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The Con Men: Hustling in New York City
This vivid account of hustling in New York City explores the sociological reasons why con artists play their game and the psychological tricks they use to win it. Terry Williams and Trevor B. Milton, two prominent sociologists and ethnographers, spent years with New York con artists to uncover their secrets. The result is an unprecedented view into how con games operate, whether in back alleys and side streets or in police precincts and Wall Street boiler rooms.
Whether it's selling bootleg goods, playing the numbers, squatting rent-free, scamming tourists with bogus stories, selling knockoffs on Canal Street, or crafting Ponzi schemes, con artists use verbal persuasion, physical misdirection, and sheer charm to convince others to do what they want. Williams and Milton examine this act of performance art and find meaning in its methods to exact bounty from unsuspecting tourists and ordinary New Yorkers alike. Through their sophisticated exploration of the personal experiences and influences that create a successful hustler, they build a portrait of unusual emotional and psychological depth. Their work also offers a new take on structure and opportunity, showing how the city's unique urban and social architecture lends itself to the perfect con.
Whether it's selling bootleg goods, playing the numbers, squatting rent-free, scamming tourists with bogus stories, selling knockoffs on Canal Street, or crafting Ponzi schemes, con artists use verbal persuasion, physical misdirection, and sheer charm to convince others to do what they want. Williams and Milton examine this act of performance art and find meaning in its methods to exact bounty from unsuspecting tourists and ordinary New Yorkers alike. Through their sophisticated exploration of the personal experiences and influences that create a successful hustler, they build a portrait of unusual emotional and psychological depth. Their work also offers a new take on structure and opportunity, showing how the city's unique urban and social architecture lends itself to the perfect con.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 10, 2015
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81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 18, 2015
I applaud Mr. Williams and Mr. Milton for being able to integrate themselves so closely with these conmen and woman. It was fascinating that these two men could get these season veterans of the world of graf to open up to them the way the did.
I didn't find the book boring at all, it was very interesting to me maybe it's because of my background in law enforcement. I've studied a lot of the differents types of cons that go on, but not the mindset of the conman himself.
I think a lot of people would be surprised of the amount of this that goes on in their own city not only New York. If more people were aware of these cons they wouldn't get financially hurt. There seems to be more and more popping up. As the authors pointed out, the conman knows how to play on their victim's own greed.
I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I didn't find the book boring at all, it was very interesting to me maybe it's because of my background in law enforcement. I've studied a lot of the differents types of cons that go on, but not the mindset of the conman himself.
I think a lot of people would be surprised of the amount of this that goes on in their own city not only New York. If more people were aware of these cons they wouldn't get financially hurt. There seems to be more and more popping up. As the authors pointed out, the conman knows how to play on their victim's own greed.
I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
September 17, 2015
Hustling In New York City I received this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review. That being said, I could not finish the book. I tried, repeatedly. I picked it up half a dozen times, only to read a bit, shake my head in disbelief, and toss it aside again.Reportedly to be about the art of the con, as practiced by NYC hustlers, I found it to be a rather disjointed, hard to follow story. The author does discuss many of the con games being practiced in NYC (dice, fake merchandise, the "Nigerian Prince" scam, etc). And how con men identify their victims, where they practice their "art", and how they interact with each other. That was informative, if not earthshaking. The problem was the great stock the author placed in his main subject, Alibi Jones. Jones is a low level street hustler, who manages to enthrall the author with all manner of slick stories. Poor Alibi, turned down for a Federal job because of his criminal record. Now he must make society pay for their wrong. Poor Alibi, cannot get an honest job, because he has warrants out for his arrest, and cannot risk applying or the police might find him. (Newsflash, Alibi, stand up like a man, pay your debt to society and start over at the back of the line like everyone else does!) The author even finds himself making excuses for dear Alibi. "He is not the kind of man who hated others or carried out acts of violence (at least not physical violence). This is true of most con artists I knew. None was inclined to violence, and I tend to believe Alibi is typical in this regard." Give me a break! He has the nerve to say this when just a few pages before, he tells about Alibi's rules for pimping. NO, running prostitutes is not violence committed on women! Stealing from other people is not a form of violence! (Goodness, this guy really got sucked in deep!)Honestly, the author reminds me of the archetypical spoiled rich girl who throws her lot in with the boy "from the wrong side of the tracks", either because she a) finds it exciting, b) wants to shock people, or c) thinks she can "save" him. The author takes Jone's stories at face value, often admitting that he sometimes does not understand what Jone's is saying in his stream of consciousness ramblings (but hey, it fills the pages of a book so, I'll let him talk). Perhaps the biggest con of all was performed by Jone's onto the author. In exchange for spinning some yarns, Jone's got his ego stroked, and received validation from the author on how clever he was. After almost thirty years spent working in corrections, I've ran into thousands of Alibi Jones. Given half a chance, they would all tell you what masterful criminals they were, and how it wasn't their fault, society did them wrong. Given an opportunity, they love to talk. The problem was that most of it was BS. The author needed to develop his own BS filter, then maybe the book would have been better. I really cannot recommend this book.
