned against further deceit. This early setback taught her the importance of diversifying her schemes and expanding beyond her recognizable hometown.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (02:31): "I really wish people would stop using that word because there is no such thing as closure."

Adulthood and Reinvention

Reinventing herself multiple times, Cassie's years in Cleveland saw her adopting various aliases and professions:

• Madame Lyly Larose: As a clairvoyant, she capitalized on the era's fascination with spiritualism, offering fake psychic services to unsuspecting clients.
• Madame Marie Rosa: Engaged in fraudulent marriages and inheritance scams, including deceiving her husband, Dr. Wallace Springsteen, into believing her fabricated death to avoid debts.
• Madame Lydia de Vere: Continued her cons by acting as a financial advisor and forging promissory notes, leading to her eventual arrest alongside her victim, Joseph Lamb. Despite her crimes, Cassie's manipulative charm even influenced the prison guard and demonstrated her psychological prowess.

Throughout these endeavors, Cassie showcased a remarkable ability to adapt and manipulate societal norms to her advantage, earning both wealth and notoriety.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (09:20): "Cassie is a fraud. But she was also right. She maintained her clairvoyance during her whole prison sentence."

Marriage to Leroy Chadwick

In 1896, Cassie, now known as Cassie Hoover, encountered Dr. Leroy Chadwick, a wealthy widower from high society Cleveland. Leroy, a successful banker from West Park, was immediately cautious, recognizing Cassie's potential as a con artist. To test her authenticity, he introduced her to his best friend, Erie Reynolds, a banker who would assess her character.

Cassie adeptly charmed Erie, securing Leroy's trust and subsequently his proposal. Unbeknownst to Leroy, Cassie's past was shrouded in deceit, but he remained blissfully unaware of her true identity and criminal history.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (29:47): "Cassie fit herself right in among the wealthiest society women."

Integration into High Society

Cassie's marriage to Leroy Chadwick granted her entry into the elite social circles of Cleveland. She meticulously curated her image, investing in luxurious gowns adorned with intricate embroidery, lavish jewelry, and opulent home decor. Her ability to host extravagant soirées further solidified her status, allowing her to network and manipulate those around her seamlessly.

A pivotal moment in Cassie's cons involved smuggling an Art Nouveau necklace into the Fifth Avenue Hotel. When a customs agent, William Theobald, confronted her about the undeclared item, Cassie's composed demeanor and legal knowledge enabled her to negotiate the temporary surrender of the necklace. This incident underscored her strategic mind and ability to handle high-stakes confrontations without unraveling her facade.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (14:45): "Yazoo Clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not."

The Necklace Incident

In October 1902, Cassie's smuggling of a valuable necklace led to her first significant confrontation with federal authorities. Agent Theobald demanded its return, asserting that it was smuggled into the country. Cassie's refusal to comply immediately showcased her defiance and understanding of her rights. However, recognizing the potential damage to her reputation, she eventually surrendered the necklace, although it held little value to her compared to her larger schemes.

This encounter highlighted Cassie's ability to navigate legal challenges and maintain her composure under pressure, further cementing her reputation as a formidable con artist.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (15:00): "She was so charming and perceptive and she was so easy to talk to."

Conclusion and Tease for Part 2

As the episode concludes, Mary Kay McBrayer hints at the ongoing saga of Cassie Chadwick, setting the stage for the second part of the series. Listeners are promised an in-depth interview with Annie Reed, the author of Imposter Heiress Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age, providing further insights into Cassie's complex character and elaborate cons.

Notable Quote:

Mary Kay McBrayer (27:50): "The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that."

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Key Takeaways

• Adaptability: Cassie Chadwick's ability to reinvent herself multiple times was central to her success as a con artist.
• Strategic Charm: Her social skills and understanding of high society allowed her to integrate seamlessly and manipulate influential individuals.
• Legal Acumen: Cassie's knowledge of the legal system and her calm demeanor during confrontations ensured that she often escaped severe repercussions.
• Psychological Manipulation: Beyond financial scams, Cassie leveraged psychological tactics to influence and deceive those around her.

