30 Facts About Victor Lustig

Victor Lustig learned easily throughout his youth, becoming a quick-study, which proved to be a source of trouble.

At the age of 19, while taking a break from his studies in Paris, Victor Lustig took to gambling.

Victor Lustig would pose as a musical producer seeking investors in a non-existent Broadway production.

In May 1922, Victor Lustig posed as Robert Duval and visited a bank in Springfield, Missouri.

Victor Lustig purchased some land from the bank and overpaid with Liberty bonds.

Victor Lustig's change amounted to $10,000 in the bank's cash, and before leaving Lustig pocketed his bonds.

Victor Lustig was arrested in New York City and extradited by Governor Nathan L Miller.

Around this time, Victor Lustig's infamy was growing among law enforcement.

Part of the article made a passing comment that overall public opinion on the monument would move towards calls for its removal, which was the key to convincing Victor Lustig that using it as part of his next con would be lucrative.

Once he was ready, Victor Lustig invited a small group of scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at an expensive hotel, whereupon he identified himself to them as the Deputy Director-General of the Ministere de Postes et Telegraphes.

Victor Lustig revealed that he was in charge of selecting the dealer who would receive ownership of the structure, claiming that the group had been selected carefully because of their reputations as "honest businessmen".

Victor Lustig's speech included genuine insight about the monument's place in the city and how it did not fit in with the city's other great monuments like the Gothic cathedrals or the Arc de Triomphe.

However, once Victor Lustig received his bribe and the funds for the monument's "sale", he soon fled to Austria.

Victor Lustig suspected that when Poisson found out he had been conned, he would be too ashamed and embarrassed to inform the French police of what he had been caught up in, yet despite this belief, he maintained a check on newspapers while in Austria.

However, when Victor Lustig attempted to con another group of dealers and had managed to find a mark among them willing to buy the Eiffel Tower, the police were informed about the scam and he fled to the US to evade arrest.

Victor Lustig would insert it and the blank paper, then wait with the mark for the machine to work.

Victor Lustig had already stocked the machine with a genuine bill to match the one the mark inserted.

Once the mark was convinced, Victor Lustig would sell the money box for an exorbitant sum.

Victor Lustig once sold a money box to a Texas sheriff for thousands of dollars.

The cornered Victor Lustig conned the sheriff into believing that he was not operating the device correctly.

Victor Lustig gave him a large sum of cash as compensation, but the bills were counterfeit.

Victor Lustig was traveling as "Robert Miller", and both men had a variety of forged identification documents and letters of credit.

Victor Lustig asked Capone to invest $50,000 in a crooked scheme, then kept the money given to him in a safe deposit box for two months before returning it, claiming the deal had fallen through.

At this point, Victor Lustig told Capone that the failure of the deal meant he had lost all means of supporting himself.

Victor Lustig then convinced Capone to give him $5,000 to "tide him over", as Lustig had originally planned.

Watts and Shaw engraved the plates that would be used to print the counterfeit dollar bills, while Victor Lustig organised a ring of couriers to distribute the forgeries, ensuring that they were kept in the dark regarding the production of the counterfeits.

On 10 May 1935, Victor Lustig was arrested in New York and charged with counterfeiting.

The day before his trial, Victor Lustig managed to escape from the Federal House of Detention, The Tombs, in New York City by faking illness and using a specially made rope to climb out of the building, but he was recaptured 27 days later in Pittsburgh.

Victor Lustig pleaded guilty at his trial and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on Alcatraz Island, California for his original charge, with a further five years for his prison escape.

On 9 March 1947, Victor Lustig contracted pneumonia and died two days later at 8:30pm at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.