The Big Con (25 page)

But some eschewed gambling and bad investments, salted away their money, and became well-to-do. These would include the Narrow Gage Kid, Doc Sterling,
Glouster Jack, Little Chappie Lohr, George Ryan, John Henry Strosnider, the Clinic Kid, Joe Furey (who was broken by the Norfleet case), the Black Kid of quiet demean and refined manners, Nigger Mike and the Big Alabama Kid. Christ Tracy did not gamble but gave away most of the money he made during a prosperous lifetime. The notorious Yellow Kid doesn’t gamble, but indulges a vast and expensive taste for women.

Although many confidence men lose heavily to professional gamblers, a few of them are themselves first-rate gamblers with both grift sense and card sense—a rare and fortunate combination. These men are wise enough to protect their winnings from braced gambling houses, carefully hoarding them up to lose on stocks, horses, women or whatever they are suckers for. “Grifters who are gamble-wise can make a braced gambling house right away,” said Tom Furey, who evaded them with enough success to leave a comfortable fortune at his death. “Why? Because when they step into a house, they look around for a short time at all the shills who are boosting. Then they’ll notice from the way the sticks handle the chips that they’re not interested in the play. They are professionals and handle the chips like no mark could ever handle them. They just shuffle them like cards. I think that within one hour I could pick out every shill in the gaff. But there is no gambling game invented that you can’t beat either from the inside or the outside, so what the hell ….”

The money which a con man does not throw away over the gaming table is rapidly used up in maintaining a very high standard of living. Because he must appear at an advantage in a highly respectable world, he lives on a high and even luxurious plane. Most con men dress well, carrying with them on the road an extensive wardrobe which provides for any sort of social situation in which they may
find themselves. They wear their clothes well, for most of them are well-built, substantial-looking men; this build seems to occur with remarkable frequency, though one immediately thinks of exceptions in John Singleton, short, heavy-set, portly; in the Brass Kid, short, rosy-cheeked, jolly; and in Little Bert, and the Little Alabama Kid. Probably natural selection explains the fact that most of them are well set-up and attractive physically; some of them are distinguished-looking. Their manners are excellent, their behavior during professional appearances beyond reproach.

There is at least one ill-mannered exception to this generalization who deserves a bit of space because he is widely known among con men as the prime example of everything a con man shouldn’t do or be. He is the prosperous Red Lager. Ignorant and repulsive-looking, freckled to the point of blotchiness, with the nasty shade of blue eyes which often accompanies a certain cast of red hair, awkward and slew-footed, Red Lager is certainly the acme of unattractiveness among con men. He is everything and does everything which, theoretically, a good con man shouldn’t. He has never heard of Dale Carnegie and is unaware of the barest rudiments of the science of “influencing” people; yet he has made a fortune on the pay-off. And he has a son, the exact replica of his father down to the duck-like walk, who, despite his addiction to drugs—one vice which the old man shunned—is today a successful confidence man.

First-class accommodations on railways and steamships are necessary if con men are to meet well-to-do people. Many of them now travel in their own chauffeured cars. Their hotels are always the best and their suites imposing. Their work takes them into swank clubs and resorts. Naturally, their personalities and their manners must not betray them. Consequently, they have cultivated
the social side more than any other criminal group. They are able to fit in unobtrusively on any social level.

Although their culture is not very deep, it is surprisingly wide and versatile. They must be well informed in business and financial matters, have a glib knowledge of society gossip, and enough of an acquaintance with art, literature and music to give an illusion of culture. I have observed that many of them read widely, and that it is an almost universal habit to run through ten or a dozen newspapers daily in order to keep constantly informed on topics which may come up in conversation. Newspapers also furnish a wide variety of news vital to grifters who want to thrive in their profession and keep out of jail. A few go deeper than casual browsing among the periodicals and haunt libraries when they have time, reading books omnivorously. One con man of my acquaintance buys a great many books, reads them, and promptly gives them away.

Among those who pursue learning for its own sake, I might cite three examples. One, a man of about forty-five, has his own special interests, largely sociological, and sits in sporadically on classes in a large mid-western university. Another, a man of some sixty years of age, has never sought any formal education, but delights in literature, has read widely and indiscriminately from Shakespeare to the moderns, and has his critical views which compensate in originality for what they lack in orthodoxy. A phenomenal memory enables him to quote at will from almost anything he has read. Another has made a hobby of history, with especial emphasis on Napoleon, and has, at one time or another, acquainted himself with most of the documents in English, both here and abroad, which touch upon the career of that general.