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References:

• Book: Imposter Heiress Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age by Annie Reed
• Article: "The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance" by Karen Abbott, Smithsonian Magazine
• Podcast Production Team: Produced by Emma DeMuth, Edited by Antonio Enrich, Theme Music by Tyler Cash, Executive Produced by Scott Waxman

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Upcoming Episode:

Stay tuned for the second part of Cassie Chadwick's story, where Mary Kay McBrayer delves deeper into her most audacious cons and the eventual unraveling of her elaborate facade.

Transcript

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Hi listeners. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the.

[Patia Eaton]

Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season two podcast and I'm excited to share these riveting stories with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories ever told season one and season two 100% ad free and access all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told season two one week early through the iheart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts plus you'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like There and Gone, South Street, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes, Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe today.

[Larison Campbell]

In Mississippi Yazoo Clay keeps secrets.

[Nancy Grace]

Seven thousand bodies or more.

[Larison Campbell]

A forgotten asylum cemetery. It was my family's mystery, Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandw my mouth. Tick tock. Stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Hannah Smith]

After a crime you read the headlines. But do you know the story?

[Patia Eaton]

At the time that I called the police, he knew I had called him.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

And left the house with a firearm and was texting me that he was going to use it.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Hannah Smith.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

And I'm Patia Eaton. We host the Knife, a podcast from the Exactly Right network that cuts to the heart of the story.

[Hannah Smith]

Through in depth interviews and candid conversations, we'll bring you firsthand accounts of people living through the ripple effects of crime.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Most of us don't know the legal process and because they always tell you this word, closure, I really wish people.

[Hannah Smith]

Would stop using that word because there.

[Patia Eaton]

Is no such thing as closure.

[Hannah Smith]

These are the scars that are left behind. These are the voices you haven't heard.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

New episodes every Thursday.

[Hannah Smith]

Listen to the knife on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Larison Campbell]

