THE SMOOTHEST CON MAN EVER BORN.

THE STORY OF HOW ONE OF THE BEST CON MEN SOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER TO MERE SCRAP DEALERS,NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE !

Amongst all scams that the world has witnessed, here’s the one which made this pocket picker/burglar, one of the best con men one has ever known.

Victor Lustig, a fraudster, a con artist, having scammed many people across Europe and America, was now planning on playing a trick which made him one of the biggest fraudsters of all times.

When looked at, Lustig sure tricked everyone into believing that he had the courage of his convictions, taken the charms his personality adorned. But did he naturally bud into something like this? Unlike what his looks suggest, Lustig was more than just beauty with brains. He put in use, every trait of his into laying out plans, pickpocketing for starters which ranged on to the biggest scams in history.

Victor Lustig, born as Robert Miller, had committed innumerable wrongs. From 1909 to 1925, he almost got arrested fifty times but got away due to lack of evidence. Wasn’t he one hell of a mastermind? No wonder he had the audacity to do something which made him known as ‘The guy who sold The Eiffel Tower, not once…but twice!’

It was just after the World War I, that France had started to heal its wounds when the activists and other people of France commenced defaming Paris’ Iron Lady. They were of the opinion that the tower was nothing but a piece of metal and that the other monuments like the Notre Dame, were more worth saving. The French government found it difficult to maintain the tower of 330 meters, demanding regular nurturing for it to look young as ever. This very scenario had derailed the betterment of one of the most visited tourist places today.

In 1925, while his stay in Paris, he stumbled upon an article in Le Temps, which mentioned everything about the Eiffel Tower’s maintenance menace. He hadn’t had a fraud planned until then. The prevailing situation and his history of committing wrongs helped him concoct a strategy and that’s where it all started.

To nobody’s surprise, Lustig got a forger to fabricate fake government documents and stationery and took the first step towards fulfilling what he started. He even addressed himself as the Deputy Director General of Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Having gotten the research done, he had now contacted the top five iron salvage companies of the country and arranged a confidential meeting at the Hotel de Crillon. As mentioned earlier, he undoubtedly played his act well and made them believe that he had selected them because of their honesty and way of handling work. Before any of them would spy onto the ‘why’ part of the confidentiality, Lustig explained to them the reason being prevention of public outcry otherwise. Thus, he had won their belief.

Now was the time for him to sift the one who would fall in his trap. To smartly get his work done, Lustig arranged an inspection tour at the tower so as to identify which guy was his. Being an insecure businessman, wanting to obtain a respectable position in the inner circle of the class, Andre Poisson seemed like man fit for the job. And hence, to fuel his pride, it was in his best interests to approve of the deal and get hold of one of the monuments he had always fascinated.

Victor Lustig made his decision and dismissed the proposals of the others, claiming their offers to be less deserving. He then led Poisson to believe that he himself was a corrupt official and that his salary wasn’t enough to support his lifestyle. Thus how, he deceived him to pay much more than the discussed amount as bribe, to fill in his own treasury.

After getting all the formalities done, Lustig fled to Austria with all the funds amounting to almost 70000 francs (Almost a million dollars today).

An entire week had passed and Poisson hadn’t heard from Lustig yet. After days of no communication, Poisson finally realized that he was scammed. He was drowning in shame and there was no chance in his entire life that he would confront the world about how foolish he had been.

Lustig looked for news about this little puppet of his but to no avail. He figured Poisson was too ashamed to let it out and that he had been triumphant. He was now swimming in the pool of his own greed.

And because he got away with it once, he gave himself a second chance which was more of an opportunity to cater to his greed. He returned to the city four weeks after his former scam and laid the same trap for some other set of dealers. The one difference according to him was that he was a mastermind now and that he would get away with it easily. Ironically, the only difference was that this time the dealers got suspicious and reported about it to the French police. However, before they could reach to him, he fled to the US. Had he foreseen what was going to happen to him, he wouldn’t have returned. To nobody's surprise, it is rightly said, 'Deceit sleeps with greed.'

Lustig was the mastermind to whom getting caught had never been a possibility (At least that was what he thought). To his own astonishment, he got arrested after his one last huge scam (The Romanian scam).

VICTOR LUSTIG OUTSIDE THE ALCATRAZ JAIL WHERE HE SPENT HIS LATTER YEARS AT.

Ironically, unfavourable circumstances during his former life, probably because of which he is in the position he is now, turned out to be so favourable for him in order to master this area of expertise.

*Lustig smirks*

Trivia you didn’t ask for- During German occupation of France, Hitler ordered that the tower be demolished, but France refused.