Catherine Taintor

Catherine Taintor († May 31, 1924 in Zurich ( suicide )) was the alleged name of an unidentified impostor who posed as an American multimillionaire in France , Belgium and Switzerland in the early 1920s .

Taintor last lived in the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich and made himself the social center of the upper class there through charity events (allegedly in favor of a children's hospital). Within half a year she accumulated debts of 80,000 Swiss francs and became engaged to three different men at the same time. After she was arrested, she committed suicide while in custody by hanging herself in her cell with her silk petticoat .

This last phase in the life of Catherine Taintor also forms the model for the radio comedy The Last Scream by Peter Zeindler .

literature

• Gabi Mattes, Kathrin Schafroth. "Miss Taintor". In: Verein Frauenstadtrundgang Zürich (Hg): Chratz & Quer: Seven women's city tours in Zurich. Zurich 1995. p. 44f.
• Willi Wottreng , "Case history: Hochstapelei - The great American woman (1923)", in: The same: "Crimes in the big city. Child murderers, impostors, drug dealers - a criminal history of the city of Zurich", Zurich 2009, pp. 68–72, ISBN 978 -3-280-06118-3 .
• GF from Cleric. "The impostor". In: Swiss Journal for Criminal Law 39, 1926. pp. 16–53.
• Victor Zwicky. It was like that back then. Zurich 1966.

Web links

"Lies and deceit - impostors and fraudsters", in: Willi Wottreng, Kriminell: Verbrechen in Zürich as a mirror of their time. Publication accompanying the exhibition in the Stadthaus Zurich, January 23 to May 9, 2008. (PDF; 2.5 MB) p. 8. (Viewed October 20, 2009)