Ponzi's Scheme_ The True Story of a Financial Legend - Mitchell Zuckoff [144]
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dinner and the theater once a week: Margaret Strickland, “Mrs. Ponzi Willing to Surrender All,” Boston Post, August 17, 1920, p. 1.
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song on the mandolin: “ ‘Charlie’s a Born Aristocrat,’ Says Mrs. Rose Ponzi,” Boston Post, December 3, 1922, Special Feature Section, p. 1.
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“tastes of the millionaire”: Charles Merrill, “His Pretty Girl Wife Sorry When Ponzi Quit $50 Job,” Boston Globe, August 8, 1920, p. 8.
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stamp collection: Ibid.
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with Roberto de Masellis: “Ponzi Asks Aid . . . Witness Says Foreign Exchange Plan Feasible,” Boston Evening Transcript, October 27, 1922. The physical description of de Masellis comes from a Boston Traveler sketch published on October 28, 1922.
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“Charlie, for heaven’s sake”: “ ‘Charlie’s a Born Aristocrat,’ Says Mrs. Rose Ponzi,” Boston Post, December 3, 1922, Special Feature Section, p. 1.
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“When a man is always a gentleman”: Ibid.
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“An American beauty. My Rose!”: Ponzi, p. 55.
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“I want you to be able to throw away a hundred dollars”: Charles Merrill, “His Pretty Girl Wife Sorry When Ponzi Quit $50 Job,” Boston Globe, August 8, 1920, p. 8.
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Once she took a photograph of him: Nancy Wrynne, “Ponzi’s Home Life Is Simple and Devoid of Ostentation,” Boston Sunday Herald, August 1, 1920.
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the world to take notice of him: “ ‘Charlie’s a Born Aristocrat,’ Says Mrs. Rose Ponzi,” Boston Post, December 3, 1922, Special Feature Section, p. 1.
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Rose’s mother died: Margaret Strickland, “Mrs. Ponzi Offers All,” Boston Post, August 17, 1920, p. 1.
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Her love for him deepened: Ibid.
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“tired of working for expectations”: Ponzi, p. 59.
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inherited some money from her mother: Clarence White, “Mrs. Ponzi Says, ‘We Will Stay Here and Square Debts,’ ” Boston Globe, July 17, 1921.
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He sat in the office’s lone armchair: Ibid.
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stealing 5,387 pounds of cheese: “Ponzi’s Career Is Spectacular,” Boston Globe, August 13, 1920, p. 9.
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kingmaker and blackmailer Dan Coakley: Annual Report of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks, 1921, pp. lv–lvi.
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a deal with the store’s owner: The terms of the furniture deal come from multiple sources, including, “Ponzi Sent No Representative to Europe,” Boston Globe, September 29, 1920.
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anglicized his name from Giuseppe Danieli: Albert Hurwitz, “The Ponzi Bubble,” Boston Sunday Herald Magazine, August 30, 1970, p. 13.
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The ill-fated story of the Trader’s Guide comes from Ponzi himself. His most complete telling is found at Ponzi, pp. 60–66.
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“with the same inflection”: Ponzi, p. 64.
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“I cannot approve the loan”: Ibid.
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Sitting alone in the office: Ponzi told the story of how he came up with the idea of speculating in International Reply Coupons on many occasions, each time recounting the same essential facts about the letter from the Spaniard who wanted a copy of the Trader’s Guide. See Ponzi, pp. 67–70; Charles Ponzi, “Ponzi’s Own Story of His Life Reads Like a Romance,” Boston Sunday Advertiser, August 8, 1920, p. 3; and “Ponzi Tells His Story,” Boston Evening Transcript, November 27, 1922, p. 1.
Chapter Seven: “The almighty dollar”
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Universal Postal Union: A history of the UPU and the advent of International Postal Coupons can be found at www.upu.int. Also Herman Herst Jr., “Charles Ponzi and His International Postal Reply Coupon Scheme,” Speaking of Stamps Column, Stamps, December 9, 1995, p. 8.
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cost the Spaniard thirty centavos: Ponzi frequently told the same story of how the idea came to him and how he investigated its likelihood of success by sending three dollars abroad. The most complete account is from Ponzi, pp. 67–70. See also Mabel Abbott, “Ponzi’s Profits on $9,522,590 of Investors—$45,” New York World, November 26, 1924. For details of the Austrian example, see “Mr. Ponzi and His ‘Ponzied Finance,’ ” Literary Digest, August 21, 1920, p. 47.
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Ponzi was deep in the hole: Ponzi, pp. 68–69.
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fifteen hundred dollars in loans: “Ponzi Sent to Europe No Representative,” Boston Globe,