Stephen Weinberg: The Man With So Many Aliases We Couldn't Count Them All

When his parents could not afford the tuition for that career path, he began his path to becoming instead one of the greatest pretenders, and as far as we can tell, he never used his given name again. That might be something of an exaggeration, but let's be clear, only a slight exaggeration. Instead of fulfilling his dream of becoming a doctor, although he'd actually get around him pretending to be one. Eventually, Weinberg, about the time he was twenty, was stuck working a

series of dead end jobs. It's also when he often referred to as a quote talented and highly intelligent individual, began to imagine and live other lives. In those lives, he went by many different names, although he never impersonated a real person, these were all fictitious identities that he created. This is by far not a complete list that we're giving you, but it's a really good one in terms of getting a sense of his scope. He posed as Ethan Allen Weinberg. He pretended to be Royal st Cyr.

He used the names Sterling see Wyman and Rodney s Wyman. He used the aliases s Clifford Weinberg and see Sterling Weinberg. He also used the names Alan, Stanley Weyman and Stanley Clifford Wayman. His go to name eventually became stan Lee Clifford Wayman, and once he reached middle age, he just started using that as though it were his actual name, and he used that permanently from that point on, and

the way he used aliases. And you might get a sense of it because this seems a little MIXI matchy in terms of which names he used in which position. It wasn't so much as an effort to hide something about himself or something he did. It seems almost more like he viewed his monikers as like picking out what suit he was going to wear on any given day. In addition to his amazing number of names, there are an amazing number of stories about Stephen Weinberg. Some are

not so true and some are absolute lies. We're going to talk about his big moments so over his lifetime. In addition to pretending to be many people, he pretended to be many things. And that list is also very long, and certainly we're not going to give you the complete one. He pretended to be a lawyer, also an aviator as well as a sanitation expert. He posed as several different

physicians and to psychiatrists. He impersonated a number of officers in the United States Navy, ranging in rank from lieutenant to admiral. He also impersonated five or six different United States Army officers, the State Department, Naval liaison officer, many consuls general, and a United Nations expert on Balcan and

Asian affairs. And again, when we say impersonated, he's not taking someone else's identity, he's just making them up whole cloth, impersonating the title, and people would just assume, sure, that's the title, Yes, that of course I know who the UN expert on Balcan and Asian affairs. It was often observed that Weinberg was fond of purchasing clothing, and most especially uniforms, even if they were somehow flawed, he wanted and saved them. When he was growing up, neighbors said

he would often wear costumes. He was a bit of a pack rat, and he had a fully stopped closet that allowed him to pull off nearly any dapper look and any look that was appropriate for that occasion. Listen this whole pack rack closet thing. I'm feeling a little attacked. But in addition to having a selection of uniforms to wear on his escapades, Winberg was really quite a snappy or at least interesting dresser. There's one picture that Maria pulled up. He's actually in a uniform, but he knows

how to wear a suit like. He's very dashing. He would scandalously pair striped trousers with a morning coach. He was known to occasionally wear a white tie with dinner clothes or a black tie with tails, the very idea, and it was not unusual for him. And this is where he loses me a little. To wear tan shoes. That's my favorite part of him. I'm like, what's the Here's one thing that we should point out in the

midst of all of this. When he was masquerading as various different people, he never changed his physical appearance, only his attire. He had his air of distinction about him. His physical appearance had been described as a tall, trimmed man with bright brown eyes, a thin mustache, an aquilin knows, and a solemn mount not to overlook this one. And they also said he had a shapely head. I don't know what shape. Get a look at that skull, I know.

