Hartzell’s mother had already invested $6,000 in the scam, and the opportunity seemed just what Oscar needed to turn his fortune around. He was right about that, anyway. Hartzell was about to be ripped off by a scam that would eventually take control of the scammers themselves, making millions in profit.
The Drake was based on the real life of Admiral Sir Francis Drake and the adventurer who became incredibly wealthy after helping England defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588 and collect his share of Spanish treasure. Drake died without heirs, and at some point that inspired the notion that there were millions and millions of dollars waiting to be collected by some heir, somewhere. By the time Hartzell and his mother got involved in the fraud, he had already defrauded thousands of people in the American Midwest, who bought “stocks” to help defray legal costs in the fight to free the Drake fortune. The “shares” promised to pay as much as a thousand to one. People were happy to shell out cash for the bushel basket, all in the hope of being amply rewarded when the legal battle was finally won.
For some reason, probably no one will ever know why, the con man who ran The Drake took Hartzell under his wing and employed him to run errands. Eventually, after the con artist, his lawyer, and Hartzell moved to England to run the scam from afar, Hartzell realized that The Drake was a fraud and decided to take it on himself. By 1922, he had succeeded, eliminating his former employers and writing letters to his “stockholders” claiming that he had taken over the legal battle over the Drake fortune.
Hartzell made what was already a successful scam much better, introducing drama into his letters and accusing his former employers of all manner of wrongdoing. He even added a new wrinkle to the scheme: Hartzell’s alleged discovery of a direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake named Colonel Drexel Drake. Of course, such a person did not exist. Despite continual promises that the legal battle would soon be over and the billions would begin to flow, Hartzell continued to stall, as the best con men do. The scheme raged through the 1920s and even survived the Great Depression. The despair caused by the Great Depression only fueled speculation. Hartzell even claimed that the impending release of the Drake fortune CAUSED the Depression!
Hartzell was eventually caught thanks to a determined US Postal Inspector who finally convinced Scotland Yard to investigate and arrest Hartzell in 1933. He was deported to the United States and his trial became something of a comedy, with many of Hartzell’s victims staunchly defending him against charges Many of the people who had been with him for so many years simply couldn’t believe the plan wasn’t real. Hartzell was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in Leavenworth.
Remarkably, Hartzell fought to keep the scam going, even from his prison cell. He eventually went insane, dying in prison believing that he was Sir Francis Drake himself.