Madonna Christensen

Masquerade: the Swindler Who Conned J. Edgar Hoover Madonna Christensen

Would you loan a car to this man?Henry Ford did The dismal economic times of the 1930s fostered a spree of major and minor crimes, including an army of con men roaming the country. One young Hungarian immigrant's genius for masquerade extended to impersonating noted people in order to prey on Industrialists and celebrities. His success prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in the American Magazine, May 1937:"We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was the date of the great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel, a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants and multimillionaires, and the manager of the world's biggest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor."After the imposter's 1936 deportation, Hoover said, "We haven't heard of him again, and we don't want to. But you never can tell."Within months, the Bureau suspected that Gabor had returned, but they failed to find him. In 1942, a clever ruse by the swindler led the FBI to close the case. Hoover never learned that he, too, had been conned.