When he was twenty one, he pulled his first real scam, using the name Stephen Weinberg. He pretended to be the United States Console delegate to a place called portub which is a totally fake place that he alleged was near Morocco. For this spectacular or a purple uniform, and he ended up dining with the political elite in some of the finest restaurants in New York. But ultimately he brought a little too much attention to himself when he started racking

up some pretty sizeable and outstanding hills. But it wasn't those paid bills or the impersonation that caught up with him, although they did not help the situation. When things came to light, he actually was added by the press. They printed a photo that had him in it, and Winberg was arrested for fraud and sentenced time in the Elmira Reformatory. But while he was in prison, he concocted a new plan, and once he was paroled in nineteen fifteen that puts

him at age. Weinberg kicked off his newfound freedom by inspecting the U. S. S. Wyoming. That was obviously not because anyone asked him to or paid him to do it. He didn't have any real right to do it, but he sure did want to. His new plan was to turn himself into a lieutenant commander in the Romanian Army and the Romanian Consul General of New York, and in these new roles as was in his right. If those roles were real, he actually did managed to inspect a battleship.

He's amazing. Uh. So we're going to take a quick break or award from our sponsor and coming up, Weinberg turned himself into a lieutenant commander. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's get to the story of when Weinberg inspected the USS Wyoming. The only thing that stood between Weinberg and getting on a battleship was basically just a phone call. So for this scam, he introduced himself with the alias Ethan Allen Weinberg, which personally I thought was fantastic. I'm

from New England. His alias was Ethan Allen Weinberg, and he was the Romanian consul general of New York. He stated to the US Department of the Navy who he connected with his unclear, but his business was that the Queen Maria Romania herself had instructed him to informally pay respect to the U. S. Navy. So Ethan Allen Winberg was cleared to board. I don't believe what people get

away with sometimes. On the day of the inspection, Lieutenant Commander Weinberg boarded the USS Wyoming wearing a quote stunning light blue uniform dripping with gold braid and wearing an admiral's hat. That's according to the Montreal Gazette. They gave him a twenty one gun salute when he got to New York Harbor, where the Wyoming was anchored. You know,

he loved that. Every second he conducted an inspection, reportedly on behalf of the Queen of Romania, during which he insisted the ship's sailor's lineup information, and then, in a truly brazen move, he reprimanded any individual sailor that he thought had any real or imagined flaws in their dress or their military bearing. It was also reported that he

very much enjoyed saluting and returning salutes. Following this inspection, the Fox Lieutenant commander through a banquet for the officers of the U s s to Wyoming, because why not. It was held at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan, and

it was expensive. No worries though, right because the bill, of course, would be taken care of by the Romanian consulate in Washington, d C. Except it would not be because no one in either the US or Romania knew anyone named Lieutenant Commander Ethan Allen Weinberg, and the bill was really the least of his concern. Though tipped off

about his whereabouts, two FBI agents crashed that party. They arrested him immediately, and on the way out he was overheard complaining that the agents should have at least waited until after dessert. Clearly he took this whole thing very seriously. He was sentenced as a consequence to one year in prison for the U. S. S. Wyoming stunt. One of the officers later stated that Weinberg pulled off quote quite

an inspection. In an additional account, the captain of the U. S. S. Wyoming said to a report her quote, all I can say is the little guy put on one hell of a tour of inspection. His punishments didn't actually deter him from indulging his love of impersonation. In one as State Department Naval Liaison officer Rodney Sterling Winman, Weinberg pulled off one of his most impressive capers. It took him about a month of preparation to pull this one off, and

it was one of his most high profile scams. Princess Fatima, who The New York Times described as quote the Sultana of Afghanistan, was visiting New York City and during her time in the United States, she wanted to meet President Moren G. Harding, but for political reasons, President Harding never actually replied to her requests. Afghanistan had just become an

independent country. British counterparts to the US, though, had requested that the us not meet with any Afghan representatives, stating and we quote, we consider Afghanistan, though ostensive the independent, as still within our sphere of political influence, and are anxious to discourage any proceedings which imply that we are not concerned in the foreign relations of that country. Basically, don't cut us out of your of the picture. We still want to be all up in that business except

