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Flu Julia- The Fake Nurse Who Exploited The 1918 Flu Pandemic To Get Rich
A fraud committed atrocious crimes to enrich herself during an American health tragedy
It’s one thing to trick and rob people. It’s another altogether when it’s done in the midst of a terrible health crisis. Unfortunately, that’s what made the actions of Julia “Flue Julia” Lyons so devious, as she made a killing financially during the Flu pandemic of 1918 fleecing sick people by posing as a nurse.
The 1918 flu pandemic was one of the deadliest pandemics in history, caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and claimed at least 50 million lives before it was contained. The pandemic occurred in three waves, with the second wave in autumn 1918 being the most lethal. Unlike typical flu outbreaks, this severely affected young, healthy adults as well as the elderly and sickly. The virus’s origin is uncertain, but it spread rapidly due to World War I troop movements around the globe.
At the height of the deadly 1918 flu pandemic, a devious 23-year-old woman named Julia Lyons saw her opportunity to profit from the chaos and desperation in Chicago. As the city struggled to treat an overwhelming number of flu victims, she devised a scheme to exploit the dire need for…