Diversion Audio.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

In October of 1902, Mrs. Dr. Cassie Chadwick was in her suite at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It was just A short stay before she made the trip across the Atlantic to tend to her husband, Dr. Leroy Chadwick. He was convalescing from Roman fever in Europe. Cassie was resting in the parlor, wrapped in a silk kimono, when her maid knocked. There was a man at the door who demanded to speak to her. She handed Cassie his calling card. It read, W.H. theobald, United States Treasury Department, Custom House, New York. A customs agent here for her at the finest hotel in New York City just as she was about to leave the country. Well, whoever he thought he was, he had to know that calling on a woman unannounced was bad manners. She came to the cracked door and jerked it open. She opened the conversation by saying, how dare you intrude upon my privacy without being announced. He reacted just as she wanted. He was shocked. And then William Theobald regained his composure. He was here to retrieve the necklace that she smuggled into the country on June 17, 1902. She knew the one. A delicate Art Nouveau piece with diamonds and rubies. But Cassie scoffed at him. She said she didn't know what he was talking about. She hadn't smuggled any necklace, and she wasn't giving him anything. She went on to say she'd have him arrested. She didn't know who he really was. And besides, to seize property, well, he would need a warrant for that. Did he have a warrant? Could she see it? William was kind of impressed. Usually people caved when a federal officer came to call. Especially women. Especially rich women. This Cassie Chadwick was holding her own. William said that if she didn't fork over the necklace, he'd get a warrant and he'd park his ass right outside her hotel room in the corridor for everyone to see until the warrant arrived the next morning. Cassie couldn't have that. A federal agent stalking her could kill her reputation. So she conceded that she knew what necklace he meant, even though she didn't owe duties on it. Obviously, she didn't have that fantastic piece of jewelry on her person at the moment. So she couldn't give it to him then, even if she wanted to. That piece was in a safety deposit box downtown. If William really wanted to see that piece of her collection, she could meet him at the Collector of Customs office the following morning, assuming he could get a warrant by then, she would temporarily surrender the necklace for him to investigate. William left in a huff, irritated that she'd known her rights and exercised them. Even when she surrendered the necklace, he would still feel like Cassie Chadwick had won. Welcome to the greatest true crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer. Today's episode we're calling the Great Con Woman of the Gilded Age. It's part one of a two part series about the story of a woman who wanted into east coast high society and got there. I grew up middle class, so it took me until fairly recently, after pouring over hundreds of episodes of financial podcasts, to finally realize if you have enough money to begin with, you can live straight off dividends. And then theoretically, you just cruise. The best illustration I have of this in popular culture is the adult kids on Succession. If you're not familiar with that show, in broad strokes it features a Scottish immigrant patriarch who bootstrapped himself into huge media conglomerate success and now has more money than God. Logan Roy's four kids are though, as he says, not serious people. It sounds cruel for a father to say that, but any regular non blue blood watching the show would have burst out laughing with me because he's exactly right. They're completely out of touch with reality and they've never done a lick of work in their lives. Money is an abstract concept to them. People don't matter. The whole family is decadent and that's the type of rich that Cassie Chadwick wanted to get to. By the way, if you've watched Julian Fellows HBO show the Gilded Age, you might already be a little familiar with a fictionalized version of this story. Remember the character of the heiress, Maude Beaton? That character was inspired by Cassie Chadwick and honestly, the source material is just as interesting, if not more so, than the dramatized version. I want to take a second to cite our main source for this article, Annie Reed's book, the Imposter Heiress Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age. There are a lot more details about how Cassie got to be so rich in that book. So if you like what you hear here, and I think you will, you might want to check out Imposter Heiress and we will link to the book in the show notes. And at the end of part two, I get to interview the author, Annie Reed, all about her process of writing the book and just how difficult it was to track down a woman who didn't want her name known over a century ago. Elizabeth Betty Bigley. That was her original name. She started off as a farmer's daughter in Ontario, Canada. She was the fifth of eight children. She wasn't especially pretty, and when she was a kid she lost hearing in one ear. So she spoke with a lisp and her classmates loved to pick on her for that. But Betty had big dreams and she had a plan to get there. She ventured into her first con when she was just 13 years old. Let's talk about promissory notes. It's relevant, I promise, if you're like I was until I started researching for this episode. You might have heard that term and equated it with a money thing. That's about all I knew. I knew I needed one for a mortgage, and although I understood how to get one, I wasn't super clear on how it manifested. Now I know that promissory notes are basically statements of loans. Chase bank says that currently promissory notes are agreements that include terms like the amount you owe, your interest rate, your payment schedule, the total amount you will pay, the length of your repayment schedule, if and how the payments will change as time goes on, and where your payments should be sent. In the case of a personal loan, which is more relevant to this story, the note will also include a signature from the person lending the money. It was a sort of assurance. So, for instance, if a person came into your store and wanted to buy groceries on credit, they'd show you this paper. That's because you, an astute store owner, would not let just anyone buy on credit, so you would give the note a look over. And more important than any of the information I just said was that signature. Depending on the reliability of the person who loaned your customer the money, you would consider running a tab for them. Because if the guy standing in front of you didn't pay you, the loaner was good for it. I'm so grateful for credit cards, man. I mean, imagine having to keep that form on your person and present it anytime you wanted to buy something super inconvenient. Plus, what if the shop owner wasn't familiar with that name? What if he turned you down? What then? It's not like you could just pull a different card out of your pocket. Probably Betty, whom I'm now going to reference as Cassie, just to ease the telling of the story, even though Cassie wasn't what she went by yet. Cassie learned about these notes as an adolescent, and she also learned that the best way to get money is to convince people you already have a lot of it. Cassie wrote a letter declaring herself an inheritor of a mysterious uncle who had died. That uncle did not exist, but she took it to the local bank and it turns out she had created a good enough forgery to fool them. Cassie asked for checks so that she could use the money before it sort of hit her account. And she got them. The banker signed off on her checks. So basically, the checks were real, but the accounts were fake. So when she wanted to buy something, she bypassed that promissory note situation and wrote a personal check. Store owners would have been pretty familiar with checks, so there was a lot less risk for her. I need to take a second to remind y'all, she's 13 years old, tricking bankers who had been banking their whole lives. If that was my daughter, I wouldn't know whether to be super upset at her lack of integrity or very impressed at her ingenuity. The bank was upset, understandably. After just a few months, Cassie got arrested, and they warned her to never do it again. What Cassie heard was, this way won't work again. So she took stock of the situation. Why had she failed? Well, she'd been faking her identity as an heiress in her hometown, which was full of people who knew her and had known her family since before she was born. People knew she was the fifth child, and they knew her siblings weren't heirs. It was your simple big fish, small pond scenario. She was simply too recognizable there. Plus, she'd put all her eggs in one basket. When that one bank learned her one benefactor was fake, the con collapsed. She'd have to go around Lake Erie to meet some new people for a scheme like this to work again and, of course, diversify. So that's what she, Cassie, learned from her failure at 13 years old. She once tried to dress as a man to pawn a gold watch. And she had deduced that it was easier for men to acquire money than women. But that didn't work either. She was immediately bounced from the shop. She realized that her first idea had been a good foundation. So she revisited that. At 22, she walked into a dry goods store, made her selections, and at the counter, she showed the cashier a small card. Cassie got printed cards made that announced her as Ms. Bigley, heiress to $18,000. She explained to the store proprietor that her relative had recently died and the funds were temporarily tied up in legalities. Then she produced a promissory note. It was signed by a farmer in Brantford. Could she pay with this? It worked, even though the checks seemed a little more secure. Promissory notes worked better for her, at least back then, because they sweetened the pot. Not only would the proprietor receive payment for what he was owed, but he'd get that interest percentage as well. So she also learned that the greed of other people could play out in her favor, too. Cassie also ran a little cash back scheme. Whatever she bought wouldn't total the amount on the promissory note, so she'd receive that extra back in cash, which was even better for her since, you know, cash don't bounce. And she went hard. It started with sundries at the dry goods store and then it escalated into buying big things like custom organs, the musical instruments. It worked. Until it didn't. People couldn't get their banks to cash the promissory notes. Cassie didn't cave under the pressure though. She just explained that this new inheritance was still tied up. I mean, you know how the court likes to drag their feet. This time her arrest ended in the courtroom. The witnesses were endless. Not only were all of the proprietors whom she duped trotted out to testify against her, but the men whose signatures she forged were brought into court too. They shrugged, amused, and said this was the first they'd ever heard of her. After two hours of deliberation, the all male jury ruled her not guilty. They said she was insane. So Cassie went back to her parents house and I couldn't find any information on how they reacted to her scheme. So I'm going to ask the author, Annie Reed, about it when I interview her in part two. Anyway, Cassie started to revise her plan and I'll tell you all about it after the break.

