Cassie Chadwick said she was Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter, borrowed against forged Carnegie notes, and broke an Ohio bank

Elizabeth Bigley was born in Ontario in 1857. In 1889 she was convicted of forgery in Toledo and sentenced to nine and a half years. She was paroled in 1893. In 1897 she married Dr Leroy Chadwick and moved into his house on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland's "Millionaires' Row". From then on she told lawyers and bankers that she was the illegitimate daughter of Andrew Carnegie, that he had given her notes worth millions, and that she would inherit $400 million at his death^†. She pledged about $5 million in forged securities bearing Carnegie's name. Over eight years she borrowed about $2 million^†. The Citizens National Bank of Oberlin lent her $800,000. On 2 November 1904 Herbert B. Newton, a Brookline banker, sued to recover $190,800. Carnegie's spokesman said Carnegie did not know her and had not signed a note in more than 30 years. She was arrested in New York with more than $100,000 in a money belt. The Oberlin bank failed, and its president lost his fortune. Carnegie attended her trial in Cleveland. On 10 March 1905 she was convicted on seven counts of conspiracy against the government and conspiracy to wreck the bank. She was sentenced to 14 years and fined $70,000. She died in prison on her 50th birthday. Carnegie repaid Oberlin students who had lost money and endowed a Carnegie Building at Oberlin, completed in May 1907.