Charlatan

Acharlatan(also called aswindlerormountebank) is a person practicingquackeryor a similarconfidence trickin order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages throughpretenseordeception.One example of a charlatan appears in theCanterbury Talesstory "The Pardoner's Tale,"with the Pardoner who tricks sinners into buying fake religious relics. Synonyms forcharlatanincludeshyster,quack,orfaker.Quackis a reference toquackeryor the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale ofsnake oil,or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.

Etymology

The English word comes from Frenchcharlatan,a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show. The best known of the Parisian charlatans wasTabarin,whose skits andfarces– which were influenced bycommedia dell'arte– inspired the 17th century playwrightMolière.The word is also similar to Spanishcharlatán,an indiscreetly talkative person, achatterbox.Etymologists tracecharlatanultimately from Italian, either fromciarlare,^[1]to chatter or prattle; orCerretano,a resident ofCerreto,a village inUmbria,known for its quacks in the 16th century,^[2]or a mixture of both.

Usage

A distinction is drawn between the charlatan and other kinds of confidence tricksters. The charlatan is usually asalespersonof a certain service or product, who has no personal relationship with his "marks" (customers or clients), and avoids elaboratehoaxesor roleplaying con-games. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery,pseudoscience,or other knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order toswindlevictims by selling them worthlessnostrumsand similar goods or services that willnot deliver on the promises made for them.One example of a charlatan is a 19th-centurymedicine showoperator, who has long since left town by the time the people who bought his "snake oil" or similarly named "cure-all" tonic realize that it was a scam. A misdirection by a charlatan is a confuddle, a dropper is a leader of a group of conmen, and hangmen are conmen that present false checks. A gaff means to trick or con and a mugu is a victim of a rigged game.

In reported spiritual communications, a charlatan is a person who fakes evidence that a spirit is "making contact" with the medium and seekers. Notable people who have successfully debunked the claims of purported supernatural mediums include magician/scientific skepticJames Randi,Brazilian writerMonteiro Lobatoand magicianHarry Houdini.

Infamous individuals

Albert Abrams,the advocate ofradionicsand other similarelectrical quackerywho was active in the early twentieth century.^[3]
Amy Bock,a New Zealand con artist who committed petty scams, such as taking watches for "repair" and then claiming to have lost them, making purchases under her employer or acquaintance's name without permission, and claiming to sell tickets to concerts or events.^[4]^[5]
John R. Brinkley,the "goat-gland doctor" who implanted goat glands as a means of curing male impotence, helped pioneer both American and Mexican radio broadcasting, and twice ran unsuccessfully for governor ofKansas.
Alfredo Bowman,who claimed to cure all disease with herbs and a unique vegan, alkaline diet.
Alessandro Cagliostro,(real name Giuseppe Balsamo) who claimed to be acount.
Mary Carleton,an English socialite and fraudster who used using a number of false identities to marry and defraud upper-class men.^[6]^[7]
Billie Sol Estes,a famous Texas conman.
Elizabeth Holmes,who defrauded investors and misled US government regulators by falsely claiming her health technology company,Theranos,had invented a new blood-testing method.^[8]
Gustavus Katterfelto,a Prussianconjurerwho used a solar microscope which he claimed could detect disease.^[9]
Ivar Kreuger,the Swedish "Match King", who ran a worldwidePonzi schemein the 1920s.^[10]
Bernard Madoff,an American stockbroker who ran the world's largestPonzi scheme,defrauding investors out of $18 billion.^[11]
Elisha Perkins,the inventor of his own quack therapy that utilized "tractors".^[12]
John Henry Pinkard,Roanoke businessman and purveyor of quack medicines.
Charles Ponzi,for whom the "Ponzi scheme"is named, a scam that relies on a" pyramid "of" investors "who contribute money to a fraudulent programme, typically where monies from later investors are used to pay unusually high returns to earlier investors, thus allowing and promoting the growth of the scheme.
Gert Postel,a German fraud who feigned experience in the field of psychiatry and became a senior physician, despite having no training.
Grigori Rasputin,a self-proclaimed holy man and healer who gained considerable influence on the family ofTsar Nicholas IIand was involved in the political turmoil on the brink of theRussian Revolution.