October 17, 2015
If you are looking for a behind the scenes look on how someone can talk tourists out of their money, convince a store to let merchandise walk out the front door, or set up Ponzi schemes, then this book delivers. The authors spend years with scam artists plying the streets of New York and delivers an amazing view into that world you can’t get from reading news accounts or trial transcripts. They tell you not only how they pulled some of their cons, but what they were thinking when they did it and why the cons work. You get a peek into the mindset of the hustlers themselves.
The one drawback I have is that the authors can’t quite seem to get out of their own way. As sociologist, they lay out reasons why people become hustlers and the economic issues that keep them there. While it’s interesting, it wasn’t want I wanted in this book and it detracted from the parts I enjoyed. It was distracting to jump from a first-hand account of a con to what seemed like a cliff notes version of an academic paper. It’s a hard goal, trying to educate your audience and be a story teller at the same time, and sadly this book seems to vacillate between the two rather than find a happy medium.
http://homeofreading.com/the-con-men/
The one drawback I have is that the authors can’t quite seem to get out of their own way. As sociologist, they lay out reasons why people become hustlers and the economic issues that keep them there. While it’s interesting, it wasn’t want I wanted in this book and it detracted from the parts I enjoyed. It was distracting to jump from a first-hand account of a con to what seemed like a cliff notes version of an academic paper. It’s a hard goal, trying to educate your audience and be a story teller at the same time, and sadly this book seems to vacillate between the two rather than find a happy medium.
http://homeofreading.com/the-con-men/
September 17, 2018
I was hoping for a lot more from this book. Mostly what I learned was that ethnography is the worst possible way to research con men. Seriously. These guys learned nothing about actual cons. They were super excited they got to see two variations of the exact same con (the pigeon drop), and for the rest of the early chapters you’ll learn more about the ethnographers than the con men.
The later chapters, where they moved on to interviews with shopkeepers, reformed crack dealers, NYPD, Wall Street types, etc., were much more interesting.
If you want to know how cons actually work, read The Art of the Con by R. Paul Wilson. If you want to know why they work, read The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It... Every Time by Maria Konnikova. Also, check out How to Cheat at Everything by Simon Lovell just for the spirit of the thing. The copy editor of that last one should be ashamed of themselves, but it’s a lot of of fun.
The later chapters, where they moved on to interviews with shopkeepers, reformed crack dealers, NYPD, Wall Street types, etc., were much more interesting.
If you want to know how cons actually work, read The Art of the Con by R. Paul Wilson. If you want to know why they work, read The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It... Every Time by Maria Konnikova. Also, check out How to Cheat at Everything by Simon Lovell just for the spirit of the thing. The copy editor of that last one should be ashamed of themselves, but it’s a lot of of fun.
December 9, 2017
So bad, so badly written and poorly structured, so inconsistent in language, grammar, and research methodology, so lacking in anything at all that is new or revelatory, that I cannot even bring myself to pass it on to the library. But that's just my opinion.
November 11, 2018
Returned to the library w/o finishing. Sociology of street vendors is a fine topic; it’s just not what I wanted to know about.
November 9, 2019
Disappointing. Terry Williams' earlier books are all pretty good but he doesn't really have a handle on this. Dig out David Maurier instead.