[Hannah Smith]

Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok. You come across a video of a teenage girl and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her.

[Jen Swan]

And I was like, what? Like it was him. I was like, oh my God. It was shocking. It was very shocking.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Jen Swan. I'm a journalist in Los Angeles and I've spent the past few years investigating the story behind the viral posts and the extraordinary events that followed.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I started investing my time to get her justice. They put out something on social media, so I'd get called in the middle of the night all the time.

[Jen Swan]

It's like, how do you think you're going to get away with something like this? Like you kill somebody.

[Hannah Smith]

It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turn to social media to help track down their friend's killer. This is their story. This is my friend Daisy. Listen to my friend daisy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Hi listeners. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the.

[Patia Eaton]

Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told season two podcast. And I'm excited to share these riveting stories with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories ever told season one and season two 100% ad free and access all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season two one week early through the iheart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts plus you'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like therein Gone South Street, Paper Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes, Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe today.

[Larison Campbell]

There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo Clay. It's thick, burnt orange and it's got a reputation.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

It's terrible, terrible dirt.

[Larison Campbell]

Yazoo Clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not in 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.

[Nancy Grace]

7,000 bodies out there or more, all.

[Larison Campbell]

Former patients of the old state asylum and nobody knew they were there.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

It was my family's body mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

But in this corner of the south, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo Clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.

[Larison Campbell]

I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to under yazukle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

