Con Artists Memoir

Behind a façade of luxury and respectability, David Barton, owner of the Barton Park Nursing Home in Southport, swindled millions of pounds from the infirm, amassing himself a fortune. Along the way, he was assisted by corrupt professionals: solicitors, bookkeepers, and senior care home workers who became part of his fraudulent operations - co-conspirators who held positions of authority in the community, and in whom the elderly placed their trust.

Bunk traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon, examining what motivates hucksters and makes the rest of us so gullible. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice Heth, a black woman whom he pretended was the 161-year-old nursemaid to George Washington.

By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew older, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family—the only people she had in the world—began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere.

The best-known educator of the 20th century was a scammer in cashmere. "The most famous reading teacher in the world," as television hosts introduced her, Evelyn Wood had little classroom experience, no degrees in reading instruction, and a background that included a collaboration with the Third Reich. Nevertheless, a nation spooked by Sputnik and panicked by paperwork eagerly embraced her promises of a speed-reading revolution.

Aquel día parecía ser como cualquier otro para un niño de 12 años. Pues sucede que ese día había reservada, una experiencia nueva para mí.