But most confidence men read for mercenary rather than cultural reasons, seeking only information which
they can use in their profession. “All grifters [con men] try to educate themselves by reading a lot,” says one con man, who might well speak for the entire profession. “I read to learn something, so when I bump into Mr. Bates I can hold my own with him on most any subject. If you are posing as a banker, for instance, you must know enough about banking to get away with it. I read the financial pages and the investment journals so I won’t slip up and rumble the mark. The same is true for any business I claim to be engaged in. Of course, I pick up a lot of it from just talking to people, but I have to read a lot too.”

Often one encounters a creative spark in con men; if given the opportunity and the incentive, they might write quite well. Their wide experience with people, their keen powers of observation, and their fluent command of picturesque language would all stand them in good stead if they chose to record the colorful world about them. Certain of them have a genuine love of poetry and rather apologetically exhibit their own efforts at verse; I have in my files numerous manuscripts, some of which rise decidedly above the level of doggerel.

In general, however, the culture of con men is no more than a superficial veneer which, combined with attractive personalities and a ready mother-wit, gives the illusion of polish. Once a con man is thrown back on his own resources and into his own society, he relapses into the ways and the tastes of the common grifter. He has no real interests to sustain him. “A few of the boys have something they like to play around with when they have the leisure,” says an old-timer, “but for most of them, I guess it is only faro, craps or just the gals. When a con man hits a new town, he can smell a faro-bank just the same as he can smell a policeman.”

Almost all con men live irregular sex-lives, because they are away from their women so much of the time; much of their money is squandered in fancy brothels of one sort or
another. And most con men drink when they are at leisure, some, like Roy Brooks (the Major) probably to excess. However, no competent con man drinks on the job, and drinking with the mark is always frowned upon. Certainly no con man who used alcohol continuously to excess long maintains his standing in his profession.

With the increased use of narcotics among underworld folk, it is inevitable that some con men should become addicted, though most modern big-time criminals shun narcotics like poison. Some of the old-timers took up opium around 1900 when it was considered no more dangerous than smoking cigarettes—when many citizens on the West Coast placidly puffed the pipe on their own front porches, and an opium lay-out was standard equipment for most prostitutes whose Pekes and Pomeranians often acquired a “lamp habit” from breathing the smoke while their mistresses puffed. But the Harrison Act changed all that. As opium became more difficult to buy and to take, many addicts turned to morphine and heroin. However, confidence men have always felt that there was something disgraceful about addiction, the present generation being particularly sensitive about it. Consequently, once a con man becomes addicted, he carefully conceals the fact as well as he can and only his intimate associates are aware of his misfortune. How many of the more prominent grifters are addicted it is impossible to say, but it is rumored that Kid Duff, Jack Hardaway, Charley Dixon, Pretty Willy (better known as a thief), Kid Niles, the Yenshee Kid, Claude King, Kent Marshall, Red Lager (the Younger), Jimmy the Rooter, the Sanctimonious Kid and Jackie French are, or have been, addicted. There must be many others who have successfully concealed their addiction. As one goes down the social scale among grifters, addiction becomes increasingly common.

Some con men have pleasures which are less deleterious. Many now play golf for sport, while old-timers like
Wildfire John, the Honey Grove Kid, the Indiana Wonder and the High Ass Kid played it largely for business reasons. Some fancy horses and, like the Clinic Kid and Big Kentuck, maintain their own racing or saddle stables. But mostly their interests stop with gambling and girls.

On the other hand, it must not be assumed that all con men live fast, dissipated lives. Some are temperate or even ascetic. Stewart Donnelly, for instance, has a reputation among his colleagues for being exceedingly abstemious and far more decent in his living habits than many legitimate citizens. He is reputed to refuse all kinds of liquor, even beer and wine, does not use tobacco or narcotics; and, at past fifty, has the physique of a boxer. Many of his associates feel that it is to his credit that he does not gamble, that he scrupulously pays his debts, and that he has been married to the same woman for twenty years.

