If you need to refresh your memory, Part 1 is here.

In the summer of 2003, writers began hearing about a major writers’ conference and celebrity charity event to be held in Banff, Alberta. Well-known editors and agents would be in attendance at the conference; famous entertainers such as Celine Dion would grace the event, the proceeds of which would benefit a national autism foundation. The conference registration cost was a bit steep--$1,699 US, including accomodations--but hey, it sounded totally fab.

Originally scheduled for August, the conference was postponed, supposedly due to smoke from forest fires near Banff. Instead, it would be held in October--though the organizer, Elisabeth von Hullessem, didn’t give an actual reschedule date. Then, in September, von Hullessem skipped town for parts unknown, failing to refund the writers who’d paid the registration fees, and neglecting to notify the well-known literary agents who’d agreed to attend to the event. (You can see the Calgary Herald's coverage of the incident here.)

On December 21, 2005, literary scammer Lisa Hackney (a.k.a. Melanie Mills, Elisabeth Von Hullessem, Roswitha Von Meerscheidt-Hullessem, and several others), lost her fight against extradition from Canada to the United States. She was wanted in Arkansas on multiple charges filed in 1999, including battery in the first degree, aggravated assault, theft, possession of stolen property, passing bad checks, forgery, and failure to attend court. Hackney also has multiple felony warrants in Missouri, and was under police investigation in North Carolina, where, as "Melanie Mills," she ran a fraudulent literary agency and engaged in a number of other scams.

She was delivered by US marshals to Arkansas from Vancouver, BC, and transported to Fayetteville, where she was officially booked into the Washington County Jail on Dec. 22, 2005 (her 51st birthday). She's being held on $750,000 bond on her failure to appear on the original charges.

We have a lot of strange stories in our scam archives, but the saga of Lisa Hackney is right up there at the top of the weird-o-meter.