Smith Journal – January 2019

great villain of history

HE SCAMMED EVERYONE FROM THE POLICE TO AL CAPONE,

‘SOLD’ THE EIFFEL TOWER TWICE AND LITERALLY WROTE

THE BOOK ON BEING A CONMAN. MEET VICTOR LUSTIG,

THE GREATEST TRICKSTER OF ALL TIME.

Writer Anna Thwaites Illustrator Anjana Jain

BORN: January 4, 1890, Hostinné,
Austria-Hungary
DIED: March 11, 1947, Springfield,
Missouri, U.S.A.

............................................

IN THE TIME BEFORE NIGERIAN
PRINCES AND SHADY TEXTS
URGING YOU TO LOG IN TO YOUR
BANK ACCOUNT VIA THIS LINK,
CON ARTISTS HAD TO DEPEND
ON THE THING THAT GAVE THEM
THEIR NAME: CONFIDENCE.

Count Victor Lustig had this quality in
spades, as well as a devious mind for coming
up with elaborate and wholly convincing
scams, and the emotional intelligence to read
his marks like a book. In fact, his longest-
lasting con remains unsolved to this day:
his real name wasn’t Count Victor Lustig,
and although the authorities, when they
finally caught up with him, identified
him as Robert V. Miller, that proved
to be just another of his 47 aliases.

Verifiable facts are hard to come by, but
by the best reckoning the man known as

Lustig was born in Hostinné, a small town

in Austria-Hungary, in January 1890.

Born into a poor family, the clever and

quick-fingered child honed his skills on

the streets as a card sharp. According to

True Detective Mysteries magazine, the

young Lustig could make a deck of cards

“do everything but talk”, and regularly

tricked the wealthy and the foolish out

of their kronen with his sleights-of-hand

and eortless charm. As a young adult,

he noticed many of Europe’s wealthy

were leaving for the U.S. Lustig decided

to do the same – not to pursue a fresh

start in the Land of Opportunity, but

to continue conning them en route.

While aboard one trans-Atlantic ocean

liner, Lustig met and befriended Nicky

Arnstein, a master con artist also working

the high seas. Arnstein took Lustig under

his wing, and taught him to aim for the

big target instead of skimming small

amounts of money here and there. His

advice: “let the sucker suggest the game”

and they’ll practically demand you take

their money. Lustig would later distil the

advice he gleaned from Arnstein and

his own experiences into the ‘Ten

Commandments of the Con’ – a seminal

resource for shysters the world over.

Lustig found it easy to inspire a magical

combination of trust and greed in his marks.

He had a handsome, regionally ambiguous

face that might have come from anywhere in

Europe, was fluent in five languages (Czech,

German, English, French and Italian), and

assumed a kind of quiet importance, which

meant most people didn’t think to question

any position he claimed to hold. He was

also a master of disguise – he could swiftly

change from Count Lustig, dressed to the

nines in a top hat, cane and gloves, to Jack

the porter (handy when he needed to make

a quick escape with his luggage without

being suspected), to a hick farmer indignant

at being disturbed from his afternoon nap

as the authorities searched the train

for a fleeing con man.

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097 SMITH JOURNAL