The press called him Cherry Hill Fats and his criminal associates referred to him as Big Cherry, but Philadelphia-born Sylvan Scolnick - who may have been the most colorful criminal in the city's history - proudly described himself as an Evil Genius.

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Scolnick tipped the scales at 740 pounds and was clearly a true mastermind. He operated in the shadows and conjured up hundreds of elaborate fraud, counterfeit, and extortion schemes, and planned audacious heists for others to execute.

 

During the height of his brief criminal career in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he managed to fleece victims, not only in Philadelphia but all over North America - mostly banks, insurance companies, and other businesses - out of $50 million.

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Newspeople reported that Scolnick ate 54 hamburgers "with fixings" a day while in police custody, but friends claimed he ate normal amounts and suffered from a glandular condition.

 

Yet one thing was for certain - like many con men, he was charming, funny, and genuinely likeable. Even law enforcement authorities who spent time with Scolnick in interrogation rooms would come out laughing.

 

Scolnick's many crimes were no laughing matter, however. Eventually it all caught up with him. He pleaded guilty to Federal bankruptcy fraud charges and was then sentenced to 5 years at the Lewisburg, PA Federal prison.

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Facing much longer sentences for state crimes, Scolnick decided to rat out all of his former criminal associates. He was transferred to Philadelphia and reportedly gave more than 2,000 hours of highly useful interviews at the DA's office. The authorities were so pleased with the gold mine of evidence their 740-pound canary had provided that he soon found himself a free man - or at least a man on 30 years' probation,  forbidden from running his business swindles ever again.

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Scolnick went on to garner several years of fame on live talk shows, as an event speaker, and in books, but predictably health issues finally did him in. He died peacefully in 1976 at his modest Cherry Hill home. He was only 46 years old.

 

What happened to all the money? Some say Scolnick hid piles of cash behind the paneling in his house. He claimed to have foolishly gambled the money away, but can you really believe a con man? As he himself confided to an interviewer shortly before his death, "There are so many crooks around. You can't trust anybody."