CONvicted!!!!

Recently I was reading an article in TOI on the wackiest con jobs ever in history. It came up with an interesting itinerary. Strange stories from Hitler's diaries to Bonsai Kittens were added in the list. The duping factor was perfectly highlighted in all of them.

The anecdote on 'Hitler's Diaries' was a stand out in the history of foolproof cheating. The dodger Konrad Kajau had actually concocted a tale of finding Adolf Hitler's 62 diaries in the crucial period of 1932-1945. Kajau traded the diaries with a deal of 9.9 million with the German magazine Der Stern taking up the rights in 1983. Eventhough experts pointed out that Hitler did not favour writing journals and notes, 'Der Stern' actually believed Kajau's crap that these diaries were found in the debris of a plane carrying Hitler's stuff. But finally the hoax was busted. These diaries were a rookie attempt of Kajau at forgery. He was an affliated handwriting imitator. He atrociously copied content from an author Max D' Hitler's Speeches and Proclamations' and scooped it up with the use of whitener and VOILA!!! he swindles a million deal.

The 'BONSAI KITTENS' is stranger than fiction itself. An amateur student at the Boston based Massachusetts Institute of Technology had displayed the images of kittens in a web site who were sandwiched in glass containers so that it can shape itself to the size of the tiny containers. Similarly like the Japanese art of Bonsai, where miniature trees are grown. I am just wondering how can these sadistic ideas can come to one's mind!!!

Another classic piece is of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle getting seduced by snaps of supernatural beings, fairies. Cousin Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright used their shutterbug skills to hoodwink folks in 1917-20. These female fakers showed photographic proof of their games with fairies. The spell was broken in 1978 when a researcher found out that the fairies in the snaps had an uncanny resemblance to the figures in 'Princess Mary's Gift Book', a children edition published in 1915. This 'OOPS' con was revealed in 1981 when the cousin confessed these fairies were paper cutouts fastened with hairpins. Doyle must be turning in his grave now!!!

I just wonder from where do they get this inspiration and ideas. Is it movies like 'Bunty and Babli', 'Dhoom 2', 'Bluffmaster', 'Hera Pheri' or DiCaprio's interpretation of 'Frank Abanagle' in 'Catch me if you can' that their inspiration lie. What is it their talent, artistry or stupidity of people? These people are ace and suave in their fiedls. If caught, its their bad luck, if not its the victim's bad luck.