Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Jobb, Dean

Published by Harper Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2015

About this Item

As new condition black boards with gold spine lettering contained in an as new condition non price-clipped photographic dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; The Players; Epilogue; Acknowledgments; A Note on Sources; Notes; and Index. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs and a black-and-white photographic frontispiece. ". Empire of Deception combines investigative journalism and spellbinding storytelling to examine one of the greatest con men of the twentieth century. It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. As Model Ts rumbled down Michigan Avenue, gang war shootings announced Al Capone's rise to underworld domination. Bedecked party-goers thronged to the Drake Hotel's opulent banquet rooms, corrupt politicians held court in thriving speakeasies, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people (who should have known better) to invest as much as $30 million - upwards of $400 million today - in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. It was an ingenious deceit, one that out-ponzied Charles Ponzi himself, who only a few years earlier had been arrested for a pyramid scheme, Leo had a good run -- his was perhaps the longest fraud in history - and when his enterprise finally collapsed in 1923, he vanished. The Cook County state's attorney, a man whose lust for power equaled Leo's own lust for money, began an international manhunt that lasted almost a year. When finally apprehended, Leo was living a life of luxury in Nova Scotia under the assumed identity of a book dealer and literary critic. A salacious court hearing followed, and his mysterious death in a Chicago prison rivaled the rest of his almost too-bizarre-to-believe life. Destined to become an instant historical true crime classic, Empire of Deception is timeless and riveting." - from the inner front jacket flap. "An absolutely rollicking tale that is one part The Sting, one part The Great Gatsby, and one part The Devil in the White City. Impressively researched and brilliantly told, Empire of Deception vividly recreates the unscrupulous side of 1920s Chicago." - Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author. "Highly readable. Will convince any sensible reader that when it comes to investing in crackpot schemes, nobody ever learns anything by experience. Leo Koretz did exactly what Bernie Madoff did, and came to the same end, as did his investors. A dramatic read, and a useful lesson!" - Michael Korda, author. "Dean Jobb has found a fascinating yet little-known jazz-age tale and told it with style and smarts. Get in on the action." - Jonathan Eig, New York Times bestselling author. "Dean Jobb's exploration of financial shaman Leo Koretz's shameless scheming is a great read, but it's also so much more than that. A brilliantly researched tale of greed, ambition, and our desperate need to believe in magic." - Douglas Perry, author. Except to those being swindled, swindlers make wonderful, swaggering copy, and Dean Jobb has made splendid use of the material in this juicy retelling. What a great caper movie this would make!" - Marq de Villiers, author.

Seller Inventory # 005984

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]
• Publisher: Harper Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Publication Date: 2015
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New