Percival, Nessie, & Amy Bock: The Most Lovable Con Artist In New Zealand

is happening? Terrifying. Had to do some computer surgery. It was just a fan stuck, so you know, the laptop was like I I know, I can't. I can't the fans not working. I'm gonna freak out because if I run with that, I could burst into flames. So it kind of was a fire alarm. I guess. I guess I'm glad it was loud then if it was gonna burst into flames, I need to know that. Well, it seemed fingers crossed. It's working. I hope we get through this thro this what a week got jury duty? Damn.

The Emmy nominations came out true well we got a story to get to. Oh my god that this laptop crashes knock on woods. But yes, I'm very excited about this episode. This turned out to be a very fun story. Um And I want to thank Simon um at chingwetty one on Instagram, who sent us this suggestion like several months ago, so I've been waiting a while. Thanks Simon.

This was a really good one. And as I told Simon, fair warning, half the reason I was excited about this is because it takes place in Australia and New Zealand, which means we get to stun everyone with our terrible accidents from that region. And I cannot wait. Hey, mine might be pretty good. I don't know. I even tried it yet. Mine is terrible, so mine will be terrible. Elis might be it won't be good. Well, we won't

overdo it. We won't overdo it, okay. So Agnes out the Way, always called Nessie by her family, lived in this South Otago coast in New Zealand, working at her parents boarding house for travelers. She was around thirty two years old and still single when a distinguished guest came to stay. A rich, dapper forty nine year old man named Perceval Leonard Carol Redwood. He was charming and generous, and best of all, he seemed very taken with Nessy. Only a few weeks after they met, Nesty and Percy

were engaged. But some things about Percy we're not adding up, and people all over town were getting suspicious. So let's find out the deal with Percy and the surprising things he was hiding under the surface. Curious, Let's go Hey, their French, come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking, a romantic tips. It's just about pridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any type of persion at all, and abstract concept a concrete wall.

But if there's a story, were the second glanch boo ridiculous roles? A production of I Heart Radio. Percy had come from Dunnydin. He made a lot of friends there. In a nine nine article from The Evening Star, one Dunnyden resident said about Percy, quote, he was an all right check. He had plenty of money and if you wanted anything, he was the boy to buy it for you. What the funk? Where am I? By way of Dublin? That's what happens every time. Okay, hold on, hold on.

We went to the theater with him, and he would have been quite disappointed if my wife and daughter had not gone with him. My daughter once said, finish the quote. I can't do it. My daughter once said she liked dimples, and he had a box sent to us. I once said I would like a pair of cat and he said he would get one for me from his uncle in Melbourne's. Amazing, amazing, that took like a minute. What

a world traveler, this person, He's from everywhere. And then a cab driver chipped in to add and he told me he'd get me a Persian cat. So anyway, he took this generous attitude with him to nugget point, showing up dressed to the nines and thrown around money like it was going out of style. And he stayed at Albion House, the boarding house operated by Mr and Mrs George Ottaway and their daughter Nessy. Now everything about this guy Percy was legit. He was the nephew of an archbishop.

His mother was a wealthy widow who lived on a sheep farm in Hamilton's and he bought gifts and bestowed favors indiscriminately, just left and right. You'll get a favor. You'll get a favor. Here's a fancy gift for you, very nice apples. One resident said that Percy was quote the essence of all that was good in coined, and he appeared to have to do good for other people. He's if a reality in obliging nature made us all

like him. Having established himself so well in Nugget Point, it was no problem for any of the residents to do him a good turn as well. When Percy confessed that he'd lost his wallet on a fishing trip and he was all cleaned out, one lady offered him her life savings until he could have the money sent from his wealthy mom. Several other people felt compelled to give Percy loans, sometimes as much as thirty pounds, which in a modern New Zealand bucks is worth three thousand, eight

hundred four pounds today. That's a big loan now. Maybe the people of Nugget Point were also eager to help with the romance they could see was brewing between Nestie and Percy, because it wasn't long after Percy arrived at Albion House that sparks started to fly, and after only a few weeks, Percy popped the question. Now Nessie's parents, the Ottaways, knew that Nessie was going to come into some money at some point, so they need to be pretty careful about her suitors. You know, you don't want

any fortune hunters stuff and around. But all their fears were laid to rest when Mrs Ottaway got a very gratifying letter from Percy's mother, who wrote, quote, I have just had a talk over the marriage with my boys, and I'm going to town to see my lawyer. We have decided to give him three and five hundred pounds, and I will give him another one thousand pounds for the house and furniture as they wishes to live in Denedin. Yours,

very sincerely, Francis Redwood. Hey, thank you. Even better, another letter arrived from Mrs Ottaway from the Auckland Drainage Board informing her that the secretary of the board was retiring and would hire Percy to replace him for a salary of seven pounds a week. Now. That is eight hundred and eighty seven pounds a week today, good salary in US dollars. It's like sixty cents to a New Zealand dollar today, so it's that's still like, yeah, it's like

seven hundred bucks or so things. I mean, I would take it, so this couple would be financially set for life, and there's no reason to keep NeSSI away from this guy. In fact, Mrs Ottaway trusted him so much that when Percy wrote to a law firm to get a mortgage against the horses and sheep that he owned, she offered her own house as security on this loan because the lawyer had been a little suspicious of Percy, so he'd come out and Percy had to like name all his

cattle and tell him isn't identifying marks and everything? And he did all that, which is funny because I'm like, did you have a picture of them? And yeah, oh yeah, he doesn't, just like spot on his ear. Oh you've got sheep? Do you well, tell me six of their names, and he's like, uh, jamieson coil, Michael Jamison to Philip. You know, they're like oh wow, okay, well you name those pretty quickly. So I assume those sheep they must be yours to Jon's and did he have a roll

call or something. I don't know. But yeah, once the lawyer had this valuable boarding house as collateral, you know, it was all good. The mortgage went through, Percy swimming in cash again, and so the wedding date was set for April one, nine nine. Okay, so Percy shows up in town, stays at this place, and falls in love with the girl. Her parents say, we're not so sure about this guy, and he just starts producing letters. Well here,

this proves who I am. This proves who I am, and they're like, damn, okay, well let me put up my house as collateral for your loan. Then, yeah, this guy's great. He so trustworthy. I mean, he would never do anything to hurt anybody. He just seemed like such a lovely guy. So why not. It's given me music man vibes. You know, she shows up on the music Man. Yeah, exactly, pool tables. So for this wedding, Percy spared no expense either. He gave see a ring with five diamonds in it.

