Serial imposter Clifford Weman cons his way into an official state visit with an Afghan princess!

>After his ruse in Peru was revealed, Weman was sent home and in 1921 adopted the role of an official of the U.S. State Department. It was in this guise that he came to the rescue of Princess Fatima of Afghanistan, whose visit to the United States, he read, had not been given any official recognition. Determined to give the princess her due, he swept into her suite at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and, on behalf of Secretary of State [Charles Evans Hughes]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Charles_Evans_Hughes_cph.3b15401.jpg), apologized for the poor reception she had received in America. He promised to take Her Royal Highness to Washington to meet the secretary and the president. All he would need from her was $10,000 to pay for the gifts he said foreign dignitaries traditionally gave to officials in the nation’s capital. >Weyman took part of the money and rented a private railroad car to escort Princess Fatima and her party to Washington. When they arrived, he dropped the Afghans off at the Willard Hotel and hurried over to the State Department, dressed as a naval officer. He told an official there that he had been sent by several senators, whom he named, to arrange a visit for the princess with Secretary of State Hughes. Her Highness was accorded all the diplomatic niceties, and during the encounter Weyman took Hughes aside and told him that the princess also wished to meet President [Warren Harding](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg). A phone call was made to the White House and a meeting hastily arranged. There Weyman chatted familiarly with the president, something a naval officer would never do, and nudged his way into the photographs Harding took with the princess. This of course raised suspicions, but Weyman had slipped away before his fraud was uncovered. ___________________________ **Source:** Farquhar, Michael. “Super-Dupers.” *A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds*. Penguin, 2005. 16, 17. Print. ___________________________ **Further Reading:** [Stanley Clifford Weyman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Clifford_Weyman) [Charles Evans Hughes, Sr.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes) [Warren Gamaliel Harding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_G._Harding) ________________________________ **If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/HistoryLockeBox)!**