Netley Lucas ( - 1940) was an English

confidence trickster A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

and writer. Lucas was an orphan, whose mother had died shortly after his birth and whose alcoholic father had abandoned him. His family was wealthy, and his grandparents had paid for him to attend a

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. When they died, he was left alone in the world. In 1917, at the age of 14, he was working as a

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man on the passenger liner ''Kenilworth Castle'', which sailed between London and Cape Town. While on board, he read a newspaper account of someone who had adopted a false identity. On returning to England, he adopted the

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of Gerald Chilcott, a South African

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whom he had met on board ''Kenilworth Castle'' while being invalided home. He bought the appropriate uniform, and presented himself at the King George and Queen Mary's Club, London, an institution dedicated to helping impoverished servicemen. He claimed to have fought in the

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(1916), and to have lost his possessions there. He was lionised by society, and opened credit accounts with restaurants, tailors and car hire companies. He was arrested for obtaining money by false pretences and (because he was a juvenile) sent to a reformatory. He soon escaped, and began again to pose as a gentleman. At the age of 17, he had a chauffeur-driven

Daimler Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...

car from

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, and was socialising with both duchesses and

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s. Between 1917 and 1924, Lucas was taken to court five times. After 1924, the self-called "aristocrat of crooks" claimed to have become a reformed character, and turned to writing. He boasted, "journalism is the only honest profession for which a criminal life is a good training". After writing for newspapers, he wrote six books in three years, beginning with ''The Autobiography of a Crook'', which became a bestseller. In the summer of 1927, he was exposed for fabricating stories. His "autobiography" later turned out to have been

ghost written A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

by an author who had been paid to write a selective account. Lucas now became associated with "Evelyn Graham", author of fraudulent biographies of members of the British and other royal families, and the newly-established publisher and literary agent "Albert E. Marriott". Marriott was a pseudonym of Lucas. Journalists uncovered eight names associated with Lucas, and he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced for attempting to sell a bogus manuscript. After release from prison, he wrote the aptly-titled ''My Selves'' (1934). Lucas died in 1940, reportedly as a result of alcoholic excess.

Selected publications

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Selected publications

References

Further reading