There were two hundred guests, that's almost as big as our wedding, including the local member of parliament who we did not get at our wedding. We invited all of Parliament and none of them came. Nestie had ten bridesmaids, and after the ceremony, everyone sat down to a lavish wedding feast, complete with limitless Rand's champagne. I know, right, we did not have that Tito's vodka like maybe Jamison, Yeah, but a lot of it. Um. Percy had bought an

extravagant cake. He had fancy suits and silver backed hair brushes for his bride. It was the social event of the year. But the residents of Nugget Point had another reason to be excited about this wedding. Remember all those loans Percy had gotten. Everyone was like, oh, yeah, young man, take my life savings until you can pay me back. Don't worry about it, you're such a nice guy. Three dollars. Well, nobody had been paid back yet, and people were kind

of starting to chatter. Whispers were growing, and Percy swore, my mother is going to be at this wedding. She'll pay everybody back. Don't worry you about it. So the guests had gotten dressed and ready for this party, expecting that they would come home with all their money. What a wedding gift. But when they arrived at the wedding several important seats were empty. What was going on? Where's Mrs Percy, where's the old rich lady? Where's the money?

Where is the Redwood family? Well, of course Percy had an answer. You see, his sister was also getting married that exact same day, Shenanigan very rude. So his family hadn't been able to come after all, and again flashing back to our wedding, we waited a whole extra year so we wouldn't be near your brother's wedding. That's right. I don't know what's wrong with the sister. But don't worry everybody. Percy told them, my mother's gonna be here

in a week. She'll have your money. Then everything's gonna be fine. So everybody's kind of a side on each other. Oh what's going on with this money? Alright? Alright, he says. A week. They don't say anything, and the wedding went forward, But Nsty's dad, George Ottaway, he stayed suspicious. He was like, this mom didn't turn up, and I don't know. So he insisted that the married couple stay in separate rooms until Percy's financial bona fides could be confirmed. Once Percy's

mom got there, and paid everybody's debts. Great, you can consummate your union, but until then, it's a cold batchless bed for you. Percy, Oh New Zealand by way of Chicago. I think he's a very no nonsense guy. Okay, Now, Percy was fine with this arrangement. He went up to bed. Uh. He shared a room with one of his groom's men, who was very surprised when Percy climbed into bed to go to sleep that night, fully dressed in his wedding suit.

But it was like, whatever, weird guy. Whatever. Lots of rooms have fallen asleep in their touch suits room, but George was far from the only suspicious one. A couple of family friends had actually like written to people they knew in Hamilton's and they were like, Hey, can you find this Redwood widow lady that we keep hearing so much about? And I know she owes me some money, so I've been interested, And nobody could find any trace

of a woman with that name. So people started to talk to the police, and as the details of Percy's behavior emerged, one detective, detective Henry Hunt, felt his ears prick up overly complicated situations involving a lot of unpaid debts and a bunch of letters. This was familiar stuff, so Detective Hunt went straight to Albion House and asked for Percy down the stairs. Percy came pipe in his mouth, full suit on, looking sharp. Detective Hunt was not fooled

for an instant. He said, quote, the game's up, Amy, Amy, Who the fuck is Amy? What is happening? Yeah, let's find out the real story of Percy Redwood right after this commercial break. Yeah, we'll come back to the show forward. I can't these ps unrelated. If anyone's a dialect coach, send your information to there's dialect coaches out there going right. I'm not taking this job. There's nothing I can do for you. The greatest challenge I've ever faced, and I

don't have the energy. You can't afford meurs. All right, well everybody, Yes, our friend Percy is actually a woman named Amy maud Bach, and she's been called one of the most celebrated and energetic confidence tricksters in New Zealand history. Oh. She was born in eighteen fifty nine in Hobart, Tasmania. Her father was a photographer and an artist named Alfred Bach, and unfortunately her mother mary Anne suffered from a serious

mental illness. In eighteen sixty seven, the family moved to Sale, Victoria, and her mother seems to become more delusional. She thought that she was Lady Macbeth. According to historian Jenny Coleman in her book Mad or Bad, The Life and Exploits of Amy Bach, Coleman thinks that Mary Ann Bach possibly had bipolar disorder. She was committed to an asylum, and

she died in eighteen seventy two. Now, as a young girl in school, Amy was She was bright, she was clever, she was popular even, and she was an accomplished horsewoman and pianist. And she was a great actor. She even played male roles on stage several times in school plays. But her love of thieving got started early. In a statement to the police, Amy told them that as a kid, she loved buying a bunch of books on credit under her dad's name and then just giving them away all

over town. When her dad found out that he was on the hook for all these books, he told her to quit it, which she said, quote only increased my desire to get things without his knowing. That made her dad afraid that she had inherited her mother's instability. Apparently also, she once passed herself off as the daughter of a wealthy family, and she ordered several coffins from a string of funeral directors, all delivered to a family who had no bodies to bury, which is one of the best

pranks I've ever heard. Incredible, And I was like, is she trying to say, like I wish you were dead? What is she saying? It's just so weird, That's what I love about it. They just imagine that people who opened the door and there's like seven coffins, They're like, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? That's hilarious. I'm just saying, that's the funniest job. I want to know more, like were they varying sizes? Were

they all the same? Like wood? Like what was did she have a one fancy one and one plane box?

