Vintage Spotlight: The Art of the Confidence Trick

Howdy! I know this Vintage Spotlight is a bit different from anything I've featured on the site so far, but with this month being the home of April Fools' Day I thought I'd focus on a form of pranking. Unlike many April Fools' pranks though, these are neither light-hearted or innocent in nature. Confidence tricksters take the essence of a prank, thriving on the unsuspecting nature of the victim, building their confidence, but then they take things to another level by making a bet that the victim inevitably loses.

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During my blogger/satellite hiatus last year, I found the first season of a show called Hustling America on Netflix, where a magician and con artist retraces the steps of some of America's best confidence tricksters, recreating their most infamous cons and pulling a few of his own in the process. I was really intrigued, because this show explores a lot of the detail that confidence tricksters go to in order to truly catch and trick their victims. The fact that the host, Alexis Conran, is also a magician added another level of intrigue to it for me because aren't they confidence tricksters in a way? I loved the show, and I really liked hearing about these old school con men. I didn't like that they fleeced innocent victims, but I did love the genius and the thought that went into some of those ideas. So I thought I'd talk a little about the more famous confidence tricksters, a few of whom had their cons recreated on Hustling America. Some of their tricks are still being used today, others have had their cons revised to include a bit of current elements, and others are now the stuff of legends. 

Before I get started though, I hope that this post doesn't make it sound like I'm glorifying con artistry; I'm not. I don't like the concept of fleecing innocent people, taking their money and not doing so in a playful way. These tricks aren't fun and games. It's basically thievery because they go into the situation knowing that they're probably going to win and the poor bloke won't know what hit them, and when they do realize it it'll be after their pockets have been emptied. They can be humiliating, degrading, and devastating for those who get taken for their money. Some people lost their life savings through confidence tricks back in the day and I'm not trivializing the damage that these con artists can do to one's life. I will say though that I'm a bit intrigued at the science behind these tricks. I'm interested in the trick itself, not the damage and fallout it creates. I thought I'd just get that bit out of the way before I move into the meat of the post. Since we opened up the month with the biggest pranking day of the year, let's close it out with some cons throughout history. Let's get started!

 

Hustling America had a heavy dose of inspiration from this man, who was infamous for his numerous talents, hustling being one of them, in the early 20th century. Titanic Thompson, "The Man Who Bet on Everything," thrived off of many types of hustles, but he really would bet on anything. Pool games, golf, horses, one-off bets, sports, all of it. He spent all of his free time either perfecting a hustle or creating new ones. His mind constantly raced at the thought of creating and performing new hustles successfully. One of his many specialties was the proposition bet, where he'd proposition a mark with a trick that usually sounded unbelievable, causing the mark to think they were about to make some easy money and agree. Here are some of the hustles he performed:

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--Playing someone in pool or golf right-handed and purposely throwing the game, then proposing another game, but with the 'disadvantage' of him playing left-handed. Thompson was ambidextrous and primarily left-handed, a little known fact at the time, so this hustle was usually successful.

--Betting someone he could throw a certain amount of cards into a hat placed at a distance. This was a trick recreated on Hustling America, where it was revealed that Titanic had practiced this trick for hours, and Alex later had to practice for hours as well in order to properly recreate it.

--Finding a dog owner and tossing a marked rock into a nearby lake, then betting the owner that the dog would bring back the exact rock. This bet was successful because Titanic usually marked several other rocks with a similar appearance before finding his mark, then simply throwing the rock into the general vicinity of his marked rocks. This bet was also recreated on Hustling America.

--Another trick of Titanic's was betting his mark that he could toss a lemon (or in the case of Hustling America, a walnut) over a wide building. This trick was usually successful and the mark could never figure out why they failed. The lemon (and walnut) was pre-weighted with a tiny lead ball before the trick was executed, so the weighted object always cleared the building, while the other did not. 

--My favorite of Titanic's tricks, mainly because it was so obviously a con, was his bet that he would put a hat in a closet, close the door, and successfully toss the cards under the door into the hat. The mark always fell for it, probably because of its 'unbelievable' factor, and when the mark was able to see that the cards did indeed make it into the hat, they were always stunned. Titanic was good with the cards, but he wasn't that good. His friend would hide out in the closet, where he'd put the cards in the hat as they slid under the door. The mark never found out, and this too was usually a successful hustle. 

