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Charles Ponzi. Bernie Madoff. Billy "Fyre Festival" McFarland.
查尔斯·庞兹(庞氏骗局)。伯尼·麦道夫(证券诈骗犯)。比利·麦克法兰(音乐节诈骗)。
History is littered with the misdeeds of conmen who pulled the wool over the public's eyes and made a killing.
历史上充斥着骗子的罪行，他们蒙骗了公众的眼睛，赚了一大笔钱。
Some, like Frank Abagnale - the model for Leonardo Dicaprio's character in Catch Me if You Can - pulled off cons so big they've become legendary.
有些人，比如莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥在电影《逍遥法外》中扮演的角色的原型“弗兰克·阿巴格纳尔”，因成功的骗局而成为传奇。
But not even Abagnale could compete with our subject today.
但即便是阿巴格纳尔也无法与我们今天的主角一决雌雄。
Gregor MacGregor was many things: soldier, pirate, pathological liar. He was also the man who pulled off the biggest con in history.
“格雷格尔·麦格雷格尔”有很多身份：士兵、海盗、病态的说谎者，同时他还是史上最大的诈骗犯。
In 1821, MacGregor arrived in London with tall tales of a new Latin American nation where fortunes could be made.
1821年麦格雷格尔来到伦敦，带着一个可以创造财富的新拉美国家的荒诞故事。
Using his deadly charm, MacGregor managed to not only swindle banks, investors, and ordinary people out of the 19th Century equivalent of billions of pounds, he indulged in fabrications on such a colossal scale that even Europe's governments were fooled.
麦格雷格尔利用自身致命的魅力不仅成功地从19世纪的银行、投资者和普通民众中诈骗了数十亿英镑，他还沉迷于大型捏造，甚至连欧洲各国政府都被愚弄了。
But how did this Scottish nobody create a con so big it swallowed an entire continent?
不过话说回来，这一苏格兰无名小卒是如何造出这样一个吞噬了整个大陆的大骗局的呢？
Join us as we explore the life of Gregor MacGregor, the most amoral adventurer to ever live.
我们将探索最不道德的冒险家格雷戈·麦格雷格尔的生活，快来加入我们吧！
When he came to tell the story of his birth many years later, Gregor MacGregor would never let two details remain the same.
多年以后当格里高尔·麦格雷格尔讲述自己的出身时，这两处细节已是他无法狡辩的事实。
He was born into high Scottish nobility. He was descended from the legendary outlaw Rob Roy.
他出生在苏格兰贵族家庭，是传说中的亡命之徒罗伯·罗伊的后代。
His ancestors were adventurers who founded Scotland's doomed colony in the Darien Gap.
他的祖先是冒险家，在达连峡谷建立了一处注定要灭亡的苏格兰殖民地。
The odd thing was, he needn't have bothered.
奇怪的是，有这样的出身，他本不该如此啊。
Gregor MacGregor's background was interesting enough even without his tall tales.
即便忽略掉麦格雷格尔自己讲的那些荒诞的故事，他的背景也十分有趣。
Born on Christmas Eve, 1786, MacGregor came from, well, the MacGregors, a Jacobite Clan that had only just been relegalized after 100 years as outlaws.
麦格雷格尔出生于1786年的平安夜，他来自，嗯，一个詹姆斯二世党人家族“麦格雷格尔家族”，这一家族在被列为亡命徒100年后刚刚降级。
While his dad wasn't the chief, as MacGregor would claim, his family were still notable.
虽然他的父亲并不是酋长，如麦格雷格尔所说，但他们家仍很有名气。
His grandpa had been an officer in what would become the Black Watch. His father was a ship captain.
他的祖父曾是后来的“苏格兰高地警卫团”的一名军官。他的父亲是一名船长。
In short, young MacGregor had action in his blood.
简而言之，年轻的麦格雷格尔的血液里流淌着“不安于平静”的血液。
And in 1803, when MacGregor was only 16, that blood would drive him to seek adventure in the British Army.
1803年，麦格雷格尔年仅16岁，他的热血驱使着他来到英国军队寻求冒险。
As luck would have it, 1803 was the year the Napoleonic Wars broke out, and MacGregor was hurriedly posted to the island of Guernsey to defend against French invasion.
不幸的是，1803年刚好爆发了“拿破仑战争”，麦格雷格尔被匆忙派往根西岛防御法国的入侵。
But that invasion never came. Instead, MacGregor wound up living a deeply unadventurous life of waiting around.
然而入侵并没有到来，麦格雷格尔相反过上了一种毫无冒险的等待式的生活。
Not that his time on Guernsey was all a waste. It was while on assignment that MacGregor met his first wife.