We left Cassie regrouping from that arrest and not guilty ruling at her parents house. Three years later in 1882, Cassie moved to Cleveland to live with her sister Alice and Alice's new husband. She didn't want to impose, she just needed to get her feet up under her. So Alice agreed. And while Alice thought she was walking the beat to find work, Cassie was actually taking stock of their house. She went to the bank and took out a loan using her sister's furniture as collateral. Not cool. Alice and her husband didn't think it was cool either and they kicked Cassie out. Which was actually fine. Cassie had gotten her feet under her and she moved to a different neighborhood in the same city and she Got a new game. At this point in time, we're leaning into the age of spiritualism. And Cassie was all about that. What a fantasy that people would pay you money to tell them lies about themselves. All she had to do was change her name to something exotic and talk in riddles and she could call herself a clairvoyant and charge for it. That's when Madame Lyly Larose, that's Cassie, by the way, met Dr. Wallace Springsteen. By now she knew that doctors were always a good investment. And Wallace was enthralled by Liley. The papers called her the lady of the hypnotic eye. And he fell for her hard. They were married in December of 1883. As was standard at the time, their marriage was announced in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. And then the creditors came calling, literally. Merchants saw her photo in the paper and they showed up at Wallis's front door furious, demanding to be paid. Wallace thought the debts could damage his credit because she accumulated them before their marriage. I don't think they would have, at least not now. But she was his wife, so he paid them off for 12 days, which is when Wallace ended the marriage. He also published a note in the Cleveland Dealer which said, quote, I hereby forbid any person from trusting or harboring my wife, as I will pay no bills. Of her contracting after this D Cassie was not deterred, at least not much. She reinvented herself again. Cassie became Madame Marie Rosa. She scammed her way through Erie, Pennsylvania, until she gathered enough to get her back to Cleveland. When the people who loaned her money wrote asking for repayment, Cassie sent letters saying that Marie had died. She even included a falsified obituary. Cassie married two of her clients while she was a psychic. First was a farmer and Second was businessman C.L. hoover, whom she claimed as the father to her child, Emil Hoover. She sent Emile to live with her family in Canada for a while. When hoover died in 1888, Cassie inherited his estate worth $50,000. It was enough to reinvent herself again. This time she went to Toledo and she told fortunes as Madame Lydia de Vere. She even scammed one client, Joseph lamb, out of $10,000 by becoming his financial advisor. She was getting sloppy again. She had Joseph cash promissory notes on her behalf. She'd forged the signature on them. When the first interaction went off without a hitch, she had him cash several, moreover $40,000 worth. Before long, Cassie and Joseph were both arrested. Joseph was acquitted soon after, since the court regarded him as her victim. Cassie, though again she refused to cave. She told the prison Guard that he'd lose $5,000 in a business deal, which he did. And then she told him he'd die of cancer, which he also did. And this is why I don't mess with fortune tellers. You start to wonder, was it going to happen anyway or did it happen because they incepted this idea? I mean, Cassie is a fraud. But she was also right. She maintained her clairvoyance during her whole prison sentence. She started a letter writing campaign to Governor and future President William McKinley declaring her remorse and willingness to change. Although she had been sentenced to nine and a half years originally, she was so convincing in her letters that she only served three and a half. Cassie and Emile moved back in with her sister Alice. But she already had a reputation around Alice's friends and her husband didn't want Cassie there to begin with. Enough was enough time to find another doctor. Cassie met Dr. Leroy Chadwick when he was 44 and she was 39. In 1896, he was a wealthy widower, sole provider for his 11 year old daughter Mary, his elderly mother and his elder sister Clara, who was partially paralyzed. Leroy was born into high society. His family home was a brick mansion on Millionaires Row in Cleveland. On top of all that, Leroy had rheumatism. That's the point that Cassie seized on when she met him. She was going by the name Cassie Hoover. She offered a massage and it worked wonders. He was smitten almost immediately. But Leroy was no fool. He'd only been single for two years and he knew both that he was a catch and that he might be a little vulnerable. So like any sensible person, he introduced this new woman to his best friend as a sort of character assessment. Y'all know how it goes. A new broom sweeps clean. When you get excited over a new crush, you tend to only see the positives. Cassie's former husband was a doctor, so she understood the life. She was charming and perceptive and she was so easy to talk to. Leroy knew this slippery slope, or at least he was wary that it might be the case. So, like a sensible person, he introduced this new woman to his best friend. Listeners, if y'all aren't doing this, if you don't have your viper's den of selected friends who will vet your dates and then be brutally honest with you, you should. You need the friend that you kind of don't want to introduce to your new significant other because you know they're going to give it to you straight. For Leroy, that was west park banker Erie Reynolds. Cassie must have known that Meeting Erie was a test. So she turned on the charm. She asked him all about his work. And she learned that he was as proud of his bank as as he might have been of his own child. He'd built the business himself, started it in his own home. Now it was one of the best banks in town. Cassie admired him aloud. And that's how she won Erie, which in turn let her win Leroy. True, Leroy had other friends who tried to warn him about Cassie, but those weren't his best friends. He ignored them, and he proposed as soon as her name was cleared from her parole board. Cassie married Leroy Chadwick. He knew nothing about her criminal record. And he wouldn't. Not for a long time. Coming up, hear about Cassie's longest con. Stay with us.

