Boston, and Ponzi was in no position to support her in any event. In Italy, Ponzi jumped from scheme to scheme, but little came of them. He eventually got a job in Brazil as an agent for Ala Littoria, the Italian state airline. During World War II, however, the airline's operation in the country was shut down after the British intelligence services intervened and Brazil sided with the Allies. During that time, Ponzi also wrote his autobiography. Death Ponzi spent the last years of his life in poverty, working occasionally as a translator. His health deteriorated and in 1941 a heart attack left him considerably weakened. His eyesight began failing, and by 1948 he was almost completely blind. A brain hemorrhage paralyzed his left leg and arm. Ponzi died in a charity hospital in Rio de Janeiro, the Hospital São Francisco de Assis of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, on January 18, 1949. Supported by his last and only friend, Francisco Nonato Nunes, a barber who spoke English and had notions of Italian, Ponzi granted one last interview to an American reporter, telling him, "Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought, I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over." In popular culture A fourth-season episode of Comedy Central's Drunk History, "Scoundrels," included the story of Ponzi and McMasters, with Jesse Plemons portraying Ponzi and Ed Helms portraying McMasters, with an inebriated Chris Romano recounting the story. In season one of Boardwalk Empire, a minor character reveals that he lost all of his money to Ponzi. In discussing a solution to this money problems, the Earl of Grantham mentions Ponzi's promise of huge returns as a possible course of action to his family in Downton Abbey. On Murdoch Mysteries Home for the Holidays special Inspector Brankenreid is conned by Ponzi and The Inspector and Constable Crabtree work to get the money back. See also Victor Lustig Arthur Nadel Bernie Madoff References Bibliography The History Channel. "In Search of History: Mr. Ponzi and His Scheme". February 9, 2000. (AAE-42325, ) Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez, Math on Trial: How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom, Basic Books, 2013. . (Eighth chapter: "Math error