References

^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Charlatan".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 891.
^Charlatan.Dictionary.com
^"Radionics".Skeptics Dictionary.
^Mary, Johanna (1995)."Amy Bock and the Western Tradition of Passing Women".New Zealand Studies.5(3).Retrieved31 May2021.
^Coleman, Jenny (2010).Mad or Bad? The Life and Exploits of Amy Bock.Dunedin: Otago University Press.ISBN 978-0-947522-18-6.
^Humphreys, Jennett (1887)."Carleton, Mary".InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
^Bernbaum, Ernest; Levis, Howard C.; Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress) (1914).The Mary Carleton narratives, 1663-1673, a missing chapter in the history of the English novel(PDF).Cambridge, Harvard University Press; [etc., etc.]
^Paul, Kari (27 April 2023)."Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes again delays start of 11-year prison term | Theranos | The Guardian".The Guardian.Retrieved2023-05-02.
^Nash, Jay Robert (2004).The Great Pictorial History of World Crime, Volume 2.Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364.ISBN 1-928831-20-6."Gustavus Katterfelto launched a successful medical swindle. Passing himself off as a worldly philosopher and scientist, Katterfelto swindled Londoners with his sleight of hand tricks and medicine show for nearly three years. In 1872, he claimed to have invented the Solar Microscope, which he used to detect a deadly plague similar to the Black Death."
^Partnoy, Frank (2010).The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals.PublicAffairs.ISBN 978-1586488123.
^Creswell, Julie; Thomas, Landon Jr. (January 24, 2009)."The Talented Mr. Madoff".The New York Times.New York.RetrievedJune 27,2020.
^Quen, Jacques M. (1963). "Elisha Perkins, Physician, Nostrum-Vendor, or Charlatan?".Bulletin of the History of Medicine.37(37): 159–166.PMID 13972718.

External links

The dictionary definition ofcharlatanat Wiktionary

[1] Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)."Charlatan".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 891.

[2] Charlatan.Dictionary.com

[3] "Radionics".Skeptics Dictionary.

[4] Mary, Johanna (1995)."Amy Bock and the Western Tradition of Passing Women".New Zealand Studies.5(3).Retrieved31 May2021.

[5] Coleman, Jenny (2010).Mad or Bad? The Life and Exploits of Amy Bock.Dunedin: Otago University Press.ISBN 978-0-947522-18-6.

[6] Humphreys, Jennett (1887)."Carleton, Mary".InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[7] Bernbaum, Ernest; Levis, Howard C.; Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress) (1914).The Mary Carleton narratives, 1663-1673, a missing chapter in the history of the English novel(PDF).Cambridge, Harvard University Press; [etc., etc.]

[8] Paul, Kari (27 April 2023)."Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes again delays start of 11-year prison term | Theranos | The Guardian".The Guardian.Retrieved2023-05-02.

[9] Nash, Jay Robert (2004).The Great Pictorial History of World Crime, Volume 2.Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364.ISBN 1-928831-20-6."Gustavus Katterfelto launched a successful medical swindle. Passing himself off as a worldly philosopher and scientist, Katterfelto swindled Londoners with his sleight of hand tricks and medicine show for nearly three years. In 1872, he claimed to have invented the Solar Microscope, which he used to detect a deadly plague similar to the Black Death."

[10] Partnoy, Frank (2010).The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals.PublicAffairs.ISBN 978-1586488123.

[11] Creswell, Julie; Thomas, Landon Jr. (January 24, 2009)."The Talented Mr. Madoff".The New York Times.New York.RetrievedJune 27,2020.

[12] Quen, Jacques M. (1963). "Elisha Perkins, Physician, Nostrum-Vendor, or Charlatan?".Bulletin of the History of Medicine.37(37): 159–166.PMID 13972718.

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