[Hannah Smith]

Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok. You come across a video of a teenage girl and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her.

[Jen Swan]

And I was like, what? Like it was him. I was like, oh my God. It was shocking. It was very shocking.

[Hannah Smith]

I'm Jen Swan. I'm a journalist in Los Angeles and I've spent the past few years investigating the story behind the viral posts and the extraordinary events that followed.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I started investing my time to get her justice. They put out something on social media so I'd get called in the middle of the night all the time.

[Jen Swan]

It's like, how do you think you're going to get away with something like this? Like you kill somebody.

[Hannah Smith]

It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turned to social media media to help track down their friend's killer. This is their story. This is my friend Daisy. Listen to my friend daisy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Hi listeners, I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host.

[Patia Eaton]

Of the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season 2 podcast and I'm excited to share these riveting stories with you.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I'm also excited to tell you that.

[Patia Eaton]

You can now get access to all episodes of the Greatest True Crime stories ever told, season one and season two 100% ad free and access all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season 2 one week early through the I Heart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like There and Gone, South Street Paper, Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder Homes Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe Today.

[Larison Campbell]

There'S a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

It's terrible, terrible dirt.

[Larison Campbell]

Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.

[Nancy Grace]

7,000 bodies out there or more, all.

[Larison Campbell]

Former patients of the old state asylum, and nobody knew they were there.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

It was my family's mystery.

[Larison Campbell]

But in this corner of the south, it's not just the soil that keeps secrets. Nobody talks about it. Nobody has any information. When you peel back the layers of Mississippi's Yazoo clay, nothing's ever as simple as you think.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that.

[Larison Campbell]

I'm Larison Campbell. Listen to under yazukle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us. Listen to Crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

