Ponzi's Scheme_ The True Story of a Financial Legend - Mitchell Zuckoff [140]
22
“Poor, uneducated Italian boys”: Ibid.
22
“paved with gold”: Ponzi, p. 2.
22
the S.S. Vancouver: Information on the ship that brought Ponzi to the United States was obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration office in Waltham, Massachusetts. Postcards picturing the ship are held by the Peabody Museum of Salem and can be viewed online at www.greatships.net.
23
conditions for steerage passengers: A description of steerage is contained in a 1911 report to President William H. Taft by the United States Immigration Commission, an excerpt of which was found online at www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/sl/history/journey.htm.
23
Most of the Vancouver’s passengers: The complete manifest of the November 3, 1903, voyage, including details on passengers, has been preserved on microfiche and was viewed and copied at NARA’s Waltham office.
23
A cardsharp: Ponzi, pp. 2–3.
24
Splendor Macaroni Company: Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Boston, vol. 5, pp. 551–53.
24
“like a million”: Ponzi, p. 2.
24
sticky, black mud: Ibid., p. 3.
24
“some fifth cousin”: Ibid., p. 3.
24
Ponzi was feeling tricked: “Ponzi Tells How He Rose,” Boston American, August 9, 1920.
25
into the arms of an Irish policeman: Ponzi, p. 4.
25
Ponzi’s series of jobs: Ibid. Also Ponzi, p. 6; “Ponzi’s Own Story of His Life Reads Like a Romance,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, August 8, 1920, p. 3.
25
spree at Coney Island: “Mr. Ponzi and His ‘Ponzied Finance,’ ” Literary Digest, August 21, 1920, p. 49.
26
Banco Zarossi: Ponzi, p. 7.
26
Antonio Cordasco: Robert F. Harney, “Montreal’s King of Italian Labour: A Case Study of Padronism,” Labor/Le Travail vol. 4, (1979), pp. 57–84. Also Donna R. Gabaccia, Italy’s Many Diasporas, UCL Press, 2000, pp. 58–80.
27
the full 3 percent, plus: “Montreal Detective Believes Ponzi’s Story; Always Thought Him Guiltless; Cordasco Says Scheme Was That of Zarossi,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1920. Also Herbert L. Baldwin, “Canadian ‘Ponsi’ Served Jail Term,” Boston Post, August 11, 1920, p. 1.
27
Zarossi’s pretty seventeen-year-old daughter: Ponzi, pp. 10–20.
28
Antonio Salviati: “Old Partner of Ponzi Arrested,” Boston Globe, datelined August 19, 1920.
28
the Canadian Warehousing Company: “Ponzi’s Canada Career: Stole a Bank Check and Committed Poor Forgery,” Boston Post, August 12, 1920. In his autobiography, Ponzi gives an elaborate account of his Montreal caper, explaining that he took the blame for the forgery to spare Zarossi from prison because Zarossi had a wife and family. Ponzi’s general account was believed by a Montreal detective, George Sloan, who brought Zarossi back from Mexico City and was quoted in the Boston Globe on August 12, 1920. But Sloan was not directly involved in Ponzi’s arrest, and Ponzi’s claims of chivalry are contradicted by the timing of his actions relative to Zarossi’s disappearance and extradition, and also by a court transcript of the case unearthed by the Post. Somewhat less believably, Zarossi also disavowed Ponzi’s account with his own self-serving explanation of his bank’s demise: “Zarossi Disputes Ponzi: Blames ‘Wizard’ for Loss of $10,000 in Montreal Crash,” Boston Traveler, August 12, 1920, p. 1.
29
vermin-infested jail: Ponzi, p. 12.
30
Saint Vincent de Paul Penitentiary: Ibid., pp. 17–22.
30
a swindler named Louis Cassullo: “Denounces Ponzi . . . as Embodiment of a Lie,” Boston Globe, November 30, 1922.
30
Ponzi sized up Cassullo: Ponzi, p. 90.
30
a model prisoner: Herbert L. Baldwin, “Canadian ‘Ponsi’ Served Jail Term,” Boston Post, August 11, 1920, p. 1.
30
five dollars in his pocket: Ponzi, p. 22.
Chapter Three: “Newspaper genius”
33
living in his parents’ house: Cambridge City Directory, 1917–20.
33
nearly flunking out of college: Numerous letters between E. A. Grozier and Harvard’s Dean Hurlbut between 1905 and 1909 regarding Richard Grozier’s grades, deficiencies, and so on, contained in student files located in the Harvard