不过也不能说他在根西岛的时间完全就是浪费。麦格雷格尔在执行任务期间遇到了他的第一任妻子。
Maria Bowater was the sort of catch young enlisted men used to dream about.
玛丽亚·堡沃特是年轻士兵们梦寐以求的女人。
Her father was an admiral, her family members were MPs. Oh, and they were absolutely, stinking rich.
她的父亲是一位海军上将，她的家人都是国会议员。哦，而且他们绝对，非常富有。
In no time at all, MacGregor had charmed his way into marrying her, much to the horror of her family.
麦格雷格尔很快就用他的魔力娶了玛丽亚·堡沃特为妻，这让她的家人非常害怕。
No sooner had they tied the knot then MacGregor was using his wife's money to buy himself the rank of captain and get transfered down to Gibraltar.
他们刚一结婚麦格雷格尔就用妻子的钱给自己买了一个上尉军衔，被调到了直布罗陀。
But while the weather may have been nicer on Spain's southern tip, life was still boring.
虽然西班牙南端的天气可能要好一些，但那里的生活还是很无聊。
For the next four years, MacGregor did nothing but stand around, waiting for a French fleet that never came.
接下来的四年里麦格雷格尔什么也没做，只是站在那里等待法国舰队的到来，而这支舰队始终没有到来。
Then, in 1809, just as MacGregor was planning to give up and return to Scotland, excitement finally arrived.
后来到了1809年，就在麦格雷格尔打算放弃并返回苏格兰的时候，激动人心的时刻终于到来了。
The year before, Napoleon had invaded Spain, engulfing the whole of Iberia in the Peninsular War.
1808年拿破仑入侵了西班牙，在半岛战争中吞没了整个伊比利亚半岛。
Sensing a chance to give Napoleon a black eye, the British decided to intervene.
英国觉得这是一个给拿破仑难堪的机会，于是决定进行干预。
And that's how Gregor MacGregor found himself in Portugal fighting Napoleon's forces.
后来就有了格雷戈·麦格雷格尔在葡萄牙与拿破仑军队作战的经历。
Yet even in the heat of combat, MacGregor couldn't settle.
然而，即使在战斗最激烈的时候麦格雷格尔也无法平静下来。
In October, he sold his rank of captain and departed the British Army for the Portuguese one.
10月他卖掉了自己的上尉军衔，离开了英国军队，加入了葡萄牙军队。
But by May, 1810, he'd also got bored of the Portuguese and resigned again.
但到了1810年5月他又厌倦了葡萄牙人，再次离开。
Come summer, 1810, MacGregor was back in Scotland, feeling as unfulfilled as ever.
1810年夏天麦格雷格尔回到了苏格兰，但他仍觉得自己没有成就感。
But he was no longer merely "Gregor MacGregor." On leaving the Portuguese Army, MacGregor had started telling people he'd been knighted for his service, and was now "Sir MacGregor".
此时的他不再仅仅是“格里高尔·麦格雷格尔”。在离开葡萄牙军队时麦格雷格尔开始跟别人自己因服役而被封为爵士，现在他是“麦格雷格尔爵士”。
It was a stupid lie. A dumb, egotistical little lie that shouldn't have changed anything. Yet change things it did.
这是一个愚蠢的谎言。一个愚蠢自大的小谎言本不应该改变任何事情，然而它改变了。
When people didn't question it, MacGregor realized just how easy lying about even huge things really was.
当人们不再质疑时，麦格雷格尔意识到即便在大的事情上撒谎也不是什么难事儿。
It was a revelation that would soon take the young man to some very bizarre places.
这是一个启示，很快就能把年轻人引到一些非常奇怪的境地的启示。
Life with the Liberator In April, 1812, a ship pulled into port near Caracas, Venezuela, and disgorged a slender Scot in his mid-twenties.
1812年4月，一艘轮船驶进委内瑞拉加拉加斯附近的港口，从船上卸下了一名25岁左右、身材瘦弱的苏格兰人。
It had been two years since MacGregor had left Portugal disillusioned, and much had happened.
这时从麦格雷格尔失望地离开葡萄牙之后已经过去两年了，期间发生了很多事情。
In 1811, his wife had died, and his in-laws had cut him off financially.
1811年他的妻子去世了，他的姻亲切断了他的经济来源。
So MacGregor had left Britain, in search of something - anything - that would keep his mind occupied.
于是麦格雷格尔离开了英国，去寻找一些东西，一些可以让他的思想保持活跃的东西。
Luckily, 1811 wasn't short of opportunities for a would-be adventurer.
幸运的是，1811年对于一个想要成为冒险家的人来说机会是大把大把的。
