Double Your Money – Part Forty Four
Lord Gordon-Gordon (c1840 – 1874)
There is nothing like a British Lord to impress the Americans and Lord Gordon-Gordon, who claimed to be a descendant of an ancient line of Scottish kings, was nothing like a British Lord. It is likely that he was the result of an illicit liaison between a clergyman from somewhere in the North and his maid. Little is known about his early life but one thing that is certain is that he was a plausible con man.
He first surfaced in London around 1869, posing as a wealthy Scottish landowner called Lord Glencairn. Introduced to London society by a Scottish clergyman by the name of Simpson, Glencairn secured credit from jewellers and tapped up some individuals whose trust he had gained for loans. By the time he judged that it was prudent to move on, Glencairn did what all accomplished fraudsters do and scarpered, leaving behind substantial debts and swindling jewellers, Marshall and Son of £25,000.
Surfacing in Minneapolis in 1871, he assumed the identity of Lord Gordon-Gordon and deposited $40,000 in a bank to establish his credentials, presumably the residue of his London caper. Introduced to Colonel Loomis, the Land Commissioner of the North West Pacific Railways which was seeking capital to fund its further expansion westwards, Gordon explained he was interested in buying up huge tracts of railroad land in Minnesota upon which to settle tenants displaced from his Scottish estates.
Seeing dollar signs in their eyes, Loomis and his fellow directors spared no expense in wooing Gordon, funding an all-expenses paid tour across the railroad lands, first-class of course, along with daily expenses and the use of a valet and secretary. Having cost the company $45,000, Gordon announced that he needed to East to arrange the transfer of funds. Naturally, his gullible hosts provided him with letters of introduction to the great and good of New York.
In New York Gordon set about planning an even more audacious scam, again involving railway companies. Introduced to the editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley, he learnt that the management of the Erie Railroad Company were involved in a bitter battle for control of the company. Gordon told Greeley that he represented a consortium of foreign investors who had secretly bought 60,000 shares in the company and were planning to replace the Board.
Greeley hot footed it round to Jay Gould who had his own plans for the company with the news of a rival bid. On March 2, 1872 Gould paid Gordon a visit and proposed a deal whereby Gordon and his partners could choose directors but Gould was left in control of the company. Feigning reluctance, Gordon demanded $500,000 in cash and securities as a sign of good faith, promising not to spend a cent of it until the deal was done.
Gould agreed, paying over $160,000 in cash and the rest in stock. Surprisingly, Gordon did not run off with his ill-gotten gains but, less surprisingly, began to sell some of the shares. Gould got wind of what Gordon was up to and ordered brokers not to accept the trades. He then told Gordon the deal was off and demanded the money back. Gordon returned all the money but there was a deficit of around $150,000 in shares. Gould had Gordon arrested on April 9, 1872 for receiving money on false pretences.
At the trial Gordon feigned complete indifference, playing on his noble birth and giving the names of a number of the English nobility who would vouch for him. Unfortunately for Gordon, Gould sent telegrams to his referees, all of whom denied knowing Gordon. Out on bail and seeing a stretch inside looming, Gordon skipped over the border to Canada.
Tracked down to Fort Garry in Manitoba in the summer of 1873, Gordon was kidnapped by a posse from Minnesota eager to secure Gould’s $25,000 bounty, bundled into a wagon and was almost returned to American justice. But the Canadian police stopped them at the border and threw the kidnappers themselves into jail. This kicked off a serious diplomatic incident between the US and Canada, only resolved by interventions at the highest level.
Gordon was still at liberty but Gould’s reward still stood. Another gang, this time accompanied by police from Toronto, tracked him down to a cottage in the Manitoba village of Headingly. On August 1, 1874 Gordon was arrested.
But even then he was able to evade justice. According to the testimony of a Toronto policeman, Alexander Munro, Gordon asked for time to get dressed, made a rush for the bedroom and produced a revolver. In the ensuing scuffle the gun went off and Munro “saw blood coming out of his left ear; that was the first I noticed; afterward saw the wound in his right temple; I believe he was dying fast and was dead immediately”.
And that was the end of Lord Gordon-Gordon. But who he really was, no one knows to this day.
If you enjoyed this, check out Fifty Scams and Hoaxes by Martin Fone
https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/business/fifty-scams-and-hoaxes/
