#con artists

File Under: Grifters

Good! Then you have already benefitted from this book, and you will have so much fun actually reading it, and you will like stories about con artists even MORE after you read it. Because I guarantee you everyone who's ever written one of those stories has read this book -- or has been playing off the work of people who read this book. You might recognize that picture up above from the movie The Sting (1973) with Robert Redford and Paul Newman -- it directly credits its inspiration to this book and the people in it. You should watch it, it's fun, but that's not the point. The point is, this book is the real deal.

But let's start at the beginning. This book happened almost accidentally as a byproduct of the author's work as a professor of linguistics. Which I also have a degree in by the way. Just saying. That means nothing here except that it made me very excited to learn this fact. Anyway, he was studying slang and dialects among different criminal groups, and, partly because of his personality and partly because he wasn't a journalist or a detective or anything and wasn't initially interested in the crimes themselves -- people ended up trusting him enough that he ended up knowing more about the world of con artists than anybody else.

Because of that background, here's a few things this book has:

Inside accounts and self-reflections by the con artists themselves

A high level of transparency about how much of the content may be exaggerated or falsified due to the nature of, you know, asking con men to tell you about themselves

Hilarious examples of lingo -- the kind of sentences linguists love to make up, using the words authentically but also trying to cram as many of them into a short space as possible to show them off

The only Glossary I've ever seen that you should actually sit down and read straight through just like any other chapter of the book

A lot of period-typical stereotyping and slurs. Be aware.

The concept of a true confidence game, according to this book, is a lot narrower than the way we often use it. It's not just "a scam." And honestly it kind of blew my mind to recontextualize certain crime media within this framework. The principle comes down to: "A confidence man prospers only because of the fundamental dishonesty of his victim." The true confidence game described here, no matter what game it is, centers around offering the mark a dishonest way to make money. Once they agree to go in on the "sure thing," then of course you flip it on them.

For example, you've watched "The Bottle Job," you know "the wire," right? They fleece the mark by delaying the video feed so they can place bets while already knowing the outcome. But that's not quite how the original "wire" works. In the original wire, you tell the mark that you've delayed the results, and you invite them to get in on the scam with you. You show them proof that you've done it -- whether you actually have is irrelevant -- and then get them to place a huge bet -- but this time they're wrong. And of course the bookie is secretly on your crew, so you get the money -- and of course they can't go crying to the bookie or the cops that it was unfair, because they were the one cheating.

You see what this means for Leverage, right? Playing confidence games to help people may be an innovation, but conning the bad guys isn't an innovation. It's classic.

Okay, anyway, back to the book. It covers all the phases and elements common to every confidence game, and it tells delightful narratives to walk through each of the three true big-con games. Then it does some musing about what makes a good mark and a good con artist, with tons of fun little profiles and anecdotes all along the way.

Of course, extremely important to understanding and enjoying this book is that it's a piece of history. It covers from the early innovations of confidence games in the 1800s up to when it was published in 1940. There's some fascinating reflection on why the games were able to do so well at this particular period and speculation on whether they'll survive in the future, and if so in what form. I'm going to have that in the back of my mind whenever I read about modern scams now -- how has this changed from when this book was written, to what extent and in what forms do the true confidence games in this book exist at all anymore? So much of what the book describes is completely impossible now, but so many new possibilities have opened up. And as the book points out, the old games do sometimes crop up again long after you think they've gone out. And regardless of what's possible in the real world, a lot of the oldest stuff is still totally believable and totally fun on TV -- I had such a great time periodically thinking "Oh that's where that episode comes from!"

So, whether it's to understand real-world crime history, or to see where the tropes in your favorite shows come from, or to get some inspiration and structure to write your own stories, whatever it is, I hope you read this book, and I hope you have just as much fun as I did.

Template from @littleguysdaily

Midwest Fur Fest 2025 art part 1

Our first time at MFF! Thank you everyone that did art with us! It was incredibly chill and we hope to be back next year: Featuring:

dyrdeer

Cinderwell

gawdl3y.dev

waltermix

Meowzors

roweguy

@unable2sitstill

that_nava

rezwrldlol.wicker

tinkerdraws

rainbows_arrows

EXPOSE TRUTH & SAVE LIVES

Here are two con artist/heist stories. None for the Da Vinci Code. ~Jen

An Unwritten Life by glass parade

An adaptation of the movie “The Brothers Bloom” – Blaine and Cooper are brothers and con artists, committing crimes worldwide with explosives expert Santana in tow. But Blaine wants out of the life, while Cooper wants to pull off one last con – and for his mark, he’s selected reclusive automotive heir Kurt Hummel. With Coop’s promise to finally let him go in hand, Blaine sets the hook and reels Kurt into a madcap global adventure in lies, violence, death…and love.

~~~~~~

Catch Me If You Can by @afterthenovels

In the end, catching Kurt Hummel is definitely not what Blaine expected.

Special Agent Blaine Anderson catches con-man and art thief extraordinaire Kurt Hummel twice, and on the second time they strike a deal. They’re supposed to just solve white collar crimes together, but they might even end up solving each other in the process.

A White Collar AU.