And they had to fight over it. In eighteen seventy six, when she was about seventeen, Amy left her father's house to become the only teacher at a rural school in Gippsland, right outside of Melbourne, but she was frequently absent, claiming she was too sick to come in, and twice inspectors found out that she was falsely inflating her school attendance records because her salary was based on how many students she had in the classroom, so she would just like

add a few names forget Jamison and Jamison too, don't forget. She also used her status as a school teacher to get a line of credit, which she used to run up a bunch of debts. She stole two watches from a jeweler in Melbourne by pretending that her brother was giving the watches a gift and he wanted to choose between watches, and of course she had a letter from the brother and it apparently was not an unusual thing to do at the time, so the jewelers like, sure,

go off with the watches and let me know. And of course she failed to come back with either of the watches or any payment. So the jeweler contacted the police, and since she had used her real name, it was not very hard to track her down. Investigating further, they found that she had also bought two carriages, a piano, and multiple pieces of furniture on credit, which she then sold, and then she tried to get out of paying by forging a bunch of letters from a fake sister named Ethel,

claiming that Amy had died. Dear inspective, please stop looking for my sister. Turns out she's dead. Sincerely, Ethel, I'm looking at her rotten now she is in one of the many coffins that she's Your time searching for her might as well stop detectives like, well, okay, I mean someone said she's dead. I'm not gonna waste my time. So in eight four she's arrested on charges of fraud.

This is her first arrest. However, the court decided that because of her family history of her mother's mental illness, Amy was not responsible for her own actions, and so she was discharged without a conviction. Um she was pledged to good behavior for twelve months, and her dad convinced her to move with him to Auckland, New Zealand, where he was living with his new wife, a woman who by the way, was only one year older than Amy. And it wasn't easy to live with her dad and

her new same age step mom. We've seen that before, so she struck out on her own after only a couple of months at home. In May of eighteen fifty five, she was arrested again for obtaining one pound and concert tickets on false pretenses. Speculation station, What are the false pretenses that get you concert tickets? Right? It's like make a wish thing Like She's like, I'm very sick and I'm gady to die. I'd love nothing more than say

they banned before I talk almost. I don't know, Wow, that would make her a bad person or what if it's just I'm the manager on the band's Oh yeah, I'm in the band actually, so I cannot get a couple of tickets from my brother Jamison and my sister Jamison two wow? Okay. Well. She was again found not responsible for her actions for these concert tickets, and she was released. She moved to Littleton on the east coast of New Zealand and became a governess for some family friends.

Eight month scho by, no problems, no arrests, no theft, nothing. But then in eight six she informed her employers that she had just inherited a large sum of money and when they told her, they didn't believe her, because of course they were family friends they probably knew a lot of her history. She got offended and she quit and she bought some stuff on credit, probably sold it illegally, and she took off to Wellington. The thing is about amy.

She does not try hard to cover her tracks, so she was quickly found arrested again and brought back, this time to christ Church for trial. And in this trial they decided, oh, we can't reverbet your family history, and they threw the book at her. She was sentenced to one month's hard labor and imprisonment. She gets out, goes back to Wellington. She gets a job teaching at the

Otaki Mayori Boys College. Almost immediately she starts obtaining goods to false pretense in her favorite thing, using most of her ill gotten gains too, it must be said, buy books for her students. That's kind of cool hood action. Yeah, And it isn't long before she's found out again. She goes back to court for fraud and she gets six months detention. But while she's in jail, the warden is so impressed by her manners and social skills he offers

her a job teaching other inmates. Nice, I know, right, I guess manners and social skills. Let me teach you had a forge a chick not. Things are going great until the warden finds out that Amy is trying to secure her release from jail by forging a bunch of letters from a supportive but completely fictional aunt. Dear my sweet niece Amy. She's so kind and giving and loving. Actually the letters were to Amy her aunts, and they

were very like. They were like, oh, Amy, how could you You're always I wish that God could solve your problems, but I'm an invalid and I can't come visit you see if they'll bring you to me. And they were like, oh, she's trying to like give us the slip on the way or whatever. Dear Amy asked the warden very nicely to put you in a carriage with no God tell him. I said, it's a very smart idea, signed your very trustworthy aunt Jamison to Jamison. Alright, So she got released.

She started teaching music, but only a few months later she landed in court again for her favorite obtaining goods on false pretexts. At that trial, Amy explained she couldn't help herself when she said when she was teaching in Melbourne, she managed to keep quote the Malady at Bay because she really loved her work. Then she had a personal tragedy.

She was engaged to a childhood friend who died tragically after being thrown from his horse, and her emotions were high and she was grieving, and that's what made her steal again. She asked at this trial to be committed to a lunatic asylum because she said, you know, I

inherited this mental instability for and kleptomania from my mother. However, according to an eight article called Alleged Cleptomania in the Otago Daily Times, the judge was quoted as saying, we cannot give any support or show any favor to cleptomania. It would never do to countenance it. If we did, a good many people would soon be found to think that they were suffering with that disease. Pretty soon they'll

I'll be doing it. Wow. So he's worried that people are just gonna start stealing, going to court and say, sorry, your honor, it's the cleptomania. Wow. I'll say, that's not a fair reason to not give people with, you know, mental health issues. While if we start giving you the things you need to survive, then soon ever one will want them. That's what I was just like, there's so many ways to tell if somebody stole because they stole, and if they stole because it's a compulsion. There's so

many ways. But of course it's I'm not sure their mental health stuff was great, But up to this point they've been very forgiving and soft on this particular criminal. I will say, I feel that these sentences match the crimes. You know, she feels a pound here, you know, thirty pounds here and there, and then she works it off and then she gets to get out instead of like, you're a thief, so we're gonna put you in jail for the rest of your life, And they're like, why

not go out and you know, pay some taxes. At the same time, though, they're they're gonna proponents of more harsh sentencing are going to point to her and say, see, every time you'll let her out, she just did it again, repeat offender. Yeah, well she need a different kind of help. It's so true. So well, anyway, this this judge did not want to say anything about kleptomania or whatever mental instability. He's like, you're a thief. That's all I need to know.

