SUMMARY OF PAGE 98 (SUCCESS BOOK)

KING CON!

Victor Lustig had been one of the most imaginative criminals in history. Born near Prague in 1890, he had grown up in a middle- class family. He had forty-five false identities and had been arrested at least fifty times. In the 1920s he had emigrated to the USA. Here, in Missouri in 1922 he had used his famous alias - rich Austrian aristrocat "Count" Victor Lustig. He had cheated the bank while he and the bank manager had been exchanging envelopes. However, the envelope that Victor handed over didn't contain any money. So he had stolen some money. Three years later he had returned to Europe and he had decided to sell the Eiffel Tower because it was in poor condition and a few politicians had seggested demolishing it!

So, as "Deputy Director Generalof the Post Office", he had wroten to five companies which he had thought might be interested in buying the metal from the Eiffel Tower. The businessmen promised to keep the secret plan because the government's decision had been controversial. Lustig had chosed the highest offer, had taken the cash and had escaped to Austria to enjoy his money. There was nothing in the newspaper for news of the amazing con because the businessman had been too embarrassed to tell anyone what had happened.

Lustig had returned to Paris to sell the Eiffel Tower for a second time, but his victim had gone to the police and Victor had to flee to the USA.

In 1935, Lustig had been arrested and the judge had sent him to Alcatraz prison, where the "king of cons" had died in 1947.