The man selling the Eiffel Tower. twice.

April 27, 1936,

The air was as fresh as a hundred-dollar bill. A southwesterly wind fills the bright white sails of a cruise ship crossing the San Francisco Bay. Through the cabin window of a ferry boat, a man studies the horizon. His tired eyes were covered with a hood, his dark hair was slicked back, and his hands and feet were chained. Behind a gray mist, he saw Alcatraz for the first time. Victor Lustig, then 46 years old, was America's most dangerous conman. During his long criminal career, his sleight of hand and get-rich-quick tricks rocked Jazz Age America and the rest of the world. In Paris, he sold the Eiffel Tower, not once, but twice, in a bold game of confidence. Finally, in 1935, Lustig was caught orchestrating a massive counterfeiting operation that threatened to shake confidence in the American economy. A New York judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison on Alcatraz Island. The Handsome Devil (Kindle Single)

For fans of "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Sting," The Handsome Devil is the dazzling true story of Count Victor Lustig, a historical The boldest and most flamboyant liar in the world. Buy

Lustig did not come to the Rock like the other prisoners. He dresses like a matinee idol, has a hypnotic charisma, speaks five languages ??fluently, and evades the law like a character in a novel. In fact, the Milwaukee Journal described him as "a storybook character." One Secret Service agent wrote that Lustig was "as elusive as a wisp of cigarette smoke and as captivating as a young girl's dreams," while the New York Times editorialized: "He is not the type to be too... The fake Count who loves kissing other people's hands. He is not a dramatic person, but a reserved, noble person.

This fake title is just a hint of Lustig's scam. Using 47 aliases and carrying dozens of false passports, he created a web of lies so thick that to this day his true identity remains shrouded in mystery. On his Alcatraz paperwork, prison officials refer to him as " Robert V. Miller," which was just another of his pseudonyms. The con man had always claimed to come from a long line of nobles who owned European castles, but newly discovered documents reveal that he had more humble beginnings.

In a prison interview, he told investigators that he was born on January 4, 1890, in the Austro-Hungarian town of Hostin. During his criminal spree, Lustig boasted that his father, Ludwig, was the town's mayor. Described by his mother as "the poorest of peasants", they kept him in a gloomy stone house, where Lustig claimed he stole to survive, but only out of greed and dishonesty.

More details about Lustig's childhood can be found in various true crime magazines of the time, as provided by his criminal associates and investigators in the early 1900s. As a teenager, Lustig rose up the criminal ladder from beggar to pickpocket to thief to street hustler, perfecting every known card trick, according to Live Detective Mystery magazine. : “Palming, sliding cards from the pile, trading from the bottom,” and by the time he was an adult, Lustig could make a deck of cards that “did everything but talk. ” Lustig’s FBI fingerprint file (courtesy of Jeff) First class passengers on the transatlantic ship became his first victims. Newly wealthy people were easy targets. Chapter When Lustig arrived in the United States at the end of World War I, the "Roaring Twenties" were in full swing, and money was changing hands at a feverish pace. Lustig was soon sold in 40 cities across the United States. Detectives called it "The Scar," thanks to a 2.5-inch-deep gash on his left cheekbone, a souvenir from a love rival in Paris. But Lustig was a liar who never took it. The "Milkshake" of the gun, who loved playing with butterflies, was only 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds.

His most successful scam was the "Romanian Money Box." A small box made of cedar wood with folded rollers and a brass dial. Lustig claimed that this device could replicate banknotes using "radium", which he sometimes gave to his victims by the name of "Dapper" Dan Collins. Lustig's repertoire also included fake horse racing schemes, fake forfeitures at business meetings, and false accusations. Real estate investment. These hoots made him a public enemy and a millionaire. A counterfeit $5 bill believed to have been created by Lustig and Watts in the 1920s.

America is rife with this kind of self-confidence scam run by smooth-talking immigrants like Charles Ponzi (the namesake of the "Ponzi scheme").

These European con men are professionals, they call their victims "marks" instead of suckers, and they act like thugs but like gentlemen. According to the crime magazine True Detective, Lustig was a man with "one hand grasping society and the other the underworld...a flesh-and-blood Jekyll Hyde" but he was responsible for all of them. Women are respected. On November 3, 1919, he married a beautiful Kansas native named Roberta Norrett. A memoir by Lustig's late daughter recalls how Lustig raised a secret family on which he squandered his ill-gotten gains. He spent the rest of his money gambling on his lover Billie Mae Scheber, the buxom boss of a million-dollar prostitution scam.

Then, in 1925, he started what fraud experts call "The Big Store."