So she got two months in jail this time in eight nine, she gets out. She moved to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, and she got a job as a governess and she stole some sh it again, her long record is working against her now. She got six months for larceny and false pretenses. When she got out in eight she moved to Dunedin and she forged a letter from a woman named Lucinda Edgar saying that Ida Bennett was the absolute best housekeeper, governess and companion a person could

wish for. Then she went and posed as this Ida Bennett and she used this letter from Lucinda Edgar to get a job as a housekeeper at Mr Cox's house. An article from the Otago Witness called quote an artful schemer lays out her whole on here, from start to finish. First she forges the fake reference, the letter from Loosen

to Edgar saying I'd have been it's the best. Once she had the job, she went to a money lender and she said there was a piano at Mr Cox's house that belonged to her, and since her brother was in desperate financial straits, she wanted to borrow some money against this piano. The money lender was like, oh, no problem, I'll write you out a bill of sale. Right now, but a bill of sale would be registered and that would you know, let Mr Cox know what was going on here. So she was like, oh no, I don't

want Mr Cox to find out about this. He would turn me out of the house if he knew. But I do have a wealthy friend named Mrs Lucinda Edgar living in Burnside who will be willing to sign a promissory note pledging to pay it all back? Is that okay? And the money lenders like sure loosened to Edgar. She sounds very wealthy. I'll accept And she ended up getting from him again it's quite a bit of money back then.

And then she told Mr Cox that her dear friend Mrs lusen To Edgar was really sick and not expected to live, so she was going to go stay with her for a few days. And she left him a letter like I know I'm leaving and that sucks of me. And you've been so good to me, and if you need to hire someone new, I completely understand, but I hope that you'll be good and kind enough to keep my position open when I come back. Well. Mr Cox

is starting to get a little suspicious. He's like, this lady's crazy so he asks around Burnside and he discovers there's no such person as a Mrs Lusen to Edgar living there. So the cops get called. Amy's tracked down, and again, thanks to her long record of previous convictions, she's given the maximum sentence three years penal servitude, but she gets a few months taken off for good behavior.

So the whole scheme was us, I'm going to get alone and put this piano up as collateral, and all that went into this, this whole fake identity, this many letters. She probably had to work for the guy for quite a while, you know, definitely, and like I think too, there were times where they would go talk to the postman and wherever these cities were, like Burnside, they would go to the Burnside postmaster and be like, hey, you got a letter for Lucin to Edgar and they're like, oh, yeah,

we don't know anyone by that name. So we returned all the letters, which of course meant they went to Amy, so she was able to respond as the fake person. Anyway, It's just insane the amount of letters, Like they talk about huge piles of letters that she would write and to like keep her frauds going it's just a lot

of work. It feels like the the extreme hyper version of like when middle school kids, like, you know, forge a note, Oh he's sick, you can And then some they get their friend with a deep voice to answer the phone. Oh, yes, this is Mr Jamison. My son is very sick today. Come to school for Jamison who so Amy gets out of prison in eight two, she moves to tim Maru, where she promptly pretends to be

a wealthy horst who lost her pocketbook. She borrows one pound off a school principle, which again that's worth about a dred and twenty six pounds today, so she's borrowing quite a sum from this like total stranger. And then she disappears and she was quickly caught and sentenced to a month in prison. And she told the judges that she did it because she was really upset that her father had died. Except her father was alive and living

in Melbourne. So maybe that story about her childhood love who fell off his horse, and we talked about herlier, maybe we don't believe that. I'm not sure that there ever was a guy who fell off a horse. In three she pawned her landlady's husband's watch, and then she committed several other small thefts. She ended up once again in prison, this time for six months. Once she got out, she moved to Amaru and claimed to have come into a big inheritance that she wanted to use to buy

a six room house to rent out. The second big inheritance she borrowed several times from a furniture seller, telling him she was planning to spend seventy five pounds furnishing

this house. She applied for an official membership to the Salvation Army, but they found out about her record and they said they wouldn't accept her until she had proven that she changed her ways, so obviously, her next step was to defraud several Salvation Army members out of thirty shillings, which is like a little over a pound, by selling them tickets to a fake event. Oh you want me to prove I changed my ways? Tell you what, I got some great tickets to go see the Jamison's tonight.

So she ran off to Palmerston but was arrested. They're brought back and sentenced, this time to four months hard labor. She gets out once again, she gets in prison very quickly after for not paying her room and board. Damn, she's just jack in the box with these prisons. Man, she is in and out now. When she was released at that point, she was sent to live in a

house in christ Church, New Zealand for fallen women. You know that was run by Catholics, even though she had never really been accused or suspected of like promiscuous behavior. But they just figured, you know what, you need somebody to keep an eye on you. You're a hot mess. And there is no record of her time at this house, but for nearly five years she did not reoffend whatever they were doing there. Maybe it helped out some way,

somehow she could not scam the nuns slapping her. Yeah, they were too quick, maybe because they didn't have anything. Now they take a valve poverty, so like there's nothing to steal. So I guess I'll just cook and hang out. I don't know, sister Mary. I got let her from my aunt, who says you need to give me everything in your pockets. I gotta let it from God rod here.

