The Big Con: Chapter 6
Chapter 6 of David Maurer’s “The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man” (TBC) is entitled “Birds of a Feather”, and discusses the characteristics of con men in general terms. It’s interesting stuff, but it seems to me to be a mostly disconnected mass of trivia, and I will cover it in that spirit.
Trivia
Maurer writes that grifters can be placed into this taxonomy, roughly sorted by prestige:
- Confidence men
- Big-con men
- Short-con men
- Pickpockets and professional thieves of all types
- Professional gamblers
- Circus grifters
- Railroad grifters and other minor professionals
Con men were conspicuously produced by Indiana, possible because, at one time, it was customary for circuses to winter over there, and by Australia, of which you may make what you will.
Most big con men developed from short con men; gamblers and pickpockets also contributed their share of (respectively and mostly) ropers and insidemen. Most pickpockets are shy.
Maurer goes out of his way to opine that race-track touts, “as a class … lack backbone and courage”.
Many con men were the routine victims of professional gamblers. Many also lost large sums of money while attempting to employ various “systems” designed to beat games of chance. In general, expertise in one form of fraud seems little defense against the others.
Maurer attributes the remark “It’s the only game in town” to a roper named Kid McGinley, upon being warned that he was playing in a fixed poker game.
Professional gamblers can spot fixed gambling houses by the demeanor of the shills playing the games; an experienced eye can tell that they are uninterested in the play.
In order to fit in, con men tended to have (or to be able to deploy) very good manners, and broad, if not deep, general knowledge. Many of them reviewed 10 or more newspapers a day in order to keep abreast of topics which might arise in conversation. (A practice which has endured.)
No competent con man drinks on the job.
Con men, by and large, did maintain permanent homes, but the locations of these were a closely guarded secret.
Maurer quotes a com man: “All grifters who are papes go to the kirk regularly; the other half never go.”
Maurer reports that a con man’s wardrobe could cost him $5,000 annually; at a 20x multiplier for inflation, that works out to $100,000 today.
Four con men (Indiana Harry, the Hashhouse Kid, Scotty, and Hoosier Harry) were on the Titanic when it sank. They were rescued, and put in “maximum claims for lost baggage”.
Con men engage in nearly constant deception of all those they meet; this is often light-hearted, but it is still good practice.
“[I]t is a notable fact that, as their years increase, they remain young in spirit. They do not become “dated” as many men do who are marked indelibly with the characteristics of a particular generation. In attitudes, in dress and manners, in tastes and language, they live always, like theatrical folk, in the present.”
Tags: The Big Con