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Not Another True Crime Podcast

Ferdinand Ward: the Best-Hated Man in the United States

Not Another True Crime Podcast

Betches

True Crime, Society & Culture, Comedy

3.82.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sara & Danny are back with a conman from New York history, Ferdinand Ward, who earned himself a reputation worthy of the nickname "Young Napoleon of Finance" - and eventually, the "Best-Hated Man" in the country. Sara and Danny dive into his early scams and how he leveled up into a bank-collapsing Ponzi scheme that landed him in Sing Sing - but that still wasn't the end of his misdeeds. RESOURCES: https://moneyweek.com/economy/people/601293/great-frauds-in-history-the-downfall-of-ferdinand-ward-the-napoleon-of https://archives.nypl.org/mss/22284 A Disposition to Be Rich: Ferdinand Ward, the Greatest Swindler of the Gilded Age by Geoffrey Ward “Read all about Geneseo’s dirty rotten scoundrel” - Livingston County News https://www.brooklynpaper.com/family-guile-historian-discusses-his-criminal-ancestor/ Check out our latest promo codes here: https://betches.com/promos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to Not Another True Grand Podcast. I'm Sarah Levine.

0:08.6

And I'm Danny Murphy, but I feel like I want to say hi Barbie to you.

0:11.2

Thank you. Yes, I'm inspired by Barbie today. That was my outfit in Spau.

0:18.4

I feel like the universe is inspired by Barbie. That's for sure.

0:21.8

It's really taken over. Yes. Not cruel. I know. I'm like, should I buy a million hot paint things?

0:26.0

I'm like, no, like one is enough. One is enough.

0:28.2

I feel yeah, they really have brought the color. But I mean, I feel like hot pink is always hot pink, which is fun.

0:34.0

Yes. But for Halloween, everyone's going to probably be bought.

0:36.4

Yes. Yes. You're right. I did that once in college. It was a good costume because it's so easy.

0:41.2

You just like put on a hot pink thing, then you're like, that's true.

0:44.6

But now everyone's going to do it. So I'm like, I don't know about that.

0:48.9

You can be Oppenheimer. I can be Oppenheimer. I can be barbenheimer like half my face.

0:55.4

I'm sure people will be doing that somehow, like half a hat.

0:59.1

Someone who like lives in bedstying goes to Pratt isn't going to nail that.

1:02.8

Yeah. I don't think I'm not good enough at doing that. Someone who actually knows how to do makeup

1:06.8

is going to thrive there. Oh gosh. We'll have to see.

1:10.8

But I guess we can just jump right into today's topics.

1:16.1

We're I went deep into the eel archives. I've been doing that.

1:21.6

I'm the dust off. Yes, right. I was going to say let us know if you like when I do this,

1:25.1

but honestly, we're doing it regardless.

1:26.5

Because we love scams and frauds, but so many scams now are like they emailed or like a

1:34.8

and like it's kind of you know, they're kind of just like copying each other.

...

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