October 4, 2022
A bit too brief for what I was hoping for, but it was still an interesting look into the motivations of con men/hustlers, both legal (Wall Street) and illegal (drugs).
November 10, 2015
THE CON MEN: HUSTLING IN NEW YORK CITY by Terry Williams and Trevor B. Milton looks at the sociology and psychology of New York’s hustlers. From the small time hustlers selling bottled water or bootleg DVDs on the corner to selling knockoffs, to running numbers, to the cops hustling for a cushy retirement, to Wall Street bankers running Ponzi schemes, everybody has a hustle. The book is interesting, and highlights an assortment of characters, but it’s also disjointed and unsure whether it wants to be nonfiction, true crime, or academic reporting. The book stumbles a bit, and is boring in places, but it will open your eyes to some interesting aspects of hustling.
The authors spend a lot of time with the hustlers, learning about their pasts, their motivations, and their mechanics. To me, this was the best part of the book. I was fascinated to learn how the hustles worked, and how they evolved over time as the laws changed or as policing changed. How do people scam free rent? How do those electronics stores manage to stay in business? How do numbers operations work? This was all great stuff.
But what really disappointed me was that this should be exciting material. This should be funny, sad, dramatic, dangerous. Unfortunately, a lot of the book was boring. Passages would veer into sociological or ethnographical, which is understandable, given the authors’ backgrounds, but it just sapped my interest and forward momentum. It was certainly thought provoking and eye opening. It just didn’t live up to expectations.
The authors spend a lot of time with the hustlers, learning about their pasts, their motivations, and their mechanics. To me, this was the best part of the book. I was fascinated to learn how the hustles worked, and how they evolved over time as the laws changed or as policing changed. How do people scam free rent? How do those electronics stores manage to stay in business? How do numbers operations work? This was all great stuff.
But what really disappointed me was that this should be exciting material. This should be funny, sad, dramatic, dangerous. Unfortunately, a lot of the book was boring. Passages would veer into sociological or ethnographical, which is understandable, given the authors’ backgrounds, but it just sapped my interest and forward momentum. It was certainly thought provoking and eye opening. It just didn’t live up to expectations.
January 17, 2016
There were a lot of interesting stories in here, but they were all one-offs - it felt too anecdotal and not enough detail or different people, because they were trying to pull the stories together for a theme. Still, there were some interesting insights. But the chapter on drug dealing, for example, seemed completely unconnected.
July 10, 2016
This book was fun, real, and informative. I liked the con artists profiled and it gave you a good view at the current cons run on NYC. Fun for anyone wanting to know about the NYC hustle.
April 19, 2017
This was fairly interesting throughout, it just didn't really hit what I was hoping for. There's a quick overview of a few different types of cons, from the basic finding a mark on the street to Wall Street. It also looks at "hustling" the sort of grey market existences, like numbers games, or selling knockoffs or cold water bottles, even a brief look at dealing crack.
There's basically 2 or 3 things here that I think could be fleshed out into more interesting material. A more in depth focus on Alibi and his crew and the type of people who con folks on the street and what those cons are would have been better. As it is they get a couple of chapters that are all relatively shallow. A lot of the hustling info touches on the socio-economic factors that drive quasi-legal or outright illegal lifestyles, but doesn't quite get it all well enough. Finally some sort of outright comparison to techniques used on Wall Street to the common conman would have been interesting, but other than pointing out some commonality it doesn't quite get there.
Ultimately this is fairly interesting, but was broader and shallower than I'd hoped.
There's basically 2 or 3 things here that I think could be fleshed out into more interesting material. A more in depth focus on Alibi and his crew and the type of people who con folks on the street and what those cons are would have been better. As it is they get a couple of chapters that are all relatively shallow. A lot of the hustling info touches on the socio-economic factors that drive quasi-legal or outright illegal lifestyles, but doesn't quite get it all well enough. Finally some sort of outright comparison to techniques used on Wall Street to the common conman would have been interesting, but other than pointing out some commonality it doesn't quite get there.
Ultimately this is fairly interesting, but was broader and shallower than I'd hoped.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews