The Demise of Cassie

Editor’s note: This article concludes the story of Cassie Chadwick begun in the September/October 2000 issue. It is excerpted from a chapter in the book, “Frankensteins of Fraud,” © 2000 by Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, the Association’s founder and Chairman.  

The Sad Tale of Joe Lamb 

The chorus of Cassie’s wretched deeds told of a life spent a step ahead of her latest lie. She had fallen out with her sister Alice when she was caught, as Elizabeth Bigley, having pawned Alice’s new furniture for $300. Of course the furniture wasn’t worth more than $100, but Elizabeth had pawned it to three different brokers. In 1882, she was married as Lydia Springsteen to a Cleveland doctor. Though William Springsteen was a particularly down-and-out and drunken doctor, seeing a few patients in his back-stair walkup, he nevertheless made good pickings for Elizabeth as she learned a trade more satisfying and lucrative than prostitution, namely fraud. The marriage lasted but 12 days before Springsteen was faced with a pile of bills. “You said your rich Irish relatives sent you all those presents!” he railed. When the three pawnbrokers came round, each with a claim to Alice York’s furniture and a
charge against Elizabeth Bigley, Springsteen sent his little woman packing.