15 Minutes of Infamy

  John Caldwell Colt Today we present one of the most discussed true crime cases of Old New York-- a case which famously spawned a conspiracy theory involving a faked death, a doppelganger corpse, and powerful family connections. Like most people who made it their career to teach penmanship, Asa Wheeler was the quiet, meticulous sort. During the mid-19th century Asa conducted daily classes in a building on Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, instructing anyone who wanted to learn calligraphy or Spencerian script. Unfortunately for Mr. Wheeler, there just weren't enough students to fill a classroom, and so, to make ends meet, he sublet one of his rooms to another teacher named John Caldwell Colt. Colt was a fur trader turned gambler turned bookkeeper who had fallen on hard times, and he believed that he could turn his fortunes around by publishing a textbook on the subject. Asa Wheeler didn't share the struggling bookkeeper's optimism, however. But he decided to rent space o...