Victor Lustig (eBook)

The Man Who Conned the World

Christopher Sandford (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
320 Seiten
The History Press (Verlag)
978-0-7509-9823-9 (ISBN)

Infos

The period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man. 'A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,' The Times wrote in 1919. 'He is prone to the most detestable tactics, and is a stranger to charity and public spirit. One may nonetheless note his acuity in separating others from their money.' Enter Victor Lustig (not his real name). An Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, by the age of 16 he had learned how to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse. By 19 he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.
That blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.
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.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.7.2021
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Kriminologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: Al Capone • Alcatraz • austro-hungar • con artist • con-man • conman • Crime • Eiffel Tower • France • french archives nationales • Germany • Hoax • rumanian box • scam • The Man Who conned the World • Thriller • True Crime • Victor Lustig • Victor Lustig, The Man Who conned the World, thriller, al capone, eiffel tower, rumanian box, con-man, conman, con artist, austro-hungar, alcatraz, france, germany, french archives nationales, crime, true crime, world war • Victor Lustig, The Man Who Sold the World, thriller, al capone, eiffel tower, rumanian box, con-man, conman, con artist, austro-hungar, alcatraz, france, germany, french archives nationales, crime, true crime, world war • World War
• ISBN-10: 0-7509-9823-7 / 0750998237
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7509-9823-9 / 9780750998239