The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman

I was gripped and watched all 3 parts in one sitting. The arrogance of this criminal is astounding yet his stories are so readily accepted by his victims.

No, the victims in this story are not gullible. They are subject to the persistence and deviousness of a master manipulator. If you cannot believe anyone would be deceived by someone like this then how do you explain the success of cults?

If nothing else, you should watch this for the brilliance of Sarah's dad alone. He kept going when it seemed impossible and hasn't lost his strength or compassion despite dealing with a terrible situation for ten years. His wisdom is amazing.

How on Earth can one man have such an influence over people, and how can people allow themselves to be taken over by someone, this revealing three part series explores the concepts.

Perhaps a little guilty of being over long, but there is a fascinating, but very sad story here. Part one is a little drawn out, but stick with it, as the other two installments are very satisfying.

Yes it's focused on one man's crimes, but it's so much more than that, it's a real exploration of human nature, the good and bad sides.

One thing you'll come away with, is a certainty that monsters aren't just in fairy stories, they are real, and two of them are explored in this series.

Well produced, well made, it's definitely a crime that'll have you bemused at how he got away with it for so long. Heaven knows what is brewing next for some poor unfortunate. I'd love to know what it was that they saw in him.

It's sad, surprising, entertaining, well worth your time, 8/10.

Well, it is the first time I have heard of the story so I was pretty intrigued. However, now after finishing it I am left puzzled at how he managed to trick the people into believing all this crap. They just said that he was very convincing but I just don't buy it. And the story fails to give any explaination on how one person manages to do all this by himself, how he could possibly handle different people during the same time while also going to work. It must have been a lot of planning. The whole storytelling is not 'round'. I feel sorry for the victims and I do not want to do victim blaming. However, that is what the whole story fails. It just doesnt give answers. Like the tinder swindler gives a good explaination on how he was able to pull his thing off and make them all fall for him. I mean, of course, the 90ies were different and people didnt have much access to information and maybe people were more gullible back then. But nonetheless. What does it take to be as convincing to make people believe you were actually working for MI5 and hand over all their money??? How can someone not realize after a short time that this was only about money??? I still have no answer. Above all, every little kid knows that nobody really working for an intelligence service would ever disclose this information at any time. Now somebody comes around the corner and keeps on bragging about it. How can you fall for it? I still don't know since I havent got any answer. This documentary is a nice time pass, however, I will now have to look the story up online in order to find out more about it, which is actually a bad sign after just having seen a documentary on it.

I see a lot of reviews here talking about how crazy it is to this to think or discover that this man is who he is.. I study criminal psychology and I can tell you not only has he done this before, but given a chance he'd do it again.

Never ever underestimate anyone anyone. Learn the signs and learn to profile.

The series does a great job of showing the damage a conman does by interviewing the relatives of the women he has taken away from them. It is heartbreaking to hear children talk about being abandoned by their mother, and to hear a dad say, "Then I knew it was about the money," (I would have given anything to have Peter Smith for my dad.)

That said, when the conman's preposterous lies are revealed, it's really hard to see how those women could have been that naive. Or, maybe, a better way to say this is that it's hard to understand how a conman knows how to find the women when they are both deeply vulnerable and have money. A conman is a psychopath. A conman who gets a Netflix series is a conman who is a psychopath with good hunting skills.

Always do a background check, and never lend money, folks.

The series isn't perfect, but it's short, always remembers the victims and won't waste your time,