Victor Lustig: The Man Who Conned the World

The period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man, and Victor Lustig was one of the most successful. He was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue, and spoke six languages. He duped banks and hotels, escaped from prisons, and swindled Al Capone out of thousands of dollars. His most famous hoax was the sale of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.

Format: Paperback / softback
Publication date: 25 July 2024
Publisher: The History Press Ltd

The period following the First World War was a time of great prosperity for the confidence man. In 1919, The Times wrote of a new breed of entrepreneur who was adept at separating others from their money. This individual, known as Victor Lustig (not his real name), was an Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak. By the age of 16, he had mastered the art of hustling at billiards and laying odds at the local racecourse. By 19, he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband. Despite this blemish, Lustig was a man of athletic good looks and a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases during his continent-hopping life. He also acted as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he duped numerous banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic, escaped from three supposedly impregnable prisons, and swindled Al Capone out of thousands of dollars. However, his greatest hoax was the sale of the Eiffel Tower in 1925 to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer. 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.

Weight: 438g
Dimension: 234 x 158 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803997711
Edition number: New ed