If you missed it, never fear: Here’s the recording, for a limited time only!
(Use the passcode h1ZC$&a9 to access it.)
There are times when truth is stranger than fiction . . . and then there are times when truth makes what crime fiction writers do look like an IRS audit of a Girl Scout troop’s cookie-selling profits in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This is one of those times; meet John Donald Cody (a.k.a., Bobby Thompson), a globetrotting conman with a Harvard law degree who spoke three languages, once worked with military intelligence and eventually defrauded $100 million from U.S. veterans and others, via hundreds of fake I.D.s, disguises and political donations that got him influence and photos with several national political figures, including one U.S. president.
With addresses in several states, Mexico and the Philippines, he was eventually caught, tried and convicted in Ohio in 2013, where he was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment in Ohio’s Mansfield Correctional Institute. The prosecuting Attorney General Richard Cordray once referred to him as the ‘Bernie Madoff of charity scams.’
And someone who wrote a book on this ordeal will be BCW’s special guest in April: Jodi Andes. Jodi was a newspaper reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, became a licensed private investigator, worked on an investigative team for Columbus WBNS-10TV news, and was also a senior investigator for the Ohio Attorney General’s office on the John Donald Cody case.
Her true-crime book “Master of Deceit” covers the background and investigation of the case, and Jodi has graciously offered to be our speaker for April 23, 2022, from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (EST). So if you’ve got a character who lies, cheats and steals, and you’re looking for more insight and details to really make them memorable (or you just need a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon), this meeting is for you. Looking forward to seeing you in April!