He was one of the most famous cheaters in history. Audacious and self-confident, he remained elusive for a long time. For his most famous scam, he used ... the Eiffel Tower. Even now, it's hard to see its sidiness. Why? Because the person who is most often associated with Count Victor Lustig today actually used 40 other identities, each with its own colorful history.
Count Victor Lustig was born in January 1890 in the Czech Hostinné and came from an aristocratic Austro-Hungarian family. Though not entirely, because his parents might also have come from the middle class, and Ludwig's father might have been the mayor of Hostinné. But not entirely, as another story says that Victor Lustig was born as Robert V. Miller in one of the poorest peasant families living in today's borderlands of Poland and the Czech Republic. Where is the truth?
It's hard to say what the childhood and teenage years of one of the greatest frauds in history really looked like. The only thing historians are sure of is that Victor Lustig did not enter Paris until the age of 19, where he began to gamble while studying.
Although he was a very talented person (he spoke 7 languages fluently), he was not eager to learn. His main goal in life was fun, gambling and women. At the age of 19, he was passionate about the latter with a scar on his left cheek - a memento after a jealous boy had stabbed one of his lovers. Anyway, it is with women that Victor has had the most problems in his life, but let's not get ahead of the facts.
Clever criminal
He liked playing card scams in the French capital so much that he quickly decided to become a professional cheat. He made his first mischief on liners operating in the years 1909–1914 between France and New York. It was for their needs that he created the figure of Count Victor Lustig, a nobleman from Bohemia, who tricked rich passengers .
Well dressed, with behavior suggesting aristocratic roots, but at the same time devoid of arrogance - in this way he inspired the trust of future victims, and then drew money from them, e.g. to support the production of a play that he planned to show on Broadway. He was trained in scams by Nicky Arnstein, a famous gambler and husband of actress Fanny Brice. It was he who taught him how to rise to "a higher level of deception." And this knowledge found an exceptionally fertile ground.
The outbreak of World War I made it impossible for Lustig to travel frequently between the Old and New Continents. So he decided to settle down in Kansas City, where he started playing his first known scam - the so-called Rumanian Box.
It was a box that was supposed to print 100 dollar bills in 6 hours. The whole scam was that During the presentation of the product, Victor hid a real banknote in the machine, the authenticity of which he later confirmed in the bank. When the box was bought by the victim, usually for around $ 30,000, Victor would put another original in it to buy himself 12 hours to get away. After this time, the machine only released empty papers.
During his stay in the French capital, Victor came across an article in which some residents complained about the cost of maintaining the Eiffel Tower.
By design, the scam was difficult for victims to report, as the purchase was based on a crime. Interestingly, one of the buyers of the Rumanian Box was one of the Texas sheriffs. When he realized that he had been deceived, he set off in pursuit of Lustig all the way to Chicago. However, when he caught Victor, he managed to convince him that the machine was not working because he was not operating it properly. As compensation, the count gave him a large sum of money, which, however ... also turned out to be false.
It is not known how many scams Lustig actually made. In the years 1914–1925, he circulated between the US and Canada, tricking his victims into deceptions to which they later found it difficult to admit. And that was the key to the success of his rather long business. In Montreal, for example, he tricked a wealthy banker into $ 30,000 for placing bets on horse races. The man led out of the way, however, could not go to the police, as the transaction was based on his will to commit a crime.
In Missouri, as Robert Duval, Lustig pulled over American Savings Bank. He offered $ 32,000 in Liberty War Bonds, which he wanted to exchange for $ 10,000 and arable land. At the time of the exchange with the clerk, he changed the envelopes, leaving the bank with cash, bonds and the land granted. Of course, the bank hired a detective who tracked Victor down, but this one ... came out unscathed again.
Lustig convinced the bank that the indictment against him and thus making the fraud public would show American Savings as a place where incompetent people work. Managed to! No prosecution was brought, and the bank additionally paid Lustig $ 1,000 for his silence.
