Victor Lusting was one of the most imaginative criminals in history.
He had 45 false identities and he was arrested at least 50 times.
He was born near Prague in 1890, he grew up in a middle-class family and in 1920 he emigrated in USA and he turned to a life of crime. In 1922 he was in Missouri and he used one of his most famous false identity-infact he was a rich Austrian aristocrat called Victor Lustig.
He paid a bank $22.000 for a farmhouse, at the same time he asked the bank manager to lend him $10.000. The man agreed but the envelope that Victor handed over didn't contain any money and Victor got away with $32.000.
Three years later he returned to Europe. One day, he read a newspaper article in a Paris café which said that the Eiffel Tower was in poor condition so he had an ingenious idea- to sell the Eiffel Tower. He asked a forger to make some official notepaper and he wrote to five companies which he thought might be interested buying the Eiffel Tower, Lustig chose the highest offer and escaped to Austria. After a while he returned to Paris and sold the Eiffel tower for a second time but his victime went to the police and so Lustig had to flee in the USA.
After many crimes, Lustig was arrested for the last time in 1935 and the judge sent him to Alcatraz prison who died in 1947.

ES.11 DI PAG.99
1C A plan in Paris
2E Caught at last
3F Explaining the details
4D He does it again
5B The ''Count'' and the bank manager
6A The origins of a thief

ES.12 DI PAG.99

Nouns
Adjectives
Verbs
alias
forger
con
controversial
handed over
flee

ES.13 DI PAG.99
An alias is a false identity.
A con is when someone believes a criminal's lies and gives him money.
A person who makes realistic copies of money, documents,etc. Is a forger.
When something causes arguments, we say it is controversial.
To flee is to escape quickly, especially when you are in danger.
To hand over something is to give it to another person.

ES.14 DI PAG.99
Don't panic- often you don't need them to understand the main ideas of the text.
Decide what part of speech they are.
Guess their meaning by looking carefully at the context.

 

ES.15 DI PAG.99
People still talk about Victor today because he commited some fascinating crimes.
Victor thought of his plan to sell the Eiffel Tower while he was reading a newspaper in Paris.
The French businessman thought Victor worked for the French Post Office.
Victor's victim, Poisson, didn't go to the police because he didn't want anyone to know how stupid he had been.
Victor sold the Eiffel Tower a second time because it had worked perfectly the first time.
The police had arrested Victor many times before 1935.