PAT SILVER-LASKY DROPS A BLOG

With a never-ending stream of stories about con artists headlining the papers every day, my husband, painter cartoonist researcher and writer Peter Betts and I decided it was time to explore the myriad stories of these fraudsters for a book. it took us three and a half years and over 150 deeply researched stories about these disreputable dudes, with cartoons of some of the more amusing incidents. SCAMS SCHEMES SCUMBAGS is the result.

Since civilization first spilled a trickle of coins through man’s fingers and placed a value on objects, some rapacious rogue has been eager to pick a pocket through swindles, tricks and cons. We started the book with the story of the original 'don't look a gift horse in the teeth" –– that old Trojan Horse, and found it surprising how many times some fast sailing smoothie had used Carlo Ponzi's scheme, even this year, to clean up millions from his eager-to-be fleeced suckers.

We discovered closer to home, how one con artist par excellence, Dana Giacchetto made friends with stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, and even holidayed with Leonardo DiCaprio, only to bilk them all out of millions.

Meanwhile Peter and I moved from London, England to Orange County. I've written 5 books, 10 films and nearly 100 TV scripts but I was particularly proud of the 5 star review we got for this book–– which you can read on Amazon where the trade paperback is $12.95. It's available on all ebook formats for only $4.99 and Barnes and Noble will order it. This is a great Christmas book for the whole family. It's 264 pages and the stories are short enough to take turns reading out loud.