Book

Jobb, Dean, 1958- author.

Empire of deception : the incredible story of a master swindler who seduced a city and captivated the nation / Dean Jobb.

First edition.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, [2015]

x, 336 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

"It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties ... Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people ... to invest as much as $30 million--upwards of $400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama ... When Leo's scheme finally collapsed in 1923, he vanished, and the Chicago 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"--Provided by publisher.

Koretz, Leo, 1879-1925.

Swindlers and swindling -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography.

Lawyers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography.

Capitalists and financiers -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Biography.

Fugitives from justice -- Nova Scotia -- Halifax -- Biography.

Ponzi schemes -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century.

Commercial crimes -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- 20th century.

Chicago (Ill.) -- Biography.

Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions -- 20th century.

Chicago (Ill.) -- Economic conditions -- 20th century.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Our Ponzi -- Ambitions -- The law -- The gamble -- The dupe -- The big idea -- The syndicate -- The hanging judge -- The sting -- The confidence man -- The crime fighter -- The bubble -- The flight -- The smash -- The sensation -- The double life -- The victims -- The manhunt -- The alias -- The guide -- The hideaway -- The prince of entertainers -- The crime of the century -- The pariah -- The womanizer -- The trap -- The gang war -- The prisoner -- The return -- The confession -- The reckoning -- The final swindle.

2014042711

9781616201753 (hbk.)

1616201754 (hbk.)

886493237

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