I just sit here and read it. But then in nineteen o one, she posed as Miss Sherwin got a job as a housekeeper, accumulated large debts and then left town and faked Miss Sherwin's death to get out of repay. And then a nineteen o two she landed in christ Church again under the name of Mary Shannon, and she made friends with a well known gardener she like, stayed at his house and stuff like that, and she started collecting money from all his friends to invest in her

entirely fake poultry farm. In a nineteen o three article from The Evening Post called Remarkable female Swindler, it says quote she would supply exact figures of capital and interest, terms of mortgage and repayment, et cetera, with as much minuteness of detail as a London financier would display. So she was very good at maintaining a guise of respectability

and everything um. This article also details another swindle where she basically she just knew the name of this lady who lived in a country township, and she knew this lady's son was involved at this bank. And then she also knew the name of a tradesman in Wellington who knew this lady. So she just conjures up a story out of her imagination and she shows up at this tradesman's place with a letter from the lady saying, Oh,

my son has some money missing from his account. Would you send the missing twenty pounds to me by way of this messenger and the tradesman. And the tradesman immediately paid it. Amy rides off into the sunset, and the article goes on to say, quote, he was so sensitive about the way he had been taken in that he never prosecuted for this offense. So apparently Amy got away with several of her crimes because people were too embarrassed

to go to the cops. And Yeah, for some reason, I decided to pay this total fucking stranger a bunch of money for nothing. Very convincing letter. Okay, but this letter you don't understand this. I'm just gonna eat that pounds. I deserved it. Wow. But with this poultry farm swindle, people were not afraid to go to the police. This time, she got three years hard labor, but again got some

time shaved off for good behavior. She was released in nineteen o four and she went to live at a Salvation Army house in Rakaya, and she found work as a housekeeper under the name Amy Chanel until February, she was accused of forging a check. Now, uncharacteristically, Amy denied doing this. Usually she confessed right away. She always pled

guilty in court. This time she said it wasn't her makes me feel like it probably wasn't know she's a liar, but like, she was so frequently honest about their crimes, and I'm like, why would she lie this one time? Well, whether she was really responsible this time or not, her record did work against her and she was sentenced to three more years in prison once again, time shaved off for good behavior. She was released in two and a half years. It's just a same cycle, over and over again.

She pops up again in nineteen o seven when she became friends with a children's theater company and traveled with them to Dunedin, and she did have to commit a number of small frauds on the way in order to maintain her guys as a patron of this company, Like, can you donate some money today? And she's like, give me a few minutes to write a letter. Yeah, I've got this letter from my uncle saying he's about to

cut you a huge check. He says, the best thing for you to do right now actually it says in the letter here that you should give me thirty pounds and then when he shows up next week, he's going to give it back to you. Yeah, no problem, that makes sense to me, all right now. In Dunnydin, she posed as Agnes Valance and in eight got a job as a housekeeper to a nice family called the Roys. And they loved her just like everyone did and all her past jobs, I mean, just like Percy. She's very charming,

she's a lovely person. They're like, we trust you, You're just a doll, you know what I mean. So when the Roy's left for their Christmas trip in December, they felt safe leaving everything in Agnes's capable hands, and she immediately forged a receipt from Mr Roy saying he had sold all his furniture to her, and then turned around and used the furniture as collateral for a thirty pound

loan she got under the name Charlotte's Skevington. Well. Of course, when the Roy's returned and found out that all their furniture had basically been sold, a warrant was put out for Amy's arrest in January of ninety you know nine, But by then Amy had found the perfect disguise, Percival Leonard Carol Redwood as Percy. She stayed at a respectable boarding house in Dunnydin and just like a nugget Point,

everyone loved Percy. She got several people to loan her money, including a cab driver, which is that guy who was expecting to get a Persian cat from her and let me talked about earlier. Um, that guy gave her thirty pounds. Another unnamed young lady gave her another forty pounds. So she's just a lot of money from these guys. And at this point Amy had been imprisoned thirteen times for a total of sixteen years and two months. All those

little sentences really added up. And that is the Percy who showed up at Nugget Point to steal money and nesty Ottaway's heart. So let's find out what happened with that right after this commercial break, Welcome back everybody. Well. By now, Amy of course had a reputation with the police, probably in every city in New Zealand and Australia. I think I think she might have lived in every city.

Her reputation firstly was of being curiously moral, like she almost always gave away her ill gotten gains, particularly to young female servants. According to Jenny Coleman, since her motive was rarely monetary gain kind of leads a lot of credence to her claims that she had some kind of compulsion or mania. Maybe. In that alleged kleptomania article from the Ottaga Deli Times, she's quoted as telling the police quote, you will see for yourself if you look into the case,

that nothing I got has been for myself. The temptation has always been give, give, never mind where you got the things, you can pay for them by and by. So I wonder if she even sometimes thinks in her head, I will pay this guy back later, right, Yeah, I don't know that. There's a lot of malice to her actions. Well, and what what does she convince herself? She's got a whole different perception. Tell this guy about my aunt's out

of town. But you know what, I'll just I'll swindle of money out of somebody else and I'll pay him back with that. She just gets herself into a pattern. Maybe, yeah, I say, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul kind of she just I wonder if if she if she did do that. Ever, he wouldn't hear about it because those people wouldn't have reported it. I wonder well. She also had a distinguishable pattern to her cons that the police

were starting to recognize in remarkable female swindler. They write quote her stories lacked nothing in plausibility, and she imported into them a wealth of natural detail. This, however, was not altogether an advantage, as her work was so peculiarly her own that the police could generally recognize it. Thus, as is not uncommon with great artists, she sometimes suffered

through her task being too well done. She was so good they knew it was hurt that London financier ship, like, oh, as soon as we found a really complex scheme, pretty sure it's a So when Detective Hunt, who was on Amy's case with the Dunedin furniture fraud, heard about all these fake relatives, forged letters, small loans and unfulfilled promises, he could smell Amy all over it. Do you think whenever he was about to crack a case he looked

