Skip to main content

Victor Lustig, the Con Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

Lustig pictured center
Victor Lustig, who preferred to be called Count Lustig, in spite of having no claim to the title, was an early 20th century confidence man. To hear some tell it, he was one of the greatest con artists of all time. He was always smooth and composed–the antithesis of the fast-talking con man. It was this poise combined with a knack for swindling that earned him a reputation as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice. While not exactly true, he did earn a pretty penny running scams.

The 81-story wrought iron Eiffel Tower was designed and constructed for the 1889 World's Fair. Even before construction began, there were people who hated it. One group even called it a monstrosity. It was quite an unusual structure for Paris at the time. It would definitely stand out, but construction commenced anyway. Victor Lustig was born the January after construction on the monument ended.

Lustig got the idea for his most famous con while reading about the Eiffel Tower in 1925. He learned that the rusting monument was proving costly to upkeep. There was some talk of tearing it down. It was never meant to remain in the city anyway. Lustig figured out a way to take advantage of this talk, devising a plan to get big scrap metal dealers to bid on the Eiffel Tower.

He had to look authentic, so Lustig stayed at a fancy hotel, rented limousines and used the official alias of Deputy Director of the Ministere de Postes et Telegraphs. He had 7,000 tons of scrap metal to pretend to sell, so he had to make the deal sound lucrative, and he had to make himself look like a true politician. So, Victor Lustig chose a mark from among the scrap dealers and offered him a deal. If the man gave Lustig $70,000, he'd ensure the man's company got the Eiffel Tower.

Victor Lustig got the bribe money and left the country. Andre Poisson, the man he swindled, was too embarrassed to come forward, so Lustig came back to try again. This time around, he was suspicious of one of his marks, so he left before completing the deal. However, some accounts say he actually did sell the Eiffel Tower twice, so who knows? With such a lengthy career and 47 known aliases, it's hard to tell how many cons this man pulled.

Lustig wound up in America after the Eiffel Tower job and went to work conning and counterfeiting. He even pulled a successful con on Al Capone. However, the Secret Service eventually caught up with him. He was jailed, escaped and jailed again before dying of pneumonia at a medical center for prisoners.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dena Riley and Richard Davis: Sadistic Serial Killer Couple

Richard Davis and Dena Riley were drug-crazed serial killers willing to do the unthinkable. They were the classic killer couple, feeding off each other's depravity and, in the case of Dena, willing to do anything to please her partner. There were few lines this duo did not cross, even though their killing spree was relatively short and included comparatively few victims. Richard "Ricky" Davis was a repeat sex offender and general lawbreaker who was raised in Kansas City. He was institutionalized as a teenager. Later, he was imprisoned for stealing. Within months of his release, he was back in prison for raping a woman at knifepoint. He was sentenced to 25 years but was released in May of 2005 after roughly 18 years. For nine months after his release, Ricky Davis catered to a bondage, strangulation and sexual murder fetish with pornography. At the same time, he attended sex counseling, drug counseling and kept in touch with his parole officer religiously. ...
1 comment
Read more

San Francisco's Zebra Murders

Art Agnos, San Francisco Mayor targeted by Zebra Killers The Zebra Murders were a series of racially motivated yet seemingly random murders and attacks that took place in San Francisco in 1973 and 1974.. The perpetrators of these murders and violent attacks were dubbed the "Zebra Killers." The San Francisco press originated the term Zebra Killers/Murders. The name stuck, and even the police picked it up, using channel Z on their radios strictly for the Zebra case. The designation may have had something to do with the fact that the killings appeared to be committed by black people against white people. The first known Zebra Murder took place on October 19, 1973. A young married couple, Quita and Richard Hague, were out walking in San Francisco when two young, well-dressed black men assaulted them. They were forced into a white van. Quita was sexually assaulted and then stabbed in the neck several times with a machete. Her head was nearly severed. After watching his wife be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pedro Lopez: "The Monster of the Andes"

Pedro Lopez may be the most prolific known serial killer of all time. He was convicted of the murder of 110 girls. He has confessed to the murder of more than 300. While more than 300 may be incorrect, he almost certainly killed more than the 110 he was convicted of killing. The story of his early life is known only from his lips, but if it is true, it certainly helps the "nurture" argument of what drives some people to kill. However, he could simply by lying, as serial killers are wont to do. True or false, here is his story. (His capture, incarceration, the information regarding his M.O. and the discovery of some of his victims are certainly true.) Pedro Lopez was born in October of 1948 in Tolima, Colombia. According to Pedro, his mother was a prostitute who had 13 children of which Pedro had knowledge, including himself. At the time of his birth, Colombia was in turmoil. It was not a safe place for a child to grow up, nor was Pedro's home, if he is to be believed. His...
Post a Comment
Read more