Arthur Ferguson (born Arthur Furguson, 1883-1938) is a Scottish con man who allegedly [by whom? ] , became known for the "sales" of national monuments and other objects of national heritage in the 1920s.
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Biography
It is alleged that in the 1920s Ferguson sold a number of famous monuments. In particular, they talked about the Nelson 's Column on Trafalgar Square (in the amount of £ 6,000), the Big Ben Tower (with a down payment of £ 1,000) and Buckingham Palace (for £ 2,000 down payment). In all cases, gullible American tourists acted as buyers.
In 1925, Ferguson emigrated to the United States . There he continued his scam. In particular, he "sold" the White House to a wealthy rancher in installments. Annual payments should have been in the amount of $ 100,000. Ferguson then tried to sell the Statue of Liberty to a wealthy tourist from Australia . But he suspected something was wrong and turned to the police. Ferguson was arrested and imprisoned. He was released in 1930 and moved to Los Angeles . Here the fraudster, until his death in 1938, continued to deceive the gullible inhabitants.
Criticism
According to Dein Love, who described Ferguson in his book, The Man Who Sold the Nelson's Column, the existence of the fraudster himself could be a hoax. Perhaps this is the invention of journalists. Love tried to track down evidence that would confirm the scam stories. But no documents were found about Ferguson’s arrest, his trial or his imprisonment. There is also no trace of his grave in Los Angeles. [1] Moreover, the main materials about fraud appeared in the 1960s [2] .
Notes
- ↑ Florent Favard. Battlestar Galactica: A Closed-System Fictional World // TV / Series. - 2017-03-01. - Vol. 11 . - ISSN 2266-0909 . - DOI : 10.4000 / tvseries.1993 .
- ↑ Larsen, Egon. (1966). The Deceivers: Lives of the Great Impostors . John Baker Publishers Ltd. pp. 171-208