You might remember both Cassie herself and her new husband, Leroy Chadwick, both had children from prior marriages. Honestly, the blending of the families couldn't have gone better. Cassie and Mary loved each other and Leroy thought Emil was an exceptionally well behaved boy. He said, I love him as if he were my own. It actually seems like Leroy and Cassie were a good partnership. They each provided the other with their needs and wants and their families got along well. Everything seemed perfect, especially to Cassie. Her social calendar filled up with balls, luncheons and trips to the theater. And society mostly welcomed her, even if they were surprised at her sudden appearance. Cassie fit herself right in among the wealthiest society women. And what's even more exciting, in my opinion, was that she redecorated. And it was luxurious. Let me describe it to you in detail. First, she decorated herself. She took notes at the galas she attended, and she stormed the doors of all the stores the ladies mentioned. She bought gowns, black velvet, pink taffeta, silk chiffon. Cassie told the salespeople not to bother measuring the fabric, just send the whole bolt. And she spared no detail when it came to embroidery and lace, especially the decorative collars. She bought hats with braids and feathers, marvelous shoes, plush fur coats, petticoats to give her skirts that coveted bell shape, and my favorite part, the jewels. She put jewels on everything. She bought silver plates with embedded rupees, pearl dog collars, and sometimes y'all. This is a true flex. She just bought loose gems by the tray. Next came the house. It was gorgeous. To be sure, it wasn't the biggest mansion on Millionaires Row, but Cassie made it up like her own, covering the walls with whimsical landscapes, filling the corners with mahogany cabinets, lamps and cut glass figurines and marble busts on every surface. She had mastered the right ways to show off, and so she started to host soirees in their own home. It was fashionable at the time to decorate with flowers, so she raided the florist and she threw theme parties, which is exactly what I would do if I could spend big money on one dumb thing. One day theme imitated a steamship trip to Europe. She had custom menus printed with their children's faces on them. The staff molded ice cream into the shapes of ships. It was a perfect way to display the Chadwick's wealth. And she knew the neighbors were counting their money. The society pages even wrote up that party the next day saying the whole affair was carried out in perfect taste. It seemed like Cassie had gotten everything she ever wanted. And this time she'd done it pretty legitimately. But of course, the story doesn't end here. In 1898, Leroy's mother died. The whole house went into mourning for the spring. But then by the summer, the Chadwicks decided to travel to Europe as a family of four. Leroy's sister Clara stayed behind. It was Cassie's first trip abroad, despite the theme of the dinner party, and it felt like a rite of passage. Wealthy people went every summer, sure as the season would happen. And the ship itself was as luxurious as one can imagine, full of smoking rooms, drawing rooms, and music rooms. In Europe, they skipped from luxury hotels in London to Paris to Brussels to Rome. And the best part about it, at least for Cassie, was the shopping. The clothes there were totally different. There was art everywhere, and she bought it at every stop. She also noticed that Brussels specialized in diamonds. That's where she discovered that she could have jewelry melted down and remade, though, really, France had the best lapidaries, by the way. This is the best way to get jewelry, in my opinion. If you have a very clever jeweler who knows what they're doing, and I do. So DM me, if you need a guy in Atlanta, then you can get some beautiful custom pieces for a very fair price, and you can reuse, melt down or trade in any jewelry that might have been passed down to you and is just not your taste or given to you by a shitty ex, for example. Cassie is not like me in that way though. She didn't want a good fair deal. She wanted more. Extravagance was the thing for Cassie. The thing was at this time, Customs duties were 10% from Europe to America. I don't know if that's still the case, But Colombia reimburses 12% at the border for luxury items, but that's there. And now. What I do know is that 10% ate into Cassie's funds. So she hid her jewels and she didn't declare them at the border. I also know that even at that time there were no customs duties on melted down jewelry. So this con seems unnecessary. Leroy had told her to slow down her spending, but he wasn't really holding her to it. He had money. Kind of seems like she just carried this one out for the hell of it. If you remember from the top of the episode, one of those smuggled necklaces is what brought that customs agent, W.H. theobald to her hotel room. It's not clear who snitched on her, nor how they even knew it had been smuggled. Still, she got busted. William Theobald was pissed at Cassie when he left her suite, but he was also a little impressed. Well, very impressed. She handled herself well. Most rich women were kind of airheads, and if they weren't actually dumb, they played dumb when stacked up against his authority. The fact was, he wasn't used to being stood up to. Cassie did relinquish the necklace, but only because it meant next to nothing to her. She had Jules Galore, and this little federal agent had only grazed the surface. He didn't even know that she was the secret illegitimate daughter of the great Andrew Carnegie. Join me next week on the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told for our second part of two about Cassie Chadwick, the great con woman of the Gilded Age. I'd like to shout out a few key sources that made it possible for me to tell this week's story, especially Annie Reid's book, the Imposter Cassie Chadwick, the Greatest Grifter of the Gilded Age. Also, Karen Abbott's article in Smithsonian magazine, the high priestess of fraudulent finance. And of course, all the other sources I used are cited in the show notes. The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told is a production of Diversion Audio. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer and I hosted this episode. I also wrote this episode. Our show is Produced by Emma DeMuth and edited by Antonio Enrich Theme music by Tyler Cash Executive produced by Scott Waxman hi listeners. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the.

[Patia Eaton]

Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season 2 podcast and I'm excited to share these riveting stories with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of the Greatest True Crime stories ever told season one and season two 100% ad free and access all episodes of the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told Season 2 one week early through the I Heart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts Plus. You'll get access to other chart topping true crime shows you love like There and Gone, South Street, Paper, Ghosts, Piketon Massacre, Murder, Homes, Unrestorable, the Godmother, Betrayal and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe today.

[Larison Campbell]

In Mississippi, Yazoo Clay keeps secrets.

[Nancy Grace]

7,000 bodies out there or more.

[Larison Campbell]

A forgotten asylum cemetery it was by families, mystery, shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Breaking news tonight, the return of Tot Mom. It feels like a dirt sandwich in my mouth. TikTok stardom ahead as Casey Anthony haters beg. Please go away guys. Please don't miss this. Please join us listen to crime Stories with Nancy grace on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Unknown]

Well, I just found out that my dad lives a secret life as a hitman for the Chicago mafia for all these years. It doesn't make any sense. He was a firefighter, paramedic. How the hell can he be a hitman? I need answers. So I am currently on a plane back to Chicago to interview everybody, anybody that knows anything about this. I'm in shock. This is absolutely insane. I just don't understand. I need to figure this out.

[Hannah Smith]

The shocking new true crime series Crook county from Tenderfoot TV and iHeart podcasts is available now. Binge the entire series for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.