City of Smoke » Frauds & Conmen

Diploma Mill Redux

William Bryk — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:27:37 +0000

I have a long-time love affair with the underworld of diploma mills which, in a society overawed by credentials, is an unending source of amusement and entertaining copy.

So I was unsurprised to learn that, as recently as February 2007, the New York City Department of Investigation reported that fourteen city firefighters had used bogus diplomas, [...]

The Iconoclast

William Bryk — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:43:33 +0000

Some years ago, while researching William Cowper Brann, editor of The Iconoclast, a turn-of-the-century Waco, Texas monthly, I encountered the multi-talented New York–born George Graham Rice, one of America's most successful and unscrupulous promoter-swindlers. This resulted from a natural confusion: one of Rice's stock market tout sheets was also named The Iconoclast.

Education by Degrees

William Bryk — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:48:57 +0000

I first heard of John Bear in 1990, when a man from Michigan named Bob Adams told me about the Ethiopian ear-pickers. In 1966, Southern Methodist University gave Bob Hope an honorary doctorate after the entertainer gave it a substantial donation. Up at Michigan State University, John Bear, earning his doctorate the hard way, resented this. He founded the Millard Fillmore Institute to honor

Conman of the Century

William Bryk — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:34:07 +0000

The luxury apartment building at 1155 Park Ave. was brand new in 1915. Among its first tenants was Maude King, a boozy, scatterbrained wealthy widow from Chicago. She rented three neighboring apartments on the tenth floor for $9,000 a year. Mrs. King lived in one, her sister lived

The Unsubtle Knife

William Bryk — Wed, 28 May 2003 15:03:01 +0000

Several recent obituaries of June Carter Cash referred to her early years as part of the Carter Family, singing over XER, a border blaster, one of the extraordinarily powerful radio stations broadcasting to U.S. audiences from south of the Rio Grande. XER was founded in 1931 by Dr. John R. Brinkley, whose scalpel made, as [...]