The incredible true story of Lord Gordon Gordon, the nineteenth century's most audacious fraudster

Throughout the nineteenth century, a legendary con artist made headlines for perpetrating a series of brazen scams across Europe, the United States, and Canada. He adopted the grand title of "Lord Gordon Gordon." In reality, he was a self-assured and slippery fraudster straight from the pages of a novel by Herman Melville or Mark Twain.

In The Lord of the Lies, Shawn Francis Peters traces Gordon across continents as he swindled shopkeepers, bankers, attorneys, and railroad executives alike. Gordon even managed to fool the legendary robber-baron Jay Gould into handing over cash and securities by convincing the canny financier that he was a major stockholder in the Erie Railroad. These audacious efforts earned him a reputation as the “prince of lies” and “king of charlatans,” a man whose real life was as interesting as the fantastical lies he told.

No previous account has pieced together the entirety of Gordon’s complicated story, from his shadowy origins in England through his much-debated death in Canada. Providing the first comprehensive portrait of one of the greatest rogues of the Gilded Age, The Lord of the Lies offers a gripping narrative account of this renowned con man’s life.