Summary
The article describes how Victorian-era con artist Annie Gordon Baillie used multiple fake identities to deceive people across the UK. In the 1880s, she falsely claimed to support the tenant farmers on the Isle of Skye, convincing 1,000 people to move to an unsuitable area in Australia. Her actions are discussed in a BBC Radio 4 series called "Lady Swindlers".
Key Facts
- Annie Gordon Baillie used over 40 fake names while committing fraud in Victorian Britain.
- She was born in 1848 in Peterhead, Scotland, and grew up in poverty.
- In the 1870s, she created a fake charity to raise funds for a school that never existed.
- Annie served nine months in prison for fraud in 1872.
- She married an opera singer and lived in New York for some time.
- In the 1880s, she posed as a wealthy writer on the Isle of Skye during the Crofters' War.
- The Crofters' War was a violent conflict over land rights between farmers and landowners.
- Using her false identity, Annie persuaded islanders to relocate to an unsuitable area in Australia.