the mouth all the time. Right. However, State Department Naval Liaison Officer Rodney Sterling Wyman, fictitious did reply to her request, and Wyman did arrange an introduction between the President and the princess. On July, the princess and her son's visited the White House and met the President and the First Lady. They took photos of this whole group, including President Harding and his wife Florence, on the White House lawn. Wyman's uniform for this occasion was not at all at regulation,

and that stood out in these pictures. The New Yorker reported the uniform was actually that of an officer in the United States Junior Naval Reserves, a non governmental organization that was considered a I'm gonna quote this kind of seagoing boy scout affair. No one at the introduction seemed to know that, though Washington Post account of the meeting between the President and the princess described the scene on the lawn as gaudy and included details about Fatima's clothing.

Her skirt was narrow and ankle length, and one of the most reported things about her appearance was the large sapphire nose ring that she apparently wore in her left nostril. They also reported on the gifts that she brought for her meeting with the President, including kashmere shawls, veils, rugs, table cloths, and turbans. Those rugs are hard ship like.

I'm surprised that's on the last. It was the Washington Evening Star that published a photograph of Princess Fatimah, her three sons, the President the firstly, and Rodney Sterling Wman, the State Department naval liaison officer. After a brief investigation, Wyman was arrested. The photos were his downfall, this time, when they went public, it tipped off the State Department

that he did not work for them. When addressing the court during his trial, he stated, quote, I do not wish to discuss the insanity theory on which you seem to have made up your mind. In none of my acts has there ever been intentional turpitude. All were committed in a phase or cycle or period of recurrent manic

depression to which the doctors found I was subject. He was convicted for faking a naval officer, and Judge Chackfield stated that although the maximum sentence for the offense was three years in the penitentiary and a fine of one thousand dollars, he was sentencing him to serve two years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Wyman was also fined, but just one dollar. The judge also remarked that he believed woman had fooled the mental health examiners into thinking he

was saying. Princess Fatima told the newspapers that she intended, after meeting the president in Washington to go on to England next and to send her sons to Eton and Oxford. She disappears into obscurity sometime after. You know how some people get their best ideas in the shower. So Weinberg it seems to be that he got his best ideas while incarcerated. So after another release, Weinberg popped up as

the personal physician to Silent screen star Poland Agri. Polo was friends with actor Rudolf Valentino, and when Valentino died in Weinberg, as Stanley Clifford Wayman, was on the scene. Valentino's manager actually exposed him as a fraud. But when the actress found out her physician was not a real m d she replied, and I love this, even if it's foolish quote. I don't care. He's the best doctor

I've ever had. She refused to press charges, and in fact informed of the American Medical Association more than once that Wyman was the best doctor she had ever had or ever expected to have. There's always a catch, though, so when Paula tried to pay him for his services, he declined the payment. That made it difficult for the

District Attorney's office to make a case against him. There was no way to prove anything the way that this had rolled out, and this would have technically made his actions outside of fraud from a legal perspective, because Winberg wasn't really benefiting from the charade in any measurable way. And this was not the only time that Weinberg faked

being a doctor, posing as doctor Clifford Wyman. He was for a time and assistant to the famous Viennese surgeon at Alf Laurence, who was known as the Bloodless Surgeon of Vienna because his techniques were known as bloodless surgery. Let's take a break now from bloodless surgery and have a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, we'll talk about the time when Weinberg held an actual, real job. Welcome back to Criminalia. All right, let's talk about professor Weyman.

