Their charm and confidence made people fall to their trickery.
Let’s have a look at these con-men whose legendary cons not only bewildered people but also amazed them. It is crazy to think some of them were able to pull off things which no one in a sane mind would believe. So, let’s sit back and know about the greatest cons that have ever been made by some genius minds.
The Confidence Man.
In the year 1849, a man named William Thompson was able to pull such a ridiculous yet genius con that left people speechless. And the best part, he did the same thing to multiple people, and still, people fell for it. He was quite a smooth talker and would win people’s confidence quite quickly and then would ask them that if they had enough confidence in him to lend their watch? And people did! They used to hand him their costly watches, which he never returned, of course. So, when the press came to know about his trickery, they dubbed him as the” Confidence Man”, and he even served as an inspiration for Herman Melville’s novel “The Confidence Man- His Masquerade”.
The genius who pawned the famous Eiffel Tower.
In the year 1925, a man named Victor Lustig made a foolproof plan of pawning the famous Eiffel Tower. He appointed himself as Deputy Director of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Then he very cleverly took bids from various scrap metal dealers who were told that Eiffel Tower was to be dismantled. A scrap dealer named Andre Poisson won the prestigious bid. After a while, he realized that he had been duped, and the Eiffel Tower was never meant to dismantle. He was so humiliated by this trickery that he didn’t even report the scam to the local authorities.
The man who allegedly sold Brooklyn bridge twice a week!
A name named George C. Parker was such a great con artist that he was known to sell the great monuments. At the height of his notoriety, he sold Brooklyn bridge twice a week! Not only Brooklyn bridge but also the statue of liberty, Grant’s Tomb also. He could produce duplicate and “forged” documents to vulnerable tourists and cleverly sold the said monument or bridge. He even convinced the buyers that they would have control over the roadways leading to Manhattan. His exploits were immortalized by the phrase “I have a bridge to sell you”.
Which one of these stories surprised you the most?
