‘Count’ Victor Lustig
America in the 1920s was a paradise for confidence tricksters and other impostors. The post-war boom years were a wild time, with fortunes being made and lost, and countless individuals blowing huge amounts of cash on outlandish schemes they hoped could pay off big time. But nobody took advantage of this heady atmosphere quite like Victor Lustig, arguably the greatest conman in American history. After all, this is the man who posed as a European aristocrat and sold the Eiffel Tower not once, but twice.
Born in a small town in Austria-Hungary in 1890, Lustig was soon making a living from crime. Despite his intellect, he struggled in formal education and, by 19, had moved to Paris and was a heavy gambler. Obviously, he didn’t like those odds, so he decided to use his intelligence and natural charms to scam people out of money. In particular, he targeted wealthy travelers aboard trans-Atlantic cruise ships, for instance by posing as a Broadway producer needing funding for a forthcoming show. It was here, while criss-crossing the Atlantic, that the persona of ‘Count Victor Lustig’ was born. With a regal title to go with the sharp intellect, cunning and gentlemanly charms, he would make a killing.
Most famous of all, Count Victor Lustig arrived in Paris in 1925 and soon hatched a plan to ‘sell’ the Eiffel Tower. With the help of forged paperwork , he posed as a government official informed some of France’s richest metal merchants that the landmark was due to be taken down and sold for scrap. After identifying a particularly gullible ‘mark’, he hinted that a sizable bribe would help win the lucrative contract. Of course, when this was paid, Count Victor promptly fled the country, confident that the duped man would be too embarrassed to call the police. The first time he tried this, he was right. The second time, however, the conned man did indeed call the police. Count Lustig was rumbled and was forced to flee to the United States.
Even his close call in Paris wasn’t enough to convince Lustig to stop the impersonations and scams and go straight. In America, he ran an infamous money counterfeiting scam, convincing greedy victims that his ‘Rumanian Box’ could fake any currency bill. He managed to get away with this, and other cons for years, and was only undone when he was betrayed by a scorned mistress. In 1935, Lustig was arrested in New York and eventually sentenced to 20 years on Alcatraz. He died 12 years into his sentence, leaving dozens, if not hundreds of false identities and many more victims behind him. And for anyone who is inspired rather than appalled by Lustig’s lies and cons? Well, his ‘Ten Commandments of the Con’ are still widely published today and are even seen as the ultimate guide to carrying out the perfect swindle.