PYALONG author Cathy Koning is on the way up in the book-writing world, self-publishing a new book which is a true crime biography.
Ms Koning’s new book is called Hoodwinked: The Extraordinary Life and Times of American Con Artist Peter Grimes, who Ms Koning confidently says, ‘was the most audacious con artist of the twentieth century’.
“I am the caretaker of a special archive of theatrical memorabilia belonging to Sydney soprano Dorothy Rudder, my husband Fred Wallace’s great aunt. After my recovery from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in 2013, I wrote Dorothy’s biography, Dainty Diva, followed by Life Blood, which chronicled my cancer experience,” she wrote in an email.
“To cut a long story a little shorter, inside Dorothy’s old, battered suitcase were two intriguing love letters written from British North Borneo in 1919. On tour of “the East,” with a musical theatre company, Dorothy had a one-night encounter with American con artist Peter Grimes when the ship stopped at Sandakan.
“I had struck gold but didn’t yet know this. I kept Grimes’ story safely to myself until I had an actual book to share with the world. Because his personas (and his falsehoods) were so wide-ranging, and took place all over the globe, anyone who attempted to unravel his story would need to devote some serious time, in fact years, to the project. I wanted to be the first to write it, and it is amazing what can be discovered from a computer in Pyalong 100 years after the event.
“Some five years later, I am still in awe of the life Peter Grimes managed to lead under the spell of what he termed the microbe of the Wanderlust. He spent nearly fourteen years of his “career” in San Quentin, Bilibid in Manila, Folsom and police lockups and cells in Shanghai, San Jose, Seattle, Yokohama, Singapore, New York’s Tombs and Honolulu. His father had been a prison warden, and being in jail was no deterrent whatsoever.
“I discovered Grimes’ bootlegging connection to future Mafia kingpin Frank Costello, a kidnapping, a Ponzi scheme, and a secret US government conspiracy. The Grimes family forwarded his “fictional” novellas and short stories to me, which took the book to another level.”
Hoodwinked was recently rated #1 on the amazon.com.au list of hot new releases in the True Crime category, and #5 in crimes and criminal biographies. As of last Friday afternoon, it ranks second in the Criminal Offenders category.