Overflow for Booktalkers: The King of Confidence by Miles Harvey

James Jesse Strang was a lawyer, preacher, newspaper editor, and state legislator. He was also a charismatic Mormon leader who, in the mid-nineteenth century, convinced hundreds of fellow converts to join him on Beaver Island, where he crowned himself “King of Heaven and Earth”. Strang's remote outpost soon captured the attention of the media and federal authorities for illegal activities including theft, piracy, counterfeiting, and polygamy. Author Miles Harvey brings us an intriguing account of one of the country's boldest con men and Charlevoix county’s most infamous residents.