There are many other tricks of Titanic's that he perfected over the years, but those were some of my favorites. Let's move on to a different kind of con artist. This one intrigued me because I'd never heard of it before until I started researching for this post. To my surprise (and permanent amusement), the phrase, "If you believe that, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you," has complete basis in truth. People have been trying to sell bridges and public landmarks for years now. But there's one man who tops them all in that category. 

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Gregor MacGregor pulled probably the largest confidence trick of all time. Back in the early 1800s, he told people he had a country to sell them. More specifically, he had land in a new country he wanted people to invest in. The fictional country of Poyais was said to have a stable government system in place, was overflowing with unused natural resources, and had a small community that was looking to be expanded. MacGregor brought his A+ game to convince his marks; each investor was shown detailed maps of the land, the country's currency, and even a book that went into more detail about Poyais. There was even a coat of arms for this place. After getting settlers to invest, MacGregor went out, claiming to be putting the money into the Poyais government and gain more investors, but was never seen by any of the settlers again. Nearly 300 British residents invested in buying plots of land and set out on ships to start their new lives. So imagine their surprise when they traveled to the designated location only to find that not their supposed new land, which some had invested thousands of pounds in, was actually an uninhabited patch of jungle. The journey to the land was a rough one, and many of the settlers succumbed to illness. MacGregor attempted to pull the trick again in France and had succeeded in getting interested French settlers, but was arrested before the con could fully be pulled again. After a few years, he returned to the original scene of his con, in London, where he continued to pull lesser forms of property fraud cons for awhile afterward.

--Salting gold and uranium mines were both popular scams, especially during the Gold Rush and uranium boom of the '50s. Scam artists would find gold mines, salt them well and slip a few uncut diamonds throughout. then sell them to an eager buyer who ended up with fool's gold at best, and absolutely nothing at worst. By then, it was too late and the hustlers were already gone, presumably off to fleece their next victim. During the uranium boom, the hustlers would wrap gas mantles around a stick of dynamite and set them off, and for the miners who relied on the Geiger method, the high radiation reading was usually the selling point. Again, by the time the victim found out they'd purchased a salted uranium mine, the hustlers were long gone. 

--One of the smaller, yet still prominent cons is the ever-popular 'swampland for sale' hustle in Florida (which I learned about from watching The Nanny lol). In this scam, a 'representative' from a developing company would approach the victims, convincing them to purchase the land sight unseen. Back in the '60s and '70s, the scam had become so popular that a law was created in order to restore the state's damaged reputation. 

--The most recent reported case of land fraud was earlier this month in Ludhiana, India, when three people were arrested for selling land and using a fake owner to do so. The land, however, was already owned, and the men were quickly apprehended after the new 'owner' moved in on the land, which technically made him an encroacher (Spellcheck is saying that's not a word, but it is now lol) on the original owner's property.

Here are a couple of infamous "I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you" landmark cons:

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--George Parker sold a number of public national landmarks to people, but he is most commonly known for selling the Brooklyn Bridge to citizens; sometimes he even 'sold' the bridge to two different owners in a week. This continued for 30 years! Some of the new 'owners' tried to set up toll booths on the bridge, enticed by Parker's claims of sudden wealth due to the toll fees, and were stopped by the police, where they were informed that they'd been fleeced. It is his Brooklyn Bridge con, actually, that gave birth to the "I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you" expression. He also 'sold' Grant's Tomb, MSG, and the Statue of Liberty, but his most consistent con was the Brooklyn Bridge.

--Not long after Parker started his Brooklyn Bridge con, a man named Victor Lustig jumped on the bandwagon. He was a con man who pulled a number of different hustles, but was known for what is now called the money box scheme, and for selling the Eiffel Tower twice. By going to elaborate lengths, he successfully convinced a group of men that the Eiffel Tower was going to be dismantled and sold off for scrap metal, and received bids as well as a bribe. He tried it a second time, but was unsuccessful. Lustig, much like the others on this list, was a career criminal. His tips and tricks for running a successful con were so well-researched through his interactions with his marks that the legendary "Ten Commandments of the Con Man" is attributed to him. 

