Between the 1890’s and the 1930’s, one of the most noted financial speculators in America was a man known as David Lamar, who made a reputation for himself out of being rather unethical even compared with his peers, gaining the nickname of “The Wolf of Wall Street”.
When he died in 1934, his obits (I’ve read at least two) noted two things: First, that there was evidence that the name he went by was not his at birth (for starters, he was reputed to have used at least two different last names before using Lamar), and, secondly, that there was no evidence as to any details of his life before his first known appearances in the New York area around 1892.
My question (admittingly, one only a couple of people on this board have the tools to answer) is in the title: Was his real identity and past ever conclusively determined, and, if so, what was it?
OTOH, other google references refer to him as a crooked stock manipulator:
From an article on German sabotage operations in the US prior to WWI. The Wikipedia “gang” list is very long, and lists Lamar under “others”. I’m guessing that they are stretching a bit to call a swindler a “gangster”, not that the terms need be exclusive.