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| GEORGE ROBERT GABOR AND JAILER |
Would you loan a car to this man?
Henry Ford did....
Some novels do not fall into a particular genre. Some books defy the mold of either fiction or nonfiction.
Truman Capote is credited with originating the nonfiction novel: In Cold Blood, his account of a
quadruple murder in rural Kansas. Combining the techniques of a journalist with his writing style as a novelist, he wove facts
into fictional scenes and dialogue.
I do not suggest that Masquerade reaches the caliber
of Capote's seminal work. But like In Cold Blood, the core of my story is true and required
blending fact with fiction. Like Capote making the acquaintance of people in Kansas, I have personal knowledge of the man
depicted in my book. Actual people, names, places, events, statements from FBI documents, and excerpts from contemporary periodicals
are used fictitiously. Fictional characters, who do not portray anyone living or dead, mingle with real people from the past,
many of them public figures. Some names are altered, others are real. After years of research and writing, I have lost track
of which characters were actual people and which stepped into the story of their own volition and conned me into giving them
voice and action. I hope the variegated threads are seamless enough so that, fact or fiction, it doesn't matter to readers.
The dismal economic times of the 1930s fostered a spree of major and minor crimes, including an army of con
men roaming the country. One young Hungarian immigrant's genius for masquerade extended to impersonating noted people
in order to prey on industrialists and celebrities. His success prompted J. Edgar Hoover to write in the American
Magazine, May, 1937:
"We sometimes refer to September 28, 1934, as Celebrity Day. That was
the date of the great roundup, when we took into custody a German baron, several sons of American ambassadors, a few popular
polo players, a member of the Wickersham Committee, a third assistant solicitor general of the United States, an Army colonel,
a government undercover man, an around-the-world flier, a motion picture magnate, a number of house guests of industrial giants
and multimillionaires, and the manager of the world's biggest doll factory. But this crowd of important men sat in
only one chair. They were all represented in the multiple personality of a single individual, George Robert Gabor."
After the imposter's 1936 deportation, Hoover said, "We haven't heard
of him again, and we don't want to. But you never can tell."
Within months, the Bureau suspected Gabor
had returned, but they failed to find him. In 1942, a clever ruse by the swindler led the FBI to close the case. Hoover never
learned that he, too, had been conned.
Royalties from Masquerade go to Down
Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia.
Order Masquerade and my other
books here: http://www.magazettes.com/authors/amazon_store.html
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| TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES, APRIL 1930 |
