Summary of David Maurer's The Big Con

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The grift has a gentle touch. It takes its toll from the verdant sucker by means of the skilled hand or the sharp wit. It never employs violence to separate the mark from his money.

#2 The three big-con games are the wire, the rag, and the pay-off. They have taken a toll from a gullible public for over 40 years. They are: locating and investigating a well-to-do victim, gaining his confidence, steering him to meet the insideman, permitting the insideman to show him how he can make a large amount of money dishonestly, and allocating him a substantial amount of money.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822511057

IRB Media

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Insights on David Maurer's The Big Con

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The grift has a gentle touch. It takes its toll from the verdant sucker by means of the skilled hand or the sharp wit. It never employs violence to separate the mark from his money.

#2

The three big-con games are the wire, the rag, and the pay-off. They have taken a toll from a gullible public for over 40 years. They are: locating and investigating a well-to-do victim, gaining his confidence, steering him to meet the insideman, permitting the insideman to show him how he can make a large amount of money dishonestly, and allocating him a substantial amount of money.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In the fall of 1867, the Union Pacific Railway reached Cheyenne, Wyoming, and that town became the spearhead of a frenzied effort that thrust its way relentlessly up the canyons, through the passes, and over the badlands.

#2

The store is a modern method of playing the victims of a confidence game. It allows competent modern operators to take, for example, $75,000 from a victim, and at the same time conceal from him the fact that he has been swindled.

#3

The idea of a store was popularized by grifters, and it spread over the West and to the East. Other forms of the short-con, such as gambling games, copied the idea and sprang up all over the country.

#4

Crime had not become a big business before 1900. The operators of mitt and monte stores simply gave the cop on the beat an occasional five- or ten-dollar bill to avoid being run in, and their game went merrily on. The idea of inducing the victim to try to beat the store had not yet germinated.

#5

The fight store was a precursor to the big store, and it worked like this. The mob consisted of one or more ropers, an insideman, a doctor, two prize fighters, and several minor assistants. The roper would steer a mark in whenever he could find one.

#6

The mark was sent to look over the situation. The insideman met him, and everyone talked about the coming fight. The mark was convinced that he could win heavily, and he was sent home with part of the money for the play. He then