Evelyn Dawn Knight (born 5 November 1942) is an English woman known for her involvement in the Abscam

sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a rol ...

of the 1970s, with her then-husband

Mel Weinberg Melvin Weinberg (December 4, 1924 – May 30, 2018) was an American con artist, charlatan and Informant, federal government informant who is known for his involvement in a sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s known as Abscam. At the ...

. A character inspired by her was portrayed on film by

Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received List of awards and nom ...

in '' American Hustle'' (2013) for which Adams was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a lead ...

. The story of Abscam was depicted as well in the 1981 book ''The Sting Man'' by Robert Greene.

Personal life

Knight was born in

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

, England, the daughter of Peggy (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Wilson) and Bob Knight. Her father was a postman. Knight emigrated to the United States in 1967, when she was in her late twenties. At a party on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

sponsored by the British government, she met

, a Jewish businessman 17 years her senior, and the two began a long love affair. Weinberg was married to his second wife, Marie, at the time. Marie died by suicide in 1982 at age 58. She had confronted Knight about the affair after she learned that Knight was living nearby in a house being paid for by Weinberg. Soon after Marie's death, Knight and Weinberg married.

Abscam

Weinberg began involving Evelyn in his

cons In computer programming, ( or ) is a fundamental function in most dialects of the Lisp programming language. ''constructs'' memory objects which hold two values or pointers to two values. These objects are referred to as (cons) cells, conses, ...

, using her as a ploy to conduct business. He would introduce her as Lady Evelyn Knight, one of the world's richest women. The two were arrested in 1977 on charges of fraud and conspiracy. They made a plea deal with the FBI to help them in the investigation of Abscam, and in return, their charges would be dropped for probation.

Later life

Knight kept out of the spotlight once the Abscam era ended, and moved to Florida with her husband Mel. They divorced in 1998, but still lived near each other until his death in 2018. Knight found work at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, where she took care of animals used in space experiments.

Portrayals in the media

Amy Adams was cast as a character based on Knight for the 2013 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

'' American Hustle'', written and directed by David O. Russell. The film was nominated for 10

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

, including Best Picture. Adams was nominated for Best Actress for her performance. The script for the film made changes from Knight’s story, including portraying the character as an American named Sydney Prosser who pretended to be

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

as a way to conduct scams. In the film, the character Prosser gave her British alter-ego the name of Edith Greensly.Oscars 2014: American Hustle
accessed March 21, 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Evelyn 1942 births Living people People from Watford Abscam Federal Bureau of Investigation informants English fraudsters English socialites American confidence tricksters English emigrants to the United States