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34 - Victor Lustig. cover art

34 - Victor Lustig.

34 - Victor Lustig.

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Victor Lustig. Victor Lustig (4 January 1890 – 11 March 1947) was a con artist from Austria-Hungary, who undertook a criminal career that involved conducting scams across Europe and the United States during the early 20th century. Lustig is widely regarded as one of the most notorious con artists of his time, and is infamous for being "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice" and for conducting the "Rumanian Box" scam. Early life. Lustig was born in Hostinné, at the time more widely known by its German name Arnau (an der Elbe), part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, as the second of three children, to Ludwig and Amelia "Fanny" Lustig. Raised in a German-speaking middle-class Catholic family, Lustig grew up in a four-room house at Tyrsovy street, near the central market square. Lustig's father was a tobacco goods salesman and at one point a mayor of Hostinné, who was reportedly physically abusive towards his children and wife, who was fifteen years his junior. At age eight, Lustig was forced to sign a written oath to abstain from alcohol and always attend church. Lustig also had to attend violin lessons, which he hated, and during an argument over this, his father beat Lustig over the head with the instrument. His parents divorced around 1898, although they still lived together during the 1900 census. As a child, Lustig frequently travelled across Europe with his father on business trips to Prague and Zurich, recalling that seeing Paris for the first time at age seven, the inner city appeared "exquisite" while the outer areas were a "sad, soiled place that slitered around in a sea of immorality". On his first day of infant school, Lustig was immediately expelled for obscenity, after telling a female teacher "Leck mich am Arsch" ("Kiss my ass"). He was subsequently transferred to a one-room school in Čermná, around 5 kilometres from Hostinné. Classmates later recalled that Lustig was well-liked for his headstrong personality and expressive impressions of military leaders. Meanwhile, a 1902 school report described Lustig as "retarded morally, an idiot in other respects". By age thirteen, Lustig had taken up boxing and despite chronic health issues, such as recurring migraines and breathing difficulties due to sinus swelling, he had an unbroken attendance record. In 1904, Lustig ran away from home for a week before returning to Hostinné. He was subsequently sent to a boarding school in Dresden, where he learnt English, French, Italian, and Hungarian (other sources claim he learnt five or six languages) and took a course in design. While his graunddaughter Bettina claimed that Lustig excelled in his studies and continued his education there until his early twenties, most biographers state that he dropped out before his 17th birthday. Lustig's childhood friend Karl Harrer stated that Lustig had returned to Hostinné after receiving a poor grade on his design portfolio in June 1906. The two got drunk, with Harrer listening to Lustig complain about the elitist attitudes at his boarding school and the general unfairness of the world. The following year, Harrer received postcards by Lustig from Vienna, with the final correspondence claiming that he would study law at Charles University. In 1909, shortly after starting a semester at the Sorbonne in Paris, Lustig took to gambling. During this time he also sustained a defining scar on the left side of his face from the jealous boyfriend of a woman he consorted with. Upon leaving school, Lustig applied both his quick wit and sizing up of a situation and his fluency in several languages to embark on a life of crime, eventually focusing on conducting a variety of scams and cons that provided him with property and money, and which transformed him into a professional con man. Career. Many of Lustig's initial cons were committed on ocean liners sailing between the Atlantic ports of France and New York City. He would pose as a musical producer seeking investors in a non-existent Broadway production. When the services of Trans-Atlantic liners were suspended in the wake of World War I, Lustig found himself in search of new territory to make an income from and opted to travel to the United States. In May 1922, Lustig posed as Robert Duval and visited a bank in Springfield, Missouri. He purchased some land from the bank and overpaid with Liberty bonds. His change amounted to $10,000 in the bank's cash, and before leaving Lustig also pocketed his bonds. He was arrested in New York City and extradited by Governor Nathan L. Miller. Around this time, Lustig's infamy was growing among law enforcement. Eiffel Tower scam. In 1925, Lustig traveled back to France. While staying in Paris, he chanced upon a newspaper article discussing the problems faced with maintaining the Eiffel Tower, which gave him inspiration for a new con. The monument had begun falling into disrepair, and the city was finding it increasingly expensive to maintain and ...
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