Hustlers and Con Men: An Anecdotal History of the Confidence Man and His Games

by Jay Robert Nash

Jay Robert Nash takes you into the real and fascinating world of the criminal elite—the con man. Hustlers and Con Men is an entertaining look at the boldest, most sophisticated, most wildly imaginative criminals of the past 200 years, including the Gondorf brothers, Lou Blonger, Charles Ponzi, Madam Zingara, "Paper Collar Joe" Kratalsky, and hundreds of others. Here, too, are their extraordinary the mail-order flim-flam, the lonely hearts racket, the gold brick con, the inherited billions bilk, the "spirits" game, the once-in-a -lifetime business opportunity, the Peter-to-Paul scam, and a whole bag of other tricks you've probably never heard of.
Another intriguing cornucopia of crime from Jay Robert Nash!

Genres: History, True Crime, Nonfiction

520 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1976

Reviews

[Christopher Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those boilerplate nonfiction books from the 1970s commissioned by a publisher in order to bait people at the front tables during holiday shopping, and it's funny because as a writer I can totally picture all the index cards and the whole system the author used to, almost literally, crank this book out. He can probably do one a month. (After I wrote that, I looked him up on Wikipedia; he's written over 70 books!) It's a living, right? Nonetheless, the material is so wonderful and the topic so dear to my sensibilities that I have to give it 3 stars. For someone who is well versed in this topic already, it's all review, but for me it may end up being as far as I'll ever dip and was extremely gratifying and diverting.

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a copy of this obscure 1976 book on a remainders table, years ago, and read it with gusto. Its first chapter is a recounting of how many of the great family fortunes of America originated in the careers of egregious fraud, graft, and swindling of such worthies as Jay Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt. When these captains of industry are referred to as robber barons, it is no great metaphorical stretch, for in those days before trustbusting and the SEC, large-scale crime was a wonderful way of amassing large-scale fortune and the social and political respectability that accrues thereto.

It then goes on to recount the careers of a number of grifters of lesser social standing, lovingly detailing their many cons, long and short, and their endlessly colorful lives. Not so much a "true crime" book, as a work of "real American history."

[Garry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the history of the confidence game in US.