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Before there was hipster grifter Kari Ferrell, there was Esther Elizabeth Reed, the Ivy League grifter. Reed faked her way into attending Harvard, Cal State and most recently Columbia University, by using a dead woman's identity. She claimed to be a chess champion (a boyfriend's father became suspicious when she didn't know what an opening gambit was) and was suspected of being a spy (she kept dating West Point cadets!). But when Reed, under the name "Brooke Henson," applied for a job as a housekeeper in Manhattan, her employer did a background check and she went on the lam (she left everything except her combs and toothbrush—things that would have her DNA). 48 Hours Mystery interviewed Reed, who said, "I planned on being Brooke Henson for the rest of my life... I'm going to create an identity. I didn’t think I could get into any trouble for that." She was eventually found a year and a half in Chicago; when the cops found her, she recalled, "It was overwhelming. There was absolute panic and I said, 'I'm Esther Reed.'" Reed, who had $100,000 in fraudulent loans and credit card debt, claims she would have paid it all back.
"Ivy League" Grifter On 48 Hours
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"I planned on being Brooke Henson for the rest of my life..."
Talk about the long con...
What the hell is with all these broads grifting? Or maybe the recession is bringing them out of the woodwork because people are paying more attention? Damn.
Probably too much competition prostituting yourself I guess. Gifting looks easier without putting out.
ha
Well, this is actually a pre-recession story... but anyway I wouldn't call what she was doing "grifting." Basically she just stole an identity in an attempt to start a new life. She had been accused of forging checks on her sister's bank account, and disappeared. While using the assumed identity she of course lied about her background, because she needed a backstory -- and apparently couldn't resist making it more interesting than necessary, but plenty of people do that anyway without "grifting."
So while in the assumed identity she took out college loans and credit cards, and now owes money on those accounts. But she hasn't been accused of stealing any of that money, it was just illegal to get the loans because she used fraudulent information to do so. As long as she continued to live that assumed identity and made the payments, none of the lenders would have lost anything. Now, of course, they probably will because any earning power her Ivy League education could have brought is gone.
I'd say she was grifting....
grift
–noun
1. (sometimes used with a plural verb) a group of methods for obtaining money falsely through the use of swindles, frauds, dishonest gambling, etc.
2. money obtained from such practices.
–verb (used without object)
3. to profit by the use of grift: a man known to have grifted for many years.
–verb (used with object)
4. to obtain (money or other profit) by grift.
white trash loser, your life is not interesting and that is why you lie about it. get a real identity and become a politician, you'll fit right in.
I hear she gives a really great handjob with her anus.
"I hear she gives a really great handjob with her anus."
nice.
CBS News "48 Hours-Mystery"
We'll hear from her again and fairly soon.