We're moving along to World War Two now, specifically the Selective Training and Service Act, which was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in September. It required all men between the ages of twenty one and forty five to register for the draft. That's actually before the US entered the war. And here Weinberg made a slight career change, I guess you could call it. He opened a school for draft dodgers where he taught men how to avoid serving,

and that was, of course shut down. The FBI reported that Weinberg, as Professor Stanley Weyman, counseled the men on ways of getting out of service, including how to act as though they were deaf or as though they had a mental illness. He taught these courses, and we're going to quote their names. Please know this is not the kind of language one should be using or would use today. But his courses were things like how to act like

a mental incompetent and how to simulate hearing disorders. As an added bonus to that class, if you couldn't just fake it, Wyman offered to puncture your ear drums so that you would become hearing impaired. Yes, that was literally something he offered people. He was arrested in nine when his school was discovered and when the ear drum part was also discovered, Weinberg was again incarcerated, and during his sentencing he told the judge, and will quote this, the

pattern of my life is not symmetrical. He was convicted and given five to seven years in the Advanta Penitentiary, and that is the longest sentence he ever received while incarcerated. Remember this is when he gets very busy. Weinberg studied law and he actually passed the Georgia bar. When he was released, he actually got a real job. He was hired as an accredited correspondent attached to a legitimate news agency.

He worked that job for about two years around Also at this same time, he hosted a radio broadcast series on a local FM station, and it featured interviews with diplomats. Many people who worked with him later said that he had a noticeable talent as a journalist, but he lost his un accredited asian in one when his identity was exposed allegedly by a rival news agency. He said, quote, my probation officer has told me that I mustn't talk to any newspapers or magazines. This is a blow to

my civil liberties. Winberg was arrested again in a Brooklyn apartment, where they found him hiding in his closet behind thirty five expensive suits. He pleaded guilty to making false statements to cheat the Franklin National Bank of Franklin Square out of a five thousand dollar f h A loan for repairs on a house that he did not own. He was also indicted for defrauding the Nassau County National Bank of Rockville Center of two thousand, one hundred dollars. At

this point, he was in his sixties. These particular crimes Aboard convened before the trial began to determine if Weinberg was mentally fit to face the jury, as well as whether or not there was any role that mental health issues may have played in his actions. Weinberg was sentenced in May of nineteen fifty four before Judge Leo Raphael

in Brooklyn Federal Court, and he was convicted. He was sentenced to eighteen months in jail, and his lawyer reportedly said that he had seen his client recently and quote, he was a very hard worker. When I saw him, he looked really well. As we know, this is not the first time that Weinberg did time, and over of

years his criminal record grew. He pleaded guilty too or was convicted of the following grand larceny once, forgery, once, impersonating an attorney, once impersonating a naval officer twice, disorderly conduct once, running a school for draft dodgers, just the ones that's the hand embezzlement once. Can you imagine if it was like running a school for draft rodgers a dozen times or sometimes though he just wasn't arrested. So there's no real full list of everything that he has done.

But if you remember how he posed as silent screen actress Poland and Agree's personal physician back in nineteen He also once spoke to an audience of psychiatrists, physicians, surgeons, you name it. It was just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and he used the alias Dr Alan Stanley Weyman. His topic was the reformation of psychiatric services in American penitentiaries. He received you, It was reported vigorous applause for his speech, and many in attendance didn't learn Dr Weyman was a

fraud until many years later. He wasn't arrested for this event, he wasn't convicted, and he wasn't sentenced. Actually nothing came of it. Trying to think of the charge of making a speech under false prasion at a conference, so it's

a whole weird thing. It is reported that he did spend time in state and federal penitentiaries on thirteen occasions after he turned twenty one, and on six of those thirteen occasions he was back behind bars just for parole violation, usually because he had missed a visit with his parole officer.

