Masquerade:

Author's note:

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.

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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. http://www.dsanv.org/

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