The scams that Victor Lustig pulled off were distinguished from others by a certain amount of humor, irony and sarcasm. Not everyone can sell the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the desert in Nevada.
Ludwig began his adventures as a card hustler on transatlantic liners. During a long trip, rich and bored passengers played poker and bridge. It is clear that he beat them far from honest methods. In 1914, the First World War broke out. Victor stayed in the U.S. to avoid going to the front. In 1920, he returned to Europe.
Once Victor Lustig read an article that said that the Eiffel Tower was costing a lot of money to maintain because the metal structure was rusting and needed to be painted. The article posed the question, "Should it be dismantled?". This phrase brought to mind the idea of selling the tower.
The Eiffel Tower was created as the arch of the central entrance to the World's Fair held in Paris in 1889. The structure was planned to be demolished after 20 years.
Victor produced false documents of the deputy mayor of Paris for urban planning. In May 1925, he gathered five major scrap metal dealers in a luxurious Parisian hotel on Place de la Concorde (Place de la Concorde).
Introducing himself as a government official, Lustig said that the matter was confidential, no one should know about it. The Eiffel Tower is expensive for the city, and there is no money for maintenance in the budget. So the structure must be dismantled immediately. The Paris administration wants to hold a tender. Who will pay more for the structure, made of high-quality metal, the weight of which is 7,200 tons, will be the buyer.
Victor Lustig handed out five envelopes. Each of the invitees had to return the envelope with a piece of paper indicating the amount for which he would like to buy the Eiffel Tower. He chose André Poisson because he thought he was easier to fool. He was a provincial merchant who not only wanted to enter the circle of Parisian society, but also to take a place in history as the man who had bought the Eiffel Tower.
Poisson paid 70 thousand francs for the tower (about one million modern dollars), and also gave a bribe. After receiving the money, the swindler and his associates fled to Vienna.
After a while, André Poisson realized that he had been cheated. The money would probably never be recovered. The whole of Paris would laugh at him for his unfortunate mistake, and he could not think of joining the business community of the city. This time Poisson made a prudent decision, and did not go to the police.
At this time, Victor lived in Vienna, and, as always, wasted no time. He came to the jeweler Kleist, who introduced himself as Count Lustig. Without haggling he bought a large pearl of rare pear-shape. The count promised to buy a second pearl for any money to make earrings to present the jewelry to the woman he loved.
A couple of days later, Kleist, after searching half of Paris, saw a similar pearl in a small pawnshop. He bought the pearl at twice the price he had sold it to the Count. He returned to his room and eagerly awaited the arrival of the rich and generous aristocrat. Time passed, but no one came to him. Suspecting something wrong Kleist examined the pearl through a magnifying glass. It was the same pearl he had sold to Count Lustig!
As time went on, the newspapers were silent about the sale of the Eiffel Tower. Why not sell the tower again? Lustig came to Paris again, and again invited five scrap metal dealers. However, this time the buyer was smarter and suspected something amiss. He reported the transaction to the police. Accidentally learning about the danger, the swindler moved to America.
In America began a new period of turbulent and cheerful life, which differed little from life in Europe. A boring routine life was not for Victor.
Traveling across America Lustig wondered: "Why not sell the desert in the state of Nevada?". To realize this scam, he bought up several plots of land, bribed reporters of the local newspaper. Soon an article came out saying that gold had been found in the Nevada desert. Victor sold the desert to a wealthy industrialist for a very handsome sum.
After selling sand and rocks in the Nevada desert, Lustig began selling "money" machines. This scam was designed to appeal to simpletons who believed in technological progress. Victor presented himself as a brilliant inventor who had created a machine to reproduce banknotes.
He sold dozens of such money machines. In a wooden box there was a mechanism that after a certain interval of time gave a banknote to the outside. Victor, in the presence of the buyer, would put a $100 bill through a hole in the box. Six hours later, the box would produce two $100 bills.
The swindler insinuated to the buyers that the machine was imperfect, so they had to wait for six hours. After receiving the money, the future buyer went to the bank, checked the bills issued by the "money" box, and then came and bought a miracle machine for the amount of 10 to 30 thousand dollars. The machine worked from 12 to 18 hours, depending on whether Lustig placed two or three real bills in it. The box would then produce sheets of white paper.
an elusive criminal who had been unsuccessfully sought by police in 14 states was imprisoned. Sitting in his cell, Victor noticed that when they changed the bedding in the prison, they didn't count the sheets. He gathered a large stock of sheets, bribed the jailer, climbed out, and hung on the wall for a long time, pretending to be a window washer. Then he came down from the third floor, bowed and disappeared in an unknown direction.
A month later, Victor Lustig was apprehended in Pennsylvania. Victor's trial took place in January, 1935. He pleaded guilty to making counterfeit money. He received 15 years for counterfeiting money and 5 years for escaping from prison.
Victor Lustig died in his 58th year of lung inflammation after serving 12 years in Alcatraz prison.
