This Woman Hid A Dark Secret For Two Decades Before Being Caught Out

A Troubled Youth

Charity Johnson was a troubled youth. After a difficult upbringing, Charity had appeared to develop some disturbing character traits. She was a compulsive liar, with a special talent for deceiving those around her.

Feared by Locals

“She was always scheming,” Ray Ward, a 66-year-old resident of Longview, told BuzzFeed in 2014. “She tried to read you. You’re not even thinking about her reading you like that, not a 14- or 15-year-old.”

A Budding Criminal

Left alone to her own scheming devices, Charity mastered the art of deception. She became a serial con artist. Fleeing from city to city, from Texas to North Carolina, Maryland to New Jersey, Charity would resort to manipulation in order to befriend and take advantage of many unsuspecting victims.

Rough Start

Charity Johnson – who also went by the name of Charity Stevens – had a rough start to her life. She was the daughter of a convicted murderer, who was serving a life sentence behind bars. Her mother, Shirley Anne Burton, was a long-time drug addict and paranoid schizophrenic.