Insearch of a rogue who told tall tales

The life of an 18th Century scoundrel who duped people across the North has been chronicled by a vicar in the region.

Andy Walker reports

HE discovered a cure for influenza, launched the age of air travel, invented perpetual motion and sold his soul to the devil.

At least that?s what 18th Century scoundrel Gustavus Katterfelto told unsuspecting folk in Bedale, North Yorkshire.

But the residents of the market town, where the Prussian was buried after his death in 1799, were not the only ones to be taken in by his tall tales.

Everywhere he went ? around the North-East, North Yorkshire and elsewhere in the UK ? Katterfelto spun the same yarns.

His exploits...