Confidence men, like legitimate citizens, mate once or more (usually more) during their lives. But, unlike the legitimate citizens, they seldom get divorces, probably because of the publicity which would attend such an event. If they separate, they do it quietly and without benefit of legal papers. Some con men marry into higher social levels and acquire property and status through marriage. Others associate themselves with wealthy women; Kid McGinley, who once short-changed Anita Baldwin on the circus lot and soon found himself in possession of a fortune, is a happy example of this. Some, like Cockroach Gary, scion of a wealthy family who acquired four hundred pounds, more or less, of thief in Big Cad, reverse the process. Some marry waitresses, some prostitutes. But most of them marry girls who are in one way or another connected with the grift, although few women ever work into the confidence rackets with their husbands.

Grifters differ in their opinions about the extent to which women are able to help their husbands in the business
of trimming marks. “Grifters,” observes one cynic, “are always marrying some squaw who is a bum and who will never make a grifter. I never knew one who married anybody who knew much, or who wanted to learn. They just never seem to meet the right sort.” Another con man, an expert on the pay-off, says, “Grifters use girls and women for contacting marks around high-class resorts. If a grifter has his girl or wife with him, and if she is smart enough, why then he uses her. But few are smart enough.” Another, who has himself used women as part of his roping technique, says, “Some women are smart to grifting if they have a chance to grift. A clever girl can certainly lead a mark around. She knows how to keep him on the line while he is being played, too. Sometimes she promises the mark that, after he makes all his money, they will take a little trip to Europe together. Marks like that kind of goings-on ….” An old-timer who remembers the genesis of big-time confidence games adds, “A long time ago I knew many women, like Ollie Roberts in St. Louis, who were roping for panel stores, and some of them were good. But most of them have passed on. Some of them should have been on the pay-off. They were natural ropers. There are plenty of women today who would make good, too, but they haven’t the chance because they don’t know any good grifters.” The majority of con men, however, want their women safely at home while a mark is being played; then they know that a woman won’t do something impulsive and ruin the play. Furthermore, some con men feel that it is beneath the dignity of their wives to work on the grift.

Other branches of the grift are peopled with women aplenty; some of the best pickpockets are women, women have been dealers in gaming houses from western frontier days on down, and have been professional gamblers since long before the Civil War. As big-time professional thieves, some of them are unsurpassed, and the smalltime
time thieving rackets are overrun with them. They are well represented in flat-jointing and in some other branches of the short con. But the only full-fledged con woman whom I have been able to turn up, who is recognized by male colleagues everywhere as a competent professional, is Lilly the Roper, who is now over fifty and has spent her entire life on the grift. Early in life she made a reputation as a pickpocket and had her own mob. She was first married to a heavy man named Harrington. Following his death, she married a thief whom she divorced to marry her present husband, a pickpocket turned con man. “Lilly can rope a mark for the big con and trim one too,” commented one professional who has known her for many years.

The fact that there are few marriages among con folk and even fewer divorces need not imply that there is no code governing relations between the sexes. The men provide for the material needs of their women very liberally; they have good living quarters, fine clothes, servants and all the comforts that money can buy. Most of them do not discard their women when they grow old, even though there is no legal tie binding them. One con man seldom steals another’s woman unless she deliberately throws herself at him, or has already left her man. However, if one does steal another’s girl, the only resultant social criticism is a little good-natured ribbing directed at the loser. If he takes his loss very seriously, he may kill or try to kill his rival; usually, he takes his kidding graciously and consoles himself with another woman. And, in all justice to the women, it should be said that, in spite of the fact that they know that their husbands live free-and-easy love lives on the road, they usually remain faithful to their men. As long as they live in wedlock, they carefully observe the double standard. Probably there is no more infidelity on their parts than there is among legitimate middle-class wives. A woman who is unfaithful to her
man is not regarded very highly; this is especially true when she is living or staying with friends while her husband is in prison or away. Her indiscretions are her own business, but she should not bring them into the homes of her friends. If she regards herself as still belonging to her man, she should conduct herself properly; if not, she should stay on her own, or get another man. In other words, as long as she permits her husband’s friends to support her, she is obligated to maintain a respectable demeanor and behavior. And she usually does. Kid Duff’s wife, for instance, held in her possession all the Kid’s assets—amounting to several hundred thousand dollars— until he finished his last bit in prison, then, after his release, returned them to him and secured a divorce. She could have very easily run out on him while he was helpless, but she dealt fairly with him.