up and said, the hunt is on. I hope so maybe he as a kid he was like, well, my name's Henry Hunt, so I guess I have to either become a hunter or a detective. I could either hunt animals or the most dangerous game. If only it's been around when TV was a thing, he could have had his own show, on the Hunt, on the Hunt with Henry Hunt. Oh my god, I'm ready. So Detective Hunt went to the boarding house in Dunedin where Percy had been staying, and he found women's clothes in Percy's room. Okay,

that's some clue. And then he showed a picture of Amy two people in Dunningedin who knew her only as Percy, and they were able to immediately identify, Oh, that's Percy. So he took himself off to Nugget Point and arrested Amy for fraud. From an article in the nineteen o nine Evening Star called Amy Bok's Latest Escapade, it says quote Miss Ottaway is said to be sick in bed after the news was broken to her. No surprise there, although her father George has quoted us saying, well, it

could have been worse. The guy was a girl, but whatever. At least she wasn't marrying an actor. Gross would have been worse. Maybe it would have been worse if she had been legally married to an actual liken Man's and he was like, at least she's no, no, we're gonna get this marriage anald, and there's I'm done or whatever. I don't know, but that's just such a funny question. I see George like not even looking up from his newspaper. I knew he's something off about him. Now, Amy, as usual,

confessed immediately. She's just like, I see you know everything. I'll go right with you. And she went quietly with Detective Hunt to jail. He said, the game is up, Amy, and she's like, there is. I guess it is. Now we go. She's like, how a Detective Hunt. Good to see you again. Oh my god, you're still on this So okay, Why why this elaborate con Why why fake

this whole romance with NeSSI and propose? And yeah? Some people today have suggested that Amy might be a lesbian or even a transman, but there's really not much evidence to support that. She never intended to stay with Nessie

after the marriage. In fact, she planned to leave for Melbourne for their honeymoon and shake Nessie off along the way and then leave her a note explaining the whole shamo which you know, in which case, she would have abandoned her in Melbourne, you know, in a strange town without her on the way to Melbourne, not even it could have been somewhere totally random, and for Nesty would been like, well, how am I supposed to get home? All he got his letter finding my husband's a lady.

I don't know what is going on. But in addition to that, the only time that she ever dressed as a man was to commit fraud or hide from the consequences of her fraud. So Jenny Coleman thinks that it's more likely this was just the thrill of the con for Amy, like how far she could take it, how far she could be believed, you know, like an extreme sport for her. Almost Yeah, you know, I wonder if I could I wonder if I could convince a woman

to marry me as this girl. I imagine that Nesty maybe got a little flirtatious at some point, and you know, she's like as Percy, She's like, Wow, my disguises working great. I kind of want to see how far Ago I could get all the way to a doubt read with Okay, Eventually she's like, what if I asked her to marry me? Wouldn't that be so funny? Hey girl, would you marry me? And she's like, okay, oh shit, she said, yes, that

was dumb. I guess we're having a wedding. I don't know what I am about to take off my clothes. I guess I'm sleeping in my tuxedo right, which, by the way, how lucky? Or do you think it was even her suggestion, like, well, you know, I haven't proved my money yet, so maybe you should make us sleep in separate rooms. I wondered that too. I don't know if it was her suggestion or if she was just super relieved that he suggested that. I like to think

speculation station. She went to the dad and said, how how dare you let an unproven man with open debts stay in the same room as your daughter. I wouldn't want a father in law like you. And he was like, oh my god, goodness, well you better sleep in separate rooms. That's more like you, Percy. I'd hate to disappoint you.

Whatever you want. It's such a stand up guy. And again, in addition to all this behavior, her schemes never really benefited her or sometimes even anyone, Like those coffins nobody got anything out of that. It's just hilarious, just the thrill of the lie for Amy, you know, figuring out the story, acting the part to get her, just trying to see what she can get away with rather than you know, the stuff for the money that she got

out of it. Sometimes and I get it because I'll tell you, hearing the story, there is a part of me deep down inside that's like I want to try this. I mean, you know I wouldn't. I'm not a very good I'm not going to keep in a lot of lies together in my head, but I could totally see how it would be. Um, you know, we all like to be good at something, and I think she was really good at this, and she just felt good doing

it because she's like, I'm good at it. And then she maybe felt like because I give it away, I'm not a bad person because so like people are getting hurt there, you know trades, people are losing money and people losing their savings and I don't know if they have recouped that or what happened with the money. But like she felt like she wasn't a bad person because she was giving it away, So I'm okay in the long run or something. I feel like I could do it. Well.

I'm very good at keeping many lies up in the air at once, and I don't care about people's feelings or anything like. I'm just so lazypath in that way. Yeah, it's just a lazy sociopath. I'm so glad. The worst kind, motivated sociopaths scary. Oh yeah, I guess the lazy sociopath is the best kind, the only kind you can live with. Trust me. Well. The day after Percy was arrested, the press got ahold of the story, and they probably ran out of inc they got so many headlines after it.

Of course, this is a big, funny, hilarious thing, that this lady was just like a man and stuff like that. It's like the story of the century. In fact, she was so ubiquitous in the headlines that one anonymous person was so fed up they sent a very long poem about how sick and tired they were of Amy Boch to the Observer, where it was published in full May nine, o nine. And it is hilarious, so funny, But it is like five minutes long. So we'll finish up the

story here, but please stick around at the end. Of the show, we will redo the entire lugubrious lament. So Amy went to trial at the end of May nineteen o nine to face two counts of false pretenses, one of forgery and one for making a false declaration under the Marriage Act. So this is not only for the sham wedding but also that furniture fraud back in Dunedin where she sold all her employers furniture. Um. She was

sentenced to two years hard labor. And at this point she was also finally declared an habitual criminal um, which I'm starting to think you might do this again fulls not time UM. That basically meant that she would be detained in prison until quote such a time as the governor is convinced that she can be granted her liberty with perfect safety to the public immediately. I'm Amy's uncle,

