The Many Lives of Stanley Jacob Weinberg

There was nothing about the early life of Stanley Weinberg to suggest that he was destined for a degree of immortality. Born to working class parents in Brooklyn, New York, on 25 November 1890, the young Stanley expressed an interest in a career as a medical doctor. Unfortunately, his parents were unable to pay for the education required to qualify for a career in medicine, and so he began his working life as an office clerk. However, Stanley soon bored of pen-pushing drudgery, and so it was not long before he embarked upon a very different career path indeed.

By 1910 Weinberg was working as a United States consul representative to Port du Aubres, near Morocco. Such was his status that he was wined and dined in the finest restaurants New York had to offer. The only trouble was, he wasn’t! Journalists, keen to write about the impressive young diplomat, discovered that not only did Port du Aubres not exist, but neither did the position Stanley Weinberg was claiming to have been appointed to. He was arrested for fraud.

Now, one might be forgiven for thinking that, having been arrested for impersonating a government official, Weinberg’s penchant for imposture would have been severely curtailed. But not a bit of it. For Stanley, this was just the start of a prolific career as an imitator of public figures. Weinberg next put in an appearance as an investigator, working on behalf of the Mayor of New York, until that is the Mayor wrote him a stiffly worded letter ordering him to desist from his fraudulent activity. Undeterred, he next claimed to be a decorated bomber pilot who had fought in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.

Stanley was by now growing in confidence, and in 1915 he appeared in the guise of a consul general to Romania, using the nom-de-plume of Ethan Allen Weinberg. Claiming to be acting on a request from the Queen of Romania, he conducted an inspection of the USS Wyoming, dressed in a dazzling blue uniform bedecked with gold braid and topped off with an admiral’s hat. So convincing was he that he was even given a 21-gun salute on entering New York Harbour. To cap the occasion, Weinberg arranged a sumptuous meal for the ship’s officers at the Astor Hotel, the cost of which was to be billed to the Romanian consulate. Unfortunately for Stanley, the banquet resulted in a good deal of publicity and he was once again rumbled. On being arrested during the meal, he complained bitterly that the detectives ought to have waited until after dessert. This time his deception got him a year in jail.

In 1917 he claimed to be a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps by the name of Royal St. Cyr and was again arrested, this time while on an inspection of the Brooklyn Armory, when a military tailor grew suspicious owing to irregularities with regard to his uniform. He was again imprisoned for the deception, only this time he remained behind bars until 1920. Upon release he was soon upto his old tricks and used forged documentation to become a doctor in Lima, Peru, where he lived a lavish lifestyle beyond his means, until his creditors closed in and he was once again arrested.

But perhaps his most successful deception occured in 1921, when Princess Fatima of Afghanistan was visiting the United States, but was struggling to gain official recognition for her visit. Never one to miss an opportunity to deceive, Weinberg called on the princess and claimed to be a State Department Liaison Officer. Apologising for the oversight, he assured the Afghan royal that he would arrange a meeting with the president. Stanley next visited the State Department and, using the moniker Rodney Stirling Wyman, managed to secure an appointment. On 26 July 1921 Princess Fatima was presented to president Warren G Harding at the White House. On this occasion his mistake was in posing for photographs with foreign dignitaries. When the photographs appeared in the press, Weinberg was recognised. He was arrested once more and on this occasion was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

In 1926 Stanley popped up at the funeral of movie star Rudolph Valentino and managed to ingratiate himself with Pola Negri, the actor’s grieving fiancee, by claiming to be an eminent doctor. Amazingly, he became her personal physician and issued regular press releases on her condition. He even set up a faith-healing clinic in Valentino’s house! Surprisingly, when exposed as a fraud once more, the Polish actress declined to press charges.

On one occasion, Weinberg’s ability to deceive was even put to use by the media. The Evening Graphic newspaper wanted to secure an interview with Queen Marie of Romania while she was on a visit to the United States, but was not having much luck. Acting on behalf of the publication and purporting to be the Secretary of State, Stanley was granted an audience with the queen, and the newspaper subsequently bagged the interview.

Sadly, and somewhat ironically, the end for Stanley Jacob Weinberg came whilst he was undertaking gainful employment. On 27 August 1960, whilst working as a night porter at a New York hotel, Stanley confronted an armed robber and was shot dead. The police detective assigned to the case commented “I’ve known about the man’s past record for years. He did a lot of things in the course of his life, but what he did this time was brave.”

The last word is probably best left to Stanley himself, and may give a little insight as to his motivation. He once said “One man’s life is a boring thing. I lived many lives: I’m never bored.”

Sources:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/imposter-brooklyn-weyman-clifford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Clifford_Weyman