In 1955, suspense writer Patricia Highsmith published a novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, about a young man who runs a number of grifts in New York City to keep himself afloat. In spite of the fact that Tom Ripley is completely untrustworthy, a chance encounter with a wealthy man results in Ripley being dispatched to the Italian Riviera to retrieve the man’s wastrel son who is busy squandering his trust fund, and with whom Ripley is distantly—very distantly—acquainted.
Ripley soon becomes obsessed with the errant son and contrives to live the same life of wealth and indolence. Needless to say, the plot thickens. Ripley murders the son and assumes his identity. He goes on to dispose of others who are poised to discover his crime and expose him. Having dispensed with his adversaries, the novel ends with Ripley absconding with the trust fund, evading consequences for his crimes and living happily ever after.
It seems that truth, if not stranger than fiction, isn’t too far distant. Let us consider the strange-but-true tale of George Anthony Devolder Santos. As of this writing, his purported résumé is as follows:
- Attended the elite Horace Mann High School in Manhattan.
- Attended Baruch College, where he played volleyball with such ferocity that he later required two knee replacements.
- Was the grandson of Jewish Holocaust survivors.
- Worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
- Worked for Harbor City Capital, where he managed a 1.5-billion-dollar investment fund.
- Ran the Devolder Company, a family business where he made somewhere between 3.5 million and 11 million dollars.
- Lost his mother as a result of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (she had an office in the South Tower).
- Ran a foundation called Friends of Pets United, saving 2,500 dogs and cats between 2013 and 2018.
- Lost 13 of his employees in the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
- Lives with his husband and four dogs on Long Island.
An impressive résumé to be sure, except that none of it is true. Mr. Santos’s actual résumé is as follows:
- Dropped out of a public high school and got a GED.
- Never attended Baruch College. Never attended any college.
- Never worked for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.
- Did work at Harbor City Capital, subsequently labeled a “Ponzi scheme” by the SEC.
- Never worked for the Devolder Company, since it doesn’t exist.
- Isn’t the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. Not Jewish, either.
- His mother was living and working in her native Brazil on 9/11. She was 4,000 miles away from the South Tower of the World Trade Center on that fateful day and she never had an office there at any time.
- In 2008, when Santos was 19 and living in Brazil, he was charged with stealing the checkbook of a man his mother was caring for and wrote $700 in fraudulent checks. Brazil would like him to return to stand trial for this.
- Has a history of stiffing his roommates for his share of the rent and wore a Burberry scarf stolen from one of them when he attended the ironically titled “Stop the Steal” rally.
- Never ran a pet rescue foundation but did abscond with funds raised for a homeless veteran in order to pay for life-saving surgery for the vet’s beloved service dog, Saphire. Saphire was subsequently euthanized because the thousands of dollars raised for the surgery disappeared along with Santos.
- Since he never had any employees, he didn’t lose any at Pulse nightclub
- Husband? What husband?
- Narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent in 2022 to become the Republican representative to Congress from Long Island.
Somewhat predictably, the Republican-controlled Congress appears to be unconcerned about the entirely fabricated résumé of the Talented Mr. Santos, and in no great hurry to purge him from their ranks. He is a sham, a charlatan, and a fraud—in other words, a shining exemplar of the Republican party as it is currently constituted. Over the course of the past six years, the party of Lincoln has made it clear that sociopathy is not in any way a disqualifying trait in a public servant, even at the highest levels of our government.
With the insurrectionist wing of the party now running the congressional freak show after Kevin McCarthy traded his spine for a Speakership, Mr. Santos hardly stands alone as the craziest clown at the circus.
In fact, he fits right in.
