page_title: Cassie Chadwick
section_title: As Cassie Chadwick
hierarchical_section_title: Cassie Chadwick / As Cassie Chadwick
caption_attribution_description: English: Euclid Avenue Mansion of Cassie Chadwick on Cleveland's Millionaire's Row. Taken from postcard in Stude62's personal collection. Undivided back postcard indicating that it was published before 1906
context_page_description: Cassie L. Chadwick was a pseudonym used by a Canadian woman who defrauded several American banks out of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie. Newspaper accounts of the time described her as one of the greatest con artists in American history.
  Chadwick pulled off this heist during the Gilded Age in American history when women were not allowed to vote or get loans from the banks. This is why some historians believe it is one of the greatest bank heists in American history.
context_section_description: In 1897 Cassie and Leroy were married. During her time as the wife of the highly respected Dr. Chadwick, it is unclear whether he knew that she had given birth to a son, Emil Hoover. Also, it is unclear whether Dr. Chadwick knew that Emil was in the care of one of the women at the brothel.
  When charged with forgery, Chadwick identified herself in court records as single with no children.  However, in the 1900 United States census (District 97, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Ohio), she identified herself as Cassie Chadwick, born 3 February 1862 in Pennsylvania.  Her son Emil was enumerated as Emil Chadwick, born September 1886 in Canada.
  Chadwick's spending habits exceeded those of her richer neighbours along Cleveland's Euclid Avenue, then known as "Millionaires' Row".  Instead of being welcomed into the exclusive enclave of the Rockefellers, the Hannas, the Hays and the Mathers, Chadwick was thought of as a curious woman who tried in vain to buy the favors of some of the wealthiest families in the nation.  When invited to social events, it was only out of obligation to her husband.
caption: The Euclid Avenue residence of Cassie Chadwick
exif: {}