The con game and "Yellow Kid" Weil: The autobiography of the famous con artist as told to W. T. Brannon

by Joe Weil, W.T. Brannon

Fast Shipping from Amazon Warehouse. Slight wear on cover. Crisp Pages. Good Condition.

Genres: Nonfiction

297 pages, Paperback

First published November 25, 1974

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In case your library doesn't have a copy, you can mostly likely find a pdf copy with a simple google search. Such as this one: http://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OC...

Anyway, an interesting book to say the least.

It's a biography of Joseph Weil, an American con artist who was active from before the 20th century to a little past WWII. His story starts with his upbringing and his gradual realization that he could make money by various illegal activities.

He makes plenty of claims throughout the book, and I'm sure some of them are true. But again, con artists lie, so he probably made a good chunk of it up.

[E. Ivan Infante · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at traditional con men and con games. Starts around the turn of the century and goes until the fifties or so. Fun read. Very informative. Good research tool if you're doing historical fiction. I recommend it.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of underworld doings. If I had to summarize it in one sentence, it'd be this:

The Midwesterners of the early 20th Century were very, very stupid.

Lots of scenes and characters ended up in The Sting.