Marianne Smyth, who claimed to be an Irish heiress and a psychic, is now in jail in Maine.
She's waiting for a hearing next month that will decide if she can be sent back to the UK because of a scam she allegedly ran over 15 years ago in Northern Ireland.
The 54-year-old American is said to have stolen more than $170,000 from at least five people between 2008 and 2010 in Northern Ireland. A court there issued arrest warrants for her in 2021, and she was found and arrested last month in Maine.
Her story is similar to Anna Sorokin - subject of the Netflix documentary Inventing Anna - who was found guilty in New York for pretending to be a rich German heiress to pay for a fancy lifestyle.
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"She's a master of disguise completely changing her appearance and her grift to suit each mark," said Johnathan Walton, who started a podcast in 2021, "Queen of the Con," to warn others about her after he said he was fleeced out of nearly $100,000.
She always wore expensive clothes, but told him she needed money for things like a frozen bank account and bail. She also told him she was going to get an inheritance of $7 million from her rich family in Ireland, Walton said.
Over several years in Los Angeles, they became close as she treated him to expensive dinners and luxury vacations. However, her story started to fall apart when Walton discovered she had been jailed for stealing $200,000 from a high-end travel agency where she was employed.
She was later found guilty of stealing from him and spent a short time in prison.
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"She has no shame. And she has no conscience," said the 49-year-old reality TV producer, author, and public speaker. "She revels in casting countless victims as unwitting actors in her elaborate schemes to defraud."
Smyth's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. While Smyth, from jail, directed questions from the news agency to her attorney.
The podcast has received tips from dozens of alleged victims from California to New York, according to Walton. The tipsters described a phony charity for Ukraine and lies that she was a messenger for Satan, a witch, a hockey coach, a cancer patient, and best friends with Jennifer Aniston.
Her victims say she frequently changed her name and appearance.
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"She honed in our vulnerabilities and got all our information and bank accounts," said Heather Sladinski, a costume designer in Los Angeles who claims she was tricked out of $20,000 for psychic readings, bogus life coach sessions, and cult-like retreats that included rituals, breathing exercises, and yoga.
Smyth was funny, intelligent, and had credentials and other documents to support her claims, Sladinski said.
The 50-year-old from Los Angeles blocked Smyth after she wanted to do a strange ritual involving a chicken to win back her ex-boyfriend, who had a restraining order against her, Sladinski said. Smyth then started making scary phone calls and Sladinski "was so scared" that she moved houses.
But after connecting with Walton, Sladkinski filed her own police report against Smyth and testified at Walton's trial.
Tess Cacciatore, who owns a production company and nonprofit charity, never lost money to Smyth, but met her in 2016 through a business partner who had employed her as a psychic.
Smyth claimed to be a cancer patient, even sending her a photo of her in a hospital gown, and said she was set to get a $50 million inheritance.
Smyth also showed Cacciatore emails supposedly from Aniston and, at one point, invited her to join them at the Golden Globe Awards before suddenly canceling.
In Northern Ireland, government officials say Smyth stole money that she had promised to invest and arranged to sell a victim a home but took the money. She remains in the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft pending the extradition hearing on April 17.
"She should have been an actress," Cacciatore said. "She would have worked a lot and not gone to jail. She is so good at what she did."
