27: Con Man "Count" Victor Lustig w/ Jeff Maysh - A True Crime History Podcast

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2016

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest on this episode is Jeff Maysh, author of the Kindle single "Handsome Devil", a book that documents the life and death of one of the most talented and charming con artists of the 20th century, Victor Lustig. He was a master of disguise, an escape artist, and the creator of epic swindles in the 1920s and 30s, including "selling" the Eiffel Tower and managing one of the most prolific counterfeiting operations in American history.

The author's website: https://jeffmaysh.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Most notorious contains adult themes. It is not suitable for all audiences.
0:07.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:31.0	This is the most notorious podcast and I am Eric Rivenis.
0:40.0	Today we have a story of the most notorious podcast in the world.
0:46.0	This is the most notorious podcast in the world.
0:54.0	This is the most notorious podcast in the world.
0:59.0	Today we have a story not of murder but swindle instead.
1:03.0	Not just any swindle but swindle of epic proportions.
1:07.0	Propechuated by one of the greatest fling flammers and cheats in the history of the 20th century.
1:15.0	My guest today is Jeff Mesh, a journalist and author who has written for the BBC,
1:21.0	the Atlantic, Playboy and many other magazines.
1:25.0	He is the author of Handsome Devil, a book that delves into the life of scam artist extraordinaire Victor Loustig.
1:34.0	I appreciate your time. Thank you for joining me.
1:37.0	Thank you.
1:38.0	So what led you to write a book about Victor Loustig?
1:42.0	I just couldn't believe that no one had told Victor Loustig's story before.
1:47.0	He must be the last of the depression here as public enemies to not have his story written about in the kind of depth that I write about.
1:59.0	Can you talk about his early life? Where was he born and how did he grow up?
2:04.0	Well, there's a lot of mystery surrounding who he really was but we think that he was born in Hostine,
2:10.0	which is now in the Czech Republic. He came to America after the Great War to kind of make his fortune.
2:19.0	But he was a street hustler, you know, card sharp.
2:23.0	He would rip people off on the street with slight of hand games.
	...

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