‘Count’ Victor Lustig wasn’t a count, king, prince or any other form of aristocrat. Unless, of course, you happened to be what conmen call a ‘mark’. To his victims, Lustig was whatever they wanted him to be until he’d taken their money and run.
Conmen are common coin in the underworld, mostly unexceptional and seldom rating much attention. The smart ones, and Lustig was definitely one of them, like it that way. The less attention they draw, the greater their freedom to operate. The freer they are, the more marks they can fleece. Like most conmen, Lustig wasn’t violent but, in his own way, he was every bit as predatory as any other career felon. As Lustig admitted: “Everything turns grey when I don’t have at least one mark on the horizon. Life seems empty and depressing. I cannot understand honest men. They lead desperate lives, full of boredom.”
Born on 4 January 1890 in Arnau, Austria-Hungary (now Hostinne and within the Czech Republic), Lustig started as a juvenile offender as a beggar, pickpocket, burglar, street hustler and remarkably talented card sharp. His dishonesty was innate and until World War I he was making a tidy living conning passengers aboard ocean
