Sarah Rachel Russell

Sarah Rachel Russell or Leverson or Levison (c.1814 – 12 October 1880) was a female British con artist and felon who lived in the early nineteenth century London, England during the reign of Queen Victoria. She owned and managed her very own beauty salon where she sold goods and services that promised consumers eternal youth and attractiveness, mainly renowned for her "Magnetic Rock Dew" based from the Sahara desert. The promises she gave to her customers was an elaborate plan as a means to make profit and distribute fake products which ultimately harmed them throughout time. She personally guaranteed her clientele everlasting youth as a result of the use of these products, which would later be revealed as consisting of water and bran. Russell's infatuation with marketing and making money dishonestly would eventually lead to her finding other troubling ways to fill her pockets and her arrest and series of trials for fraud. She would later become well known for blackmailing many wives of London's upper class as well.