Victor Lustig: The Man Who Conned the World

The unbelievable true story of the world's greatest conman, who swindled Al Capone and sold the Eiffel Tower—twice!

The period after World War I was a golden age for confidence men. Victor Lustig, an Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, learned to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse by sixteen. By nineteen, he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.

A man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue, Lustig spoke...