David Lamar ( 1877 – January 12, 1934) was a con man known as the Wolf of Wall Street.

Biography

David Lamar was born circa 1877. His exact birth date is unknown; his 1934 obituary reports that he was 65 years old. He appeared in New York City about 1893.Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record, Volume 11 By Frank E. Carter July 19, 1913 Detroit Michigan
/ref> In the 1890s "he had a Fifth Avenue house and was known for his trotting horses, his diamond studded walking stick, his appearances as a man about town."Reading Eagle, January 14, 1934. p. 1
accessed November 17, 2018 In 1899, Lamar claimed one of his most famous victims was 25-year-old John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Working through George Rogers, secretary to

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

founder John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Lamar convinced the younger Rockefeller to buy stock in U.S. Leather, using money he had borrowed from his father. As Rockefeller Jr. was buying, Lamar was selling, and the younger Rockefeller lost nearly $1 million. On July 9, 1903, when his coachman James McMahon appeared in court to testify against Lamar on an assault charge, McMahon was stabbed and beaten by members of the

Eastman Gang The Eastman Gang was a predominately Jewish-American organized crime, Jewish-American street gang that dominated parts of the underworld in New York City during the late 1890s until the early 1910s. Along with the increasingly Italian-American a ...

as he entered the courthouse and he was unable to testify. Asbury, Herbert
The Gangs of New York
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927. His obituary noted two brazen swindle attempts in which he hired two men as "hold up experts" in lawsuits he brought against the U.S. Steel Corporation and the Great Northern Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railroads; his "experts" were exposed as frauds. A 1913 profile of him remarked that he appeared to be wealthy at times and broke other times. That same year in New York, Lamar was indicted and charged with impersonating Congressman A. Mitchell Palmer. During 1915, Lamar acted as an agent for Franz von Rintelen, a captain in the intelligence wing of the German Imperial Navy who operated covertly in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Lamar promoted

strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Working class, work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Str ...

and work stoppages in munitions factories by means of the ''Labor's National Peace Council''. From offices at 55 Liberty Street, Captain von Rintelen spent US$500,000,Tuchman, p.71. much of which went to Lamar, whose reports of his success were greatly exaggerated. For impersonating a Congressman, Lamar was sentenced to two years to the Federal Atlanta Prison in May 1916. In October 1916, while serving his Atlanta Prison sentence, he was working as a tailor. In 1923 after losing an appeal on a conspiracy charge, he fled New York City and was found 8 months later in Mexico and sent to the Essex County Penitentiary in North Caldwell, New Jersey,Evening Star December 7, 1925 p.32 accessed November 17,2018
/ref> for one year for being involved in strikes in munition factories; he was released in 1924.https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1926-08-18/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1918&index=14&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=David+DAVID+lamar+Lamar+LAMAR+prison&proxdistance=5&date2=1929&ortext=David+Lamar+prison&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 Evening star. olume August 18, 1926, Page 3, Image 3 accessed November 17, 2018] In 1924 his first wife divorced him and retained custody of their daughter Dorothy. On November 22, 1925, in

Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield is an affluent New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains and on the New York state border, Ridgefield had a population o ...

, he married a stage and screen actress Edna Eck aka Edna Fretch; in August 1926 he was served with a subpoena in regard to alleged

stock manipulation In economics and finance, market manipulation occurs when someone intentionally alters the supply or demand of a security to influence its price. This can involve spreading misleading information, executing misleading trades, or manipulating ...

of Consolidated Distributors otor parts after Lamar's demise—according to his attorney—Lamar had not been in the money since 1929. Lamar died in a New York City Hotel room of heart disease on January 13, 1934.

References

Sources

*Tuchman, Barbara W. ''The Zimmermann Telegram''. New York: NEL Mentor, 1967. *von Feilitzsch, Heribert ''The Secret War on the United States in 1915: A Tale of Sabotage, Labor Unrest and Border Troubles.'' Amissville: Henselstone Verlag, 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamar, David 1870s births 1934 deaths American confidence tricksters American spies for Imperial Germany Criminals from New York City Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government