The Romanticization Of Confidence Men By David W. Maurer

Movies, tv shows, and literature has a way of romanticizing con men, their cons, and even their victims too. Especially, confidence men in the United States during the 1900’s till the late 1920’s. But being a confidence man is not all that glamorous and romantic which David W. Maurer portrays in his book. Maurer, who was a linguistic professor at the University of Louisville was able to gain the confidence and respect of confidence men simply by talking to them. Which is one of the ways he gathered information about the different con games and information about the life of an confidence man. The second way he gather data is by looking at the information that was collected by detectives.
A con man must know how to talk to a mark to get the mark to trust him and give him all of his money, but there is more to just talking, a con man must also have a basic knowledge of variety of topics and basic understanding of human nature and psychology. Sometimes a con man will trail his victim for
weeks to gather information about him. Most con men will read books and newspapers about finances, sports and much more while traveling so they can use this knowledge to get the victim to trust them, since both of them will have something in common. The most important thing that a con man must know is how to listen to his victim, by listening the con man can learn a lot about his victim such as his financial situation, his family life, if he have mistress, what are his hobbies which can be used to trap his mark.
Not only must a con have a variety of knowledge on hand, he must also be willing to travel far and wide to pick up a mark. A con man will be out on the road for times on end, traveling the railroads, cars and even ships to find a mark. This can become very stressful and draining for the con man because he is wondering the United States and sometimes the world with no destination in mind, he might not know the local political situation at his destination, and who might run into including the police and FEDS.
The romanticized confidence men are portrayed with no short comings, but a lot of confidence men have their own vices and problems.
Some confidence men have women, others have alcohol, and some need the thrill from gambling, while others use drugs even though it is frowned upon by the majority. Most spend their time and money in brothels where they can buy women and alcohol. However, the biggest problem is gambling, they will spend money as fast as they could get it. Con men can lose “a $100,000 touch … and [soon be] living on borrowed money” which shows how con men can fall into the same traps as regular people. And sometimes the younger con men will get addicted to drugs and this is where most of their money will go to, however, they do not openly show their drug use to other confidence men, especially, the older generation. Not only do confidence men have their own problems, especially, with the ability to control money, but they also fall victims into the hands of other con
men.
The life of an confidence man may seem to be all fun and adventurous, but in reality, it is fill with dread and constant worrying about the police, the FBI, and spending the rest of one’s life in jail. This constant worrying and pressure causes many confidence men to give up the con permanently and live the rest of their life as an ordinary citizen. Those that end up in jail either come out broke because they spent all of their money on their legal defense or they die while serving out their sentence. The federal government is the biggest problem for the confidence man, because many of the federal agents, judges and jurors cannot be brought like those on the city or state level. Maurer describes how in Iowa the federal government stepped in and the con went bad resulting in the lock up of some of the first rate confidence men, even though in Iowa the con men had the protection of the city and state government.
Throughout the book Maurer was able to show the unromanticized version of the confidence man, that their life is stressful, draining, dangerous and filled with problems of their own. Not only is he very persuasive with his detailed account of their life but also with the language he use to persuade the readers. Anyone who is interested in learning about what it really means to be a confidence man has to read this book. Even though this book focus mostly on the big con games it would have been nice for him to go a little deeper in the detail account of the short con games. This book is more than just an unromanticized account of an confidence man it is a way for them to tell their own stories.