It was not the first time that Victor, thanks to his eloquence, avoided arrest. In total, he managed to repeat this trick about 40 times. However, not wanting to abuse American hospitality, he decided to go to France and disappear from the judicial radar. But he had no plans to return to the rule of law.
Eiffel Tower Sale
He returned to the Old Continent with his wife Roberta in 1919 and his daughter Bettie Jean. In May 1925 the family moved to Paris, where Lustig was about to make his most famous scam.
During his stay in the French capital, Victor came across an article in which some residents complained about the cost of maintaining the Eiffel Tower. The structure, which was created on the occasion of the World Exhibition in 1889, was to be a temporary structure . However, it has become a permanent element of both the city's landscape and its budget. The expenses related to it were not the lowest, and its condition was deteriorating in recent years.
After reading this information, a plan was born in Lustig's head. Under the guise of a secret government meeting, he invited representatives of 6 scrap metal traders to the prestigious Hôtel De Crillon. He made them an offer to sell the Eiffel Tower, claiming to be the deputy general director of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. For the sake of the public, the entire transaction was to be kept secret until closed.
Among those invited, Victor found his ideal victim - André Poisson. He was a young businessman who saw a chance for his first great success in the purchase of the tower. However, thanks to his sober-minded wife, who did not like the speed with which the transaction was going, André began to have doubts. To dispel them, Lustig organized a separate meeting for the couple, at which, like a racial official, suggested that the business would require a bribe to be successful.
This step reassured the Poissons, as they dealt with corrupt office workers on a daily basis, which was not a major problem for them. This is how Victor sold the Eiffel Tower and made an extra bribe in the process. As soon as the money was in his hands, he fled to Vienna along with two accomplices helping him with the scam. And Poisson? He did nothing about it. He felt too humiliated to report anything to the police.
A month later, Lustig returned to Paris to repeat the scam. This time, however, the traders realized that something was wrong with all of this and reported to the police. The trickster, however, escaped and returned to America.
Subsequent scams ran smoothly, one of which fell victim to Al Capone himself. Victor convinced the mafia to invest $ 50,000 in stocks.
Bad things happened in his private life then. He had a long relationship with his lover Billie Mae Scheible. When Roberta found out about her husband's affair, she tried to run over him by car. They divorced, but the passion between the two was so strong that after a while they stood on the wedding carpet again only to… get divorced again, after Victor was caught by Roberta and Billie at the hotel they were staying in.
However, heart problems did not prevent Lustig from achieving professional success. Subsequent scams ran smoothly, one of which fell victim to Al Capone himself. Victor convinced the mafia to invest $ 50,000 in stocks. Then he transferred the received money to the deposit and after a few months he returned with the information that the shares unfortunately did not bring any profit, so he is giving back what he had received. Al Capone was so impressed with Lustig's honesty that he gave him $ 5,000.
The fun is over
Happiness couldn't last forever. During the Great Depression, Lustig chose to work with chemist Tom Shaw, with whom he circulated $ 1,000,000 in fake. The appearance of such a huge sum in circulation caught the attention of the Secret Service, which ultimately led to the arrest of Lustig in May 1935. His ex-lover Billie Mae helped with all the action.
In November of the same year, he was sentenced to 20 years in Alcatraz (where Al Capone was already sitting). However, he did not fulfill his sentence in full. He died of pneumonia on March 11, 1947, leaving behind his famous 10 Commandments of a trickster.
- Be a patient listener (never speak fast, let others express themselves first).
- Never look bored.
- Wait for others to express their political views, then agree with them.
- Let your interlocutor reveal their religious views first, say you have the same.
- Make a conversation about sex, but never offer it, unless the person shows a strong interest.
- Never talk about disease unless it's a special problem.
- Never interfere with a person's personal life (she will tell you everything herself).
- Never brag (act as if your importance was obvious).
- Never be neglected.
- Never get drunk.