Hoodwinked: The Extraordinary Life and Times of American Con Artist Peter Grimes

Cathy Koning
Works of: Non-fiction
Publisher(s): Sliver Moon Press

Peter Grimes – charismatic con man, or misguided, thrill-seeking adventurer?

The incredible exploits of American Peter Grimes, the most audacious con artist of the twentieth century, reads like a wildly far-fetched Jazz Age novel, but it is all true. Given life’s gifts in abundance, he used those gifts in all the wrong ways. Grimes grew up in the Pennsylvanian coal mining town of Scranton. However, ordinary life was never going to be an option. He had surrendered to an irresistible urge, a microbe he called the Wanderlust. Grimes certainly kept the authorities busy as he plied his trade across the globe. But would the piper eventually have to be paid?

Hoodwinked is the first biography to meet the challenge of untangling Peter Grimes’ life story. What really compelled him to carry out his breathtaking scams? What part did family background and opportunity play? And why do victims fall for swindlers such as Grimes?

Cathy Koning’s curiosity was initially piqued by the discovery of two love letters written by Grimes from Borneo. She was astounded to discover deception, and creativity, on a grand scale. Peter Grimes was the ultimate chameleon who took his cue for his next adventure from current events, new technologies, and even other con artists, with prison no deterrent whatsoever.

Grimes connected with everyone from dare-devil aviators Phil Parmelee and Cliff Turpin, boxer and film actor Frank Moran, shady players in President Harding’s administration, Hearst journalist Basil Woon, British aristocrat Baronet Hartwell, Buster Keaton, Tigran Sarkies, the owner of Singapore’s Raffles Hotel, to the notorious religious cult leader William Riker, and Canadian shipping magnate Robert Dollar.

Grimes also drugged and substituted a Norwegian sailor for himself in Japan in order to escape a second prison term in San Quentin. A top-level US government cover-up followed, kept hidden until now, as was Grimes’ highly secretive, and highly profitable, bootlegging venture with racketeers Waxey Gordon and Frank Costello during Prohibition.

Lavishly illustrated, Hoodwinked is riveting reading for anyone searching for thought-provoking true crime and narrative non-fiction books.