For the most part, though he played all or most of his roles perfectly, Weinberg actually always seemed to have deftly avoided situations that could have exposed him as a faith For instance, as an army officer, he never made the mistake of mingling with the troops as a fake aviator. The street crowds of New York cheered him for his feats that he'd never actually performed. He'd never even flown

a plane. He always fit in the moment and was most frequently exposed as a fraud by newspaper reporters, photographers, or officers of the law, people who could recognize his face. Weinberg always claimed that he did what he did just for the thrill of living as another person, as wayman and other aliases. He impersonated all of those people we've mentioned, military officials, political figures, and doctors just because he wanted

to and he enjoyed it. He once told a judge that we quote one man's life is a boring thing. I live many lives. I'm never bored. In nineteen fifty three, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called Weinberg Brooklyn's Mr Chameleon, America's Baron Munchhausen, and the world's champion impostor. Weinberg was killed shortly after in May of nineteen fifty four at about one am, two robbers held up that Wittie Motel in Yonkers,

New York, where Winberg was the night manager. They got away with two hundred dollars, but left five hundred dollars in Winberg's pocket. Shot twice in the abdomen and once in the back of the head, Winberg died from his injuries, ending what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called and will quote them again, the truly incredible career of one of the most notorious humbugs this country has ever produced. And the detective that was in charge of this case reportedly remarked, quote,

I've known about his record for years. He did a lot of things in the course of his life, but what he did this time was brave. So what kind of a mock tail can you make to relate to Stephen Weinberg and his life? Holly, So, of course I had to make a choose your own adventure mocktail for this one. And it is called many Lives because there's one element that you get to pick it you use and it will change the profile of the mocktail or cocktail if you do it that way. It's also of

a variation on a non alcoholic lemon drop. But the thing that I like to add to it that makes it a little different is you're gonna start with six to ten basil leaves and you'll muddle those up a bit, along with the juice of about three lemons, then an ounce of simple or vanilla syrup, and then three quarters of an ounce of any other syrup, which will, of

course change at all depending on what you do. I did a violet syrup and it was lovely, and you're gonna shake a shake of shake it and then strain it over ice. Or if you really want to go for the idea of a mock lemon drop, you can put it into a chilled martini glass with a sugar rim and then just a little club soda on top. It's so yummy and refreshing and delightful. If you want to make it as a cocktail, you can bring it more into lemon drop territory by just adding an ounce

of vodka and a half ounce of triple sec. If you're gonna do it that way, think about those things that are coming in to make additional citrus before you pick your other syrup that gives you the many lives. I also did one of these with that hob Niro lime syrup that I just used on occasion that was quite fun and made it definitely a little bitier. In its mocktail form. You can do anything there. A little raspberry.

If you want to get more dessert e you can do I'm trying to think of yummy syrups I have on it. Grenadine would just make this an interesting, pinkish, lovely citrus thing. But it's a very very yummy mocktail. Great for sipping if you wanna a work day drink that feels like you're maybe being a little naughty, but you're not actually, because it's just a mocktail. It's fine. It's a lovely sipper. It's just fine, just fine. And then at fo move to the cocktail hour. If you

want judging, you're suggesting, just saying they are options. This is a good one if you want that sensation of having a very grown up drink during the day that is completely harmless and delicious and full of fresh lemon juice. So what that's good? Like antioxidants right exactly? That that draws me to the drink right there, I'm like, all right, yes, I have orange blossom syrup, now that would be perfect in this okay, I mean I need to figure out

what to do with it. It sounds like it when I could tell you what I would do with it right now, I don't even have to think very hard on this one. Here is what I would do with orange blossom syrup. The most basic, easy way to incorporate it. I would do a vodka collins with it. So you're gonna do an ounce and a half of your vodka, three quarters of announce of your lemon juice, three quarters of announce of your orange blossom syrup, shaky, shaky shaky, pour it over ice, and top it with club soda,

and you're good. It'll be so bright and refreshing. That is very simple and not challenging at all. I'll have to report back when I make it. Now, you've made two DUTs today, but one special to me. That's the Maria Special. We'll call that Maria's spitball. I don't know why that's the name that came to me for spitballing or just coming up on the fly. In any case,

so proud. Whether you are doing the mocktail version of this or a more grown up, an adult version, we hope you enjoy it, and we thank you once again for spending this time with us and hopefully giggling a little bit at all of the fabulous outfits that you can imagine this man wearing. We will see you right back here next week with another impostor. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio.

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