According to his memoirs in "American Secrets," Lustig arrived in Paris in May of that year to serve Agent James Johnson. There, Lustig sent a stationer carrying the official seal of the French ***. Next he appeared in the reception hall of the H?tel de Crillon, a stone palace on the Place de la Concorde. From then on, Lustig pretended to be a French government official and wrote to senior figures in the French scrap metal industry, inviting them to meetings at the hotel.

"The demolition of the Eiffel Tower is mandatory due to engineering failures, expensive repairs and political issues that I cannot discuss," he said, reportedly telling them in a quiet hotel room. He announced that the tower would be sold to the highest bidder. His audience was captivated, and their bids poured in. Sources say this was a scam Lustig pulled off more than once. Surprisingly, the con man loved to brag about his criminal exploits and even wrote a list of rules for would-be con men. Still circulating today:

's Ten Commandments. Be a patient listener (it is this, not quick talk, that makes a liar achieve his political success).

2. Don't ever get bored.

3. Wait for the other person to reveal any political views and then agree with them.

4. Let the other person reveal their religious views and then share the same views.

5. Talk suggestively, but don't follow up unless the other person shows strong interest. Do not discuss illness unless there is a specific concern.

7. Never pry into a person's personal situation (they will eventually tell you everything).

8. Don't boast. Let your importance creep in.

9. Never mess.

10. Never get drunk.

Like many career criminals, it was greed that led to Lustig's death. On December 11, 1928, businessman Thomas Kearns invited Lustig to his home in Massachusetts to discuss investments. Lustig climbed upstairs and stole $16,000 from a drawer. This kind of slick theft was not normal for the crook, Kearns screamed at the police. Lustig then daringly tricked a Texas sheriff into using his money box and later gave him counterfeit money, attracting the attention of the Secret Service. Another agent named Frank Sackler wrote: "Victor Lustig is the leading figure in modern crime. He is the only person I have ever heard of who defrauded the law."

However, it was Secret Service agent Peter Rubano who vowed to put Lustig behind bars. Rubano was a burly Italian-American with a double chin, melancholy eyes, and endless ambition. Born and raised in the Bronx, Rubano became famous for entrapping notorious gangster "Wolf" Lupo. Rubano was delighted to see his name in the paper and would spend years trying to catch Rusig. In 1930, when the Austrians entered the counterfeit currency market, Lustig fell into Rubano's crosshairs.

Teaming up with gangster counterfeiter William Watts, Lustig created banknotes that were flawless and even fooled bank tellers. "The Lustig Watts note was the supernote of its era," said Joseph Bolling, chief judge of the American Numismatic Association and an expert on authenticating banknotes. Later, a judge noted that Lustig boldly chose to copy $100 bills, most of which were scrutinized by bank tellers and became "like some other ***, issuing notes with The U.S. Treasury Department competes.” People are worried that a large number of counterfeit banknotes may shake the international community's confidence in the US dollar.

What followed became a cat-and-mouse game for Rubano and the Secret Service. Lustig travels with a suitcase of disguises and could easily have become a rabbi, priest, bellman, or porter. He dresses like a bellman and can escape from any hotel in a pinch, even taking his luggage with him. But the net is closing in. This photo of "The Count" (right) is from May 10, 1935. On a street corner in New York, Lustig finally felt someone tugging on the velvet collar of his Chesterfield coat. A voice commanded: "Hands in the air."

Lustig studied the crowd around him and noticed Agent Rubano, who led him away in handcuffs. This is a victory for the Secret Service. But not long after,

On the Sunday before Labor Day, September 1, 1935, Lustig escaped from the "no escape" federal detention center in Manhattan. He made a rope out of a bed sheet, threaded it through the railing, and swung it out of the window like Tarzan in the city. When a group of onlookers stopped and pointed, the prisoner pulled a rag from his pocket and pretended to be a window cleaner. Lustig stood up, bowed politely to the audience, and galloped away "like a deer." Police rushed to his cell. They find a handwritten note on his pillow, an excerpt from Hugo's Les Miserables:

He allowed himself to be led into a promise; Valjean had his promise. Even to criminals, especially to criminals. It can give the prisoner confidence and guide him on the right path. Laws are not made by God and people can make mistakes.

Lustig remained on the run from the law until the evening of Saturday, September 28, 1935. In Pittsburgh, the rampaging con man hid in a waiting car on the city's north side. FBI Agent G.K. Firestone, observing from a concealed position, sent the signal to Pittsburgh Secret Service Agent Fred Gruber. Two federal officers jumped into their cars and gave chase,

driving nine blocks abreast, their engines roaring. When Lustig's driver refused to stop, the agents rammed their vehicle into his, locking the wheels together. Sparks flew. The car suddenly stopped. The agents drew their weapons and opened the door. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Lustig told his captors: "Okay, kids, here I come.

”

Count Victor Lustig was brought before the judge