Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
30 January 2012
Selling the Brooklyn
Bridge and other Scams
Long before people claiming to be African princes
with vast inheritances of dubious origin hit the
Internet some very clever con artists were at work
Many years ago, (1967 to be precise) George C. Scott starred in a movie called The
Flim Flam Man. He played a backwoods con artist called Mordecai Jones “Master of
Back-
The Seller of the Brooklyn Bridge
George C. Parker (not Scott) was a real confidence trickster. He is said to have
invented the scheme that 
involves selling the Brooklyn Bridge (above) to unsuspecting
suckers.
His tactic was to produce forged documents showing that he was the owner of the bridge and then to sell his prized possession to people who bought his sales pitch.
The deal was closed on the basis that the new owners would be able to make a fortune by charging tolls for using the bridge.
Museumofhoaxes.com says that Parker “claimed to have sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week for years. Some of his victims even went so far as to erect traffic barriers.”
Parker is said to have also “sold” The Statue of Liberty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant.
However, Parker could not outwit the police and was sentenced to life in prison.
Far less elaborate than selling New York City landmarks is an old card trick. Three-
The con is deceptively simple. Three cards are placed face down, often a couple of black face cards and a red queen. The mark is told to “find the lady.”
Other “players” are in on the swindle and place their bets as the dealer shuffles the three cards around. At the start of the scheme, the dealer makes it obvious where the queen falls until the dupe starts to bet.
That’s when the dealer starts to use sleight of hand until the person placing the bet has no hope of finding where the queen really is except through dumb luck.
The Fiddle Game
This is an elaborate two-
He says he’ll leave his violin behind, his only means of earning a living, while
he goes back to get his wallet. A nearby diner than swoops in and asks to look at
the instrument. He declares it to be rare and valuable violin, offers tens of thousands
of dollars for it, but excuses himself because of an urgent meeting but leaves his
card.
The scruffy “violinist” returns with the money for his meal. He is persuaded to part with his fiddle for a fraction of what the rube thinks it’s worth.
This scam is the basis for a song by The Streets entitled “Can’t Con an Honest John.”
Image credits
David Winer
Philip Chapman-
Sources
“For You, Half Price.” Gabriel Cohen, New York Times, November 27, 2005.
© Canada and the World, November 2010
All rights reserved
THE
GONDORF BROTHERS
For his book Hustlers and Con Men: An Anecdotal History of the Confidence Man and His Games (M. Evans and Company, 1976) Jay Robert Nash interviewed several practitioners of the art of the swindle.
Among the most notorious were Charles and Fred Gondorf, of whom Nash writes: "The Gondorfs sold [Brooklyn] bridge many times.
"They would sell it for two, three hundred dollars, up to one thousand. Once they
sold half the bridge for two-
They timed police patrols carefully and as soon as the beat cop had rounded the corner they would put their “For Sale” sign up on the bridge. They would find their mark, close the sale, and disappear before the police officer returned.
The exploits of the Gondorfs were recorded, somewhat embellished, in the 1973 movie The Sting.