Jamison the second, and I think she's great. She's gonna be fine that around immediately, Yours very sincere, and if you could drop on your way out back next week, don't worry, I'm good for it. According to the New Zealand Geographic, Amy is the first woman in New Zealand to be classified and a bit of criminal and apparently at this trial that Ottaways put in a petition to the judge for leniency on Amy. Now that tells you

how likable she was in my opinion. Like, they're straight up, like, we still have to petition the Supreme Court to and all our daughter's marriage to you. But you're just such a nice guy, I mean, lady, go easy on him, I mean her. Wow, oh my god. Also, you know, congratulations women for breaking the glass ceiling of habitual criminal criminality. Now, that same year, in June, Nessie Ottaway petitioned the Supreme Court to a null her marriage like we said, and

of course they did right away. In nineteen ten, she married a stock inspector and widower twenty years older than herself. Now. He died in nineteen eighteen, and in nineteen seven Nessie married again to a soldier that she'd known since he was a young boy in their childhood. During the trial, many of the people Amy had defrauded cashed in on the craze around her name, and they auctioned off Amy's wedding suit and Nessie's engagement ring to recoup their losses.

I love the whole town coming together, holding up the Hey, let's get paid back by selling this ship. All right, everyone, bring me your receipt. We'll put the numbs down. We'll see what we can get. I've got four letters from Amy's ants. Got bad news for you. Amy also sold some things to pay her lawyers, but her lawyers donated most of their feet and nessy, that was nice of them, right.

An article called Amy Bok's Latest Escapade, published in The Evening Star in nineteen nine, spends a whole paragraph talking about how Amy looked so much like a man that she could have deceived anyone. They even kind of sound like a little mad about It made us sort of laugh, so we wanted to read most of this letter here. Quote. Men without knowledge of her identity would not have taken the dapper individual and bridegroom gray to be a woman.

Many women, indeed, have turned eager eyes on less attractive men, and this woman are tired as a man. The way she had her hands sunk into the pockets of a light gray overcoat was the way of a man. She walked with the slight stoop of the scholar, but with a firm tread. The back of her head was a man's, from the back rim of a colored cat placed jauntily on the head to the collar of the overcoat. Her hair was shorn like that of a man on parade or that of a man who gets his sixpence worth

from the barber every time. In a word, the woman was a man. Her walk was not womanly. Most men know how women walk, and this woman walked more like a man fond of easy fitting trousers. Altogether, one could easily understand why women have been deceived by this woman.

As showing how men were deceived, it is interesting to mention that the bridegroom was measured and suited at the New Zealand clothing factory, and although her petite form required nothing more than thirteen and a half for collars and shirts, no one suspected anything amiss, not even the measurer. I

I am obsessed with this paragraph. They go on and on about the most random characteristics that an assigning gender to the way you walk or the way her hands in your pockets, and they're like the back of her head was a man. She was even wearing a hat like the What was I supposed to think? I mean, she had a overcoat on. I can always tell me. This article also goes on to say, quote the accused,

it might be mentioned, is a very temperate woman. She never drinks, but on the day of her wedding, in order to play her part, she took seven whiskeys, which she says nearly killed her. Oh no, that's right, whiskey nearly kills me right now. Well, she was really committed to the part dairy committed. She was ready to drink the funk out of whatever I'm like. Well, she had fallen down, no wonder, she crawled into bed and her

suit she has probably wasted. Amy spent two more years in jail, and when she was released in nineteen eleven, she moved to Mocow, where, according to a biography written by Fiona Farrell, she quote organized any entertainments and plays and was the life of the district. In November of

nineteen fourteen, Amy got married. This time, as the papers were careful to point out as the bride, she married a Swedish guy named Charles Edward Christofferson, and according to Fiona Farrell, they parted within a year because of Amy's debts, but in a headstuff dot org article called Amy Bach the feminine bridegroom by Kieran Conliffe. It says that he was a heavy drinker who abandoned her after a couple of years and left her destitute. Yeah, I'm not sure

which is accurate. There's a very different stories right right, with very different feelings on my part right now. Either way, she was still up to her old tricks. In nineteen seventeen she was fined twenty pounds for theft, and then she moved to Hamilton's And in nineteen thirty one she faced five charges of obtaining money through false pretenses. That that old. She loves charge false pretenses, that's her way

of life. She was seventy one years old at that point, so they just sentenced hearted two years of probation on the condition that she lived in a Salvation Army home for the elderly. Now, Amy died in the year nineteen forty three, and weirdly, she is in an unmarked grave in a Puka Cohe cemetery. Yeah, considering how obsessed everyone was with her story, it's odd to me that they

wouldn't mark her grave. But maybe we've heard before. I can't remember who I'm thinking of, but I've heard before about people who were marked who were buried in unmarked graves so that people didn't go flock to them and desecrated and like turn it into a whole tourist site. It's like almost more respectful, like let's let this woman lay in peace here, Like who knows if we put her name on it, someone's going to steal the tombstone down the road? Did she die in or did a

letter say she did so? Sorry? Amy spec reulation station. Amy Bach was a con the whole time. She's actually Jamison two of Wellington alive and well sheep farmer who who put on this whole ruse of a con artist, wow, just to see if he could, to see if he could Percy was the real one all along. Oh my god,

