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imaginary tales. One writer referred authoritatively, and erroneously, to Ponzi’s brothers and sisters, and then let his fantasies run amok when describing Ponzi’s Lexington home: “Interior decorators charged him half-a-million dollars to make the home livable. One hundred thousand dollars went to stock his wine cellar with clarets and brandies from the 1870s. He had a house staff of fifteen employees including armed guards with orders to shoot any prowler on sight. The twenty-acre estate was surrounded by a brick wall topped with barbed wire.” And so on.

Important insight into Ponzi, as well as dialogue and certain scenes, came from his little-noticed autobiography, The Rise of Mr. Ponzi. Portions of his memoirs are, like the man himself, flawed by self-aggrandizement and unreliability. However, much of Ponzi’s account squares with verifiable facts. I have used Ponzi’s version primarily to illuminate his unique impressions of people and events, and I have been careful to avoid repeating his errors. Moreover, I have used expanded source notes in several places to sort through the more tangled or incredible aspects of his account. Finally, newspaper stories without page numbers came, almost without exception, from the archives of the Boston Globe, where clips were cataloged by date without notations of the pages on which they appeared.

NOTES

Prologue

xii

a gullible newspaper reporter: “Police Bring Back Money Magicians,” Boston Herald, August 27, 1920, p. 5. Also “Money ‘Made’ as Victims Looked On,” Boston Daily Globe, August 27, 1920, p. 1.

xii

In 1920, anything seemed possible: David E. Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, 1920–1939: Decades of Promise and Pain, Greenwood Press, 2002. Also Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, Harper & Row, 1931, and numerous newspaper stories.

Chapter One: “I’m the man.”

3

Locomobile: Information on the Locomobile was provided by Evan Ide, curator of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, which displays one that belonged to General Pershing.

3

At the wheel: “Receiver for Ponzi Today,” Boston Traveler, August 17, 1920, p. 1.

5

holding copies of that morning’s: “Ponzi Has a Rival Next Door to Him,” Boston Sunday Post, July 25, 1920, p. 1.

5

On the left side of the front page: “Doubles the Money Within Three Months,” Boston Post, July 24, 1920, p. 1.

6

eclipsed two previous stories: “Dear Old ‘Get Rich Quick’ Pops out of Postal Guide,” Boston Traveler, June 9, 1920, p. 1; “Boston Man Is Sued for $1,000,000,” Boston Post, July 4, 1920, p. 1.

6

Three weeks earlier: Charles Ponzi, The Rise of Mr. Ponzi, originally self-published in 1937, republished by Inkwell Publishers, Naples, Florida, 2001. Pages cited here are from the Inkwell edition, pp. 105–6.

8

Cost of living figures are from various sources, including newspaper ads; JoAnne Olian, Everyday Fashions 1909–1920, Dover Publications, 1995; Harvard University treasurer’s statement, 1919–20, p. 174; and Kyvig.

8

would-be investors had begun assembling: Names of Ponzi investors, along with the dates and amounts they invested, as well as quotes from a few, were printed in the Boston Post during a two-week period in August 1920. Personal details about some of the investors were obtained from the 1920 census and the 1920 Boston City Directory. Also “Pearlstein Made $500—Now He Sets Good Example for All the Others Who Collected in Time,” Boston Globe, August 14, 1920, p. 2. John Collins did, indeed, add another $700 to his investment on July 26; his investments were included in the Post’s published list of investors on August 26, 1920. Names and dates of depositors were also found in numerous court documents, including Cunningham v. Brown, 265 U.S. 1 (1924), a case involving Ponzi that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

11

was five foot two: There are differing accounts of Ponzi’s height. Most put him between five foot two and five foot four. My decision to settle on five foot two was based on a detailed physical description contained