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--One of the easiest cons to pull back in the day was in the paranormal field, where the bereaved and spiritually curious were always ripe for the taking by the clever men and women who learned all the tricks of the trade. The name that came up over and over while I was researching this post was the Fox sisters, who conned innocents for years before being revealed as frauds. The Spiritualist movement in the 1800s was born partially through their 'gifts' being exposed to the public. After receiving their first bit of attention, their older sister joined in, making the Fox spiritualists a trio act. The seances and communication efforts began to increase in intensity during this time as well; from the initial rapping that usually signified the 'communication attempts' of a spirit, eventually, 'spirits' began to appear and items in the room began to levitate. The Fox sisters became one of the poster acts of the Spiritualist movement, but their fame came at a price. The movement declined some time later in both popularity and acclaim when many of the popular mediums were later exposed as frauds. By the Fox sisters died, they were penniless drunks, were said to have fallen out with their older sister, and had since confessed (then recanted) to lying about their abilities to speak with the dead.  

--That brings me to the typical paranormal cons that we still see on some level today. Psychics will ask questions that help them determine basic things about you, like your name, names in your family history, or the state you were born in. Notice that many quacks won't ask you questions or details that cannot be answered with a 'yes' or 'no.' If you're into astrology and horoscopes, mediums who claim some deeper spiritual connection will send you emails informing you that you are actually cursed, but with their help you can remove the curse and unlock the life of your dreams. For a price, of course. lol 

The latter of these I actually fell for a few years ago, or at least the first half of it. I got some emails from a medium, telling me that my life was cursed and enticing me with questions that she says I'd asked myself while trying to better my life. You don't really need to be a psychic to tell me that my life sucks LOL, but I still wondered if there was one who was genuine amongst the black hole of quacks making a living in this field. And I had asked myself some of the questions in her email, but they were questions that everyone at some point asks themselves. I didn't realize that at the time so I said, I'll bite, and responded to the email. I had to answer a questionnaire where nothing personal was asked, it was about my birthplace, birthdate, desires and fears and what I needed most, all in multiple choice form. I got an email a couple of days later, saying that I was due to come into a large quantity of money (which I'm supposing would have been wonderful for her, seeing as how she was about to ask me for a substantial portion of it lol) and blessings, but I hadn't removed the negativity from my life in order to receive them. Which was true, but isn't that true for most people who are going through a rough period? And when most people go to these psychics, what are they after? Career advancement, love, or money. If I already said I was in need of money, it's not too difficult after that to tell me what I want to hear. I wasn't sold, but I was desperate for answers, which is what these mediums thrive on. People will pay inordinate amounts of money to receive the 'right' answer when they're desperate. Unfortunately for this one, I was desperate but broke, so there was nothing for me to give her. 

When I didn't pay, I started being sent emails talking about how something bad was about to happen to me and I really needed to talk to her, I really needed her tools for how to cope with what was about to happen. At first it really scared me, because I already had enough going on in my life and had no idea what was coming next. And that's when things clicked for me. If you knew that something bad was about to happen to someone and you had the opportunity to warn them, wouldn't you do so free of charge? Would you spend time fear-mongering them, teasing them with the knowledge you have, scaring them into paying you? And if they don't pay you, would you just let this bad thing happen to them? I wouldn't. So I looked up this 'medium,' and as it turns out, she'd been reported to several different paranormal and regular scam sites, where she was said to have taken thousands of victims' money without ever delivering on her promises. Well of course she didn't deliver, she'd been lying! 

Nothing bad happened to me on the date that she said, I removed my email from her system, had it blocked in my incoming email addresses, and never heard from her again. I know that makes me look like a fool, but I was going through a really intensely bad chapter in my life. I was looking for an answer wherever I thought I could find one. But that's what frauds prey on. The desperate, the life-weary, the naive. And for many people, fear-mongering works to separate them from their wallet. I didn't know how psychics worked before that, but I learned my lesson. I understand that you won't give out a genuine gift for free, but you also won't scare and tease your victim with what you know about them either, then sit back and let this unknown thing happen to them, knowing you could have helped.

And on that personal, yet slightly embarrassing note, I'll cut things short (ha) here rather than run the risk of this Spotlight running longer than my Harlem Renaissance post (which would be an enormous stretch but if anyone can do it, it's me LOL). I didn't cover larger schemes like the Ponzi, Madoff and Catch Me If You Can because we already know how those ended up. I wanted to do some others that hopefully you hadn't heard about before. I really do hope you all have been enjoying these posts; the Instagram and different Vintage Spotlight posts have been a lot of fun to research and write out and I hope you've been getting something out of them. I gave my Files series a much needed break this month but they'll be back next week. Anyway, I sincerely hope you've enjoyed reading and learning along with me as I do these posts. I'm trying to step it up and make my Spotlight posts fun but informative. This will probably go live during TNT, so I hope you're watching. See you on Monday!

See you soon,