- Publisher: History Press
- Year: 2021
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 320pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 240x165mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.6kg
- ISBN: 9780750993678
- Product code: 530084
- Other conditions available
Victor Lustig
The Man Who Conned the World
Christopher Sandford New Hardback Illustrated
Postscript summary
It may seem unlikely that anyone could be convinced that the Eiffel Tower was for sale or that a magical machine was able to perfectly duplicate any bank note, but Austro-Hungarian born conman Victor Lustig managed both during his criminal career in the 1920s and 1930s. This volume records his remarkable life, which included espionage, prison breaks and dozens of audacious cons including duping Al Capone into handing over thousands of dollars.
Product information
Full publisher description
The period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man. 'A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,' The Times wrote in 1919. 'He is prone to the most detestable tactics, and is a stranger to charity and public spirit. One may nonetheless note his acuity in separating others from their money.' Enter Victor Lustig (not his real name). An Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, by the age of 16 he had learned how to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse. By 19 he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.
That blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.
In a narrative that thrills like a crime caper, best-selling biographer Christopher Sandford draws on newly released documents to tell the whole story of the greatest conman of the twentieth century.
That blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.
In a narrative that thrills like a crime caper, best-selling biographer Christopher Sandford draws on newly released documents to tell the whole story of the greatest conman of the twentieth century.
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Other conditions available
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Victor LustigChristopher SandfordCondition: New - AcceptableRRP £20.00now Publ £8.99sale Now £3.99
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Victor Lustig
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It may seem unlikely that anyone could be convinced that the Eiffel Tower was for sale or that a magical machine was able to perfectly duplicate any bank note, but Austro-Hungarian born conman Victor Lustig managed both during his criminal career in the 1920s and 1930s. This volume records his remarkable life, which included espionage, prison breaks and dozens of audacious cons including duping Al Capone into handing over thousands of dollars.
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Christopher Sandford
General
240x165mm
History Press
Yes
Hardback
20th Century
