Empire Of Deception : From Chicago To Nova Scotia - The Incredible
Author(s): Dean Jobb
FINALIST for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-fiction * Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Nonfiction * Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award * Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award for Non-Fiction * Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
A Globe and Mail and National Post Best Book of the Year
WINNER of the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award, Traditional Non-Fiction
In the tradition of bestselling books such as The Devil in the White City and The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, 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 partygoers 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.
Review(s):
“Like getting on the storied Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island . . . holding your breath throughout its peaks and valleys, then getting out of the car, flushed and shaken, only wanting to ride it all over again . . . [a] thrilling, too-wild-for-fiction tale.”
“An absorbing tale of astonishing duplicity.”
“Intoxicating and impressively researched, Jobb’s immorality tale provides a sobering post-Madoff reminder that those who think everything is theirs for the taking are destined to be taken.”
“A thrilling read—a journey through the evasive American dream of easy wealth and its inevitable demise.”
“Terrific . . . a fast-paced, fact-laden narrative populated by red-blooded personalities . . . a captivating account.”
“Comprehensively researched and enthralling . . . high-stakes drama of the first order . . . unmasking [a] master swindler and revealing the author as an equally masterful storyteller.”
“A laugh-out-loud page-turner, full of gullibility and twists and turns . . . a jaw-dropping, rollicking good read.”
“Empire of Deception adds Leo Koretz to Chicago’s rogues’ gallery of the 1920s . . . great research . . . a masterpiece of narrative set-up and vivid language.”
“This lively, entertaining, and depressingly relevant history of a man and his con reads like a novel and will be enjoyed by fans of popular history as well as true crime.”
“[A] rollicking story of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, and illicit sex.”
Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing, Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award, Arthur Ellis Award for Non-fiction, Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year, National Post Book of the Year, Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year Award, Traditional Non-Fiction, Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Non-Fiction), Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781443441094