The fascinating and sinister story of a con artist that pulled off one of the twentieth century’s weirdest crimes — a Great Tree Heist in the Pacific Northwest.
So mesmerizing and dark.
— The New York Book Bugle
The book made me laugh on one page and shiver on the next.
— Nominal Verbs
A true masterpiece of mischief.
— Joseph Smithson, Ph.D.
The book recounts the previously untold story of John Goldilocks.
Goldilocks was a con artist who posed as a travelling entrepreneur. In the 1980s, he managed to persuade dozens of councils across Washington and Oregon to sell trees from their cities to wood processing companies. Goldilocks himself received a commission for orchestrating the deals.
Not a single tree remained in one county, earning it the nickname The Barren Land. A rare type of a Douglas fir was driven to complete extinction. In the 2000s, millions of dollars were spent to recreate the lost woods.
John later said in private that his goal was not money. Instead, he made the trees his focus “for the sport of it”. He claimed that his primary satisfaction was persuading the mayors to do the stupidest thing of their lives.
He never faced any prosecution and died peacefully in 2015 at the age of 89.
Jillian Thomas is an investigative journalist from Denver, Colorado. She received her degree in 2015 from New York Journalism Center. Her first book, The Strange Story of a Moon that Turned Teal, is dedicated to the devastating consequences of climate change in the Pacific Northwest.
© Jillian Thomas