I love this story. Amy Bach is insane and so interesting, like against this sort of robin Hood tendencies, all of these tiny I mean tiny is not really accurate because it's still in the thousands of dollars, but they're still pretty small cons. She usually didn't keep anything, like, she didn't have a lot of money or wealth herself. She just seemed and she was such a good like people loved her. They were just like I want to be your friend. I just think that's so interesting. So thank

you again to Simon for this suggestion. This was a really fun research project, really fun story to hear about, and I love doing my terrible exits. I think it improved throughout the episode. I know it did, but then I also probably got worse sometimes, who knows. Look, this story ain't over. We have a very very fun poem, important poem to read. So let's all go down to poetry Corner and hear the letter that this anonymous person sent to a newspaper called the Irrepressible Amy b a

lugubrious lament. Oh listen to my tearful and kindly wipe a weep away. But watch please that you do not say Amy Bach, for Oh, that name has got me down, gives rise to a ferocious frown. This name obsesses all the town Amy Bach. The daily papers Philip space by reproducing Amy's face and everywhere these words you trace Amy Buck. They publish with ecstatic glee, long yarns about her pedigree. Their whole contents appear to be Amy back. They serve

up columns every day detailing Amy's winning way. They metaphorically flay Amy Bach her past career in lurid light they placed before the public site. They don't at all object to slight, Amy Bach. Those thrones may totter, Empire's fault, The pestilence abroad may crawl. The dailies put before them all Amy Buck, the weighty cable, Graham's intrude. The dailies think it would be rude because of these things to

exclude Amy Back. When in the car you chance to ride, it makes you feel like homicide to hear folk mutter loud with pride, Amy Bach. And even when you pay your fare, the conductor, with a far off stair exclaims, as you are well aware, Amy Bach. Again in desperations, say you go perchance to see the play the Prose Dragon in subtle way, Amy Bark. So there you find no rest or cure. It adds to pains that you

endure to find. They've named the overture, Amy Bark. To seek relief, We'll say, maybe you go a fishing on the sea to banish with celerity, Amy Bark, tis unavailing. All the same, you feel well, anything but tame to meet a yacht that owns the name Amy Bach in frantic frenzy neath the strain you go to save your toppering brain a modest stimulant to drain Amy Bark, unless you feel you're doubly banned to find tis more than you can stand that they've renamed your favorite brand Amy Bark.

You go to buy a Sunday tie. The shopman looks you in the eye and answers, yes, sir, will you try Amy Boch, And with insinuating smile, he says, it is the latest style. We've named it as tis free from guile Amy Bok. When traveling on a railway train, you find tis absolutely vain to try and banish from your brain Amy Bark. For as the wheels go round and round, and even in the pistons pound, you hear but one incessant sound, a buck again for sweet relief.

To search, you pay a visit to a church, attempting to leave in the lurch Amy bach alas you find no antidote, because the organs every note drones out the words as if by rote Amy Balk again in horror, off you fly with murder gleaming in your eyes, and there he fears deeds. If you've got nigh Amy Bok good, then on your homeward way you steer, but when you get there, sad and drear, these fatal words fall on

your ear. Amy Buck, the very household cat can do not else but sit and sadly mew yowling, or so it seems to you, Amy Back. And in the rooster, scornful crow. There seems to be that name you know too well, that name that makes you low, Amy Bo. You're sitting quietly on your own, thinking or grief with piteous moan, when loudly resounds the telephone, Amy Book, who's there? In fearful? Are you? Shout? A voice replies, I say, no doubt you've heard the latest news about Amy Book.

Ray off you, savagely reply, says young sweet Central. Oh my, your language is enough to try, Amy Bach. You really mustn't talk so hush. You're making all the Central blush with muttered curse away you brush Amy Back. The town clocks chimes when out they ring, calls you to swear like anything, because it seems as if they sing me and talk of singing. Twon't be long before we'll get

although tis wrong. The very latest comic song Amy Back and Amy's face and figure fair on picture postcards everywhere, spread abroad. You cannot scare amy Bach. The postman calls, Do you think he's got important letters? He has not, tis but a postcard. Oh great Scott amy Bach. On land and sea, on earth and air. Yes, oh, creation everywhere is saying to that fact, you'd swear Amy Buck. And in the rustle of the trees, and born upon a balming breeze, is but one sound which doesn't please

amy Ba. From Cape Maria to the bluff, the only talk, and quite enough is all the same unnerving stuff, Amy Buck. Wherever you bend your weary feet you get this same most doubtful treat Oh, nothing that you know can beat amy Bach. Oh, legislation should be framed without delay, or so disclaimed to quickly suppress this subject named amy Back. If not, tis easier to foresee that unto all eternity, this only topic there will be Amy Buck the end.

That is seriously, like Hark the Raven series, this is a man at the end of his rope who could not take one more article. This is how I felt about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. I was definitely thinking that as I was typing it out. Oh my god, this guy, this is amazing. It is so long. He really could not for it stop. He was like, and more, there's more to say, And if I hear this name one more goddamn time, the postman comes Like this man

is going fully nuts. I love. I also love that they printed it in full the amount of space this day, because it's the greatest poem of a Zealand generation. He really is is. I do love the stanza where he says, Oh, we're going to get a comic song, and I'm like, aren't you writing that right now? That? Yeah, He's like, look what you made me do. Here we are singing my comic song. What a beautiful I wish it weren't anonymous,

I know, I want. I want to credit. This person deserves to be in the in the poetry books, just like a weird owl. It's it's brilliant. It's so brilliant. I love, and I'm so glad I found it. It was linked in the head Stuff article that we used as a source, and I'm so happy that I went and looked at it because just cracked me up the whole time I was reading it, and I knew we'd have fun performing it. So great. Oh man, well thanks for sitting through it. I know you're sick of hearing

that name. Do by now, I know I am probably amazing. Yeah, please let us know what you thought of this story. I hope you enjoyed as much as we did this insane con woman. Yes, thank you again Simon for sending us away uh starts kill. And please send us your suggestions for future episodes. Obviously we're getting so many good ones from you all. Yes that we've been never know about it, so we keep them coming. Yeah, reach out to us. We're dick Romance at gmail dot com right

or we're on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Dianamite Boon and I'm at Oh Great, It's Eli and the show is at ridic Romance. You can't wait to hear from you all again, and we'll bring you another episode soon. Love you by so long. Friends, It's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friends name's uncle Sandance. To listen to a show ridiculous roll nance