George Hayford (born September 8, 1858) was a 19th- and early 20th-century lawyer who was noted as a forger and who served time in both Oregon and California for obtaining money under false pretenses. As a con man, he claimed to be attorney general of Oregon and to have been working under cover to investigate conditions at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. He was also the topic of gossip detailing his relationship with a teenage girl whom he took under his care. Hayford was the subject of a manhunt when he leaped from a moving train during one of his arrests.