This book was a well-researched look at a con man who managed to keep a long con going for most of his life – fooling greedy people who hoped to make a profit on an imaginary stash of gold that was supposedly spirited out of Ghana. The story was incredibly complex – layers and layers of lies and all of it exacerbated by the formidable power of greed.
I can’t imagine how much work went into the research for this book – from the 1950’s to the 2000’s. There are a lot of reasons why many people wouldn’t want this stuff coming out, and even if only half of the stories in this non-fiction book are true, it is still a pretty incredible tale.
In this book we also learn about this particular scam and others that prey on people’s greed. I had no idea they had been around so long (since Sir Francis Drake’s time) and that there were so effective. People stayed in the scam long after they should have known better. After being promised a hundred-fold return in a few months they were still throwing money in ten years later with no return in sight.
This was an educational book for me. There is some insight into other cultish leaders that are selling lies these days, especially when we wonder how people could ever fall for this stuff. Plenty of people did – and have been falling for it for hundreds of years.
It was particularly interesting to go back and watch some of the YouTube clips of 60 minutes and other news stories about this scam. Just watching the raw greed on everyone’s face was pretty eye-opening.
Next I am reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
