Gaston Bullock Means was born in Concord, North Carolina, the son of William Means, a reputable lawyer. He was also a great-nephew of Confederate General Rufus Barringer. He was in the first graduating class of Concord High School in 1896, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1903, became a schoolteacher, then a travelling salesman. His life avocation, however, was that of a confidence trickster. J. Edgar Hoover once called him "the most amazing figure in contemporary criminal history" because of his ability to weave a believable, albeit fraudulent, story. In 1911, he talked himself into a job with a New York detective firm where he created reports that contained so many clues that they must either be investigated further (at a substantial cost) or denounced utterly. His reputation spread. On the eve of World War I, he was asked to further Germany's interests in the neutral United States. He "uncovered" plots and counterplots rife with secret documents and skulking spies, all of which required investigation at his usual rate of $100 (gold standard dollars) per day. After America declared war on Germany, Means returned to being a private detective. There, he was given a case involving Maude King, the widow of a wealthy lumberman, who had fallen into the clutches of a swindler in Europe. King had been left $100,000 by her late husband, with the remainder of his $3 million estate intended for charity. She sued for more and settled for $600,000 plus the interest on $400,000. Means ingratiated himself into King's life and assisted her with her business affairs. Under the guise of investing her money, Means deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars to his own credit in New York and Chicago, invested in cotton and the stock market and lost heavily. Claiming to find a new will which required "investigation", Means plundered the remainder of the woman's finances until they were nearly all gone. On August 29, 1917, the widow went with Means to a firing range. Means returned with her body, claiming she had killed herself, perhaps accidentally while handling his gun.