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Who Sold the Eiffel Tower Twice?

By B Sumangal; Illustration by Anup Singh

Lustig had already chosen his victim and informed him that he was winner of the bid. Lustig approached the Frenchman and indirectly hinted that he wanted a bribe before the bid could be approved. The Frenchman gladly offered him the bribe and also the tender money for the sale of the Eiffel tower.

Immediately after, Lustig and Dan Collins escaped to nearby Austria. But, the Frenchman, either due to embarrassment or shame never reported the scam and Lustig again came to Paris and sold the Eiffel Tower to another gullible dealer again!

However, Lustig's luck ran out as the victim complained to the police. Lustig was lucky enough to be one jump ahead of the French police.

Many were the scams Lustig attempted, like the 'money' making machine in which one enters a real note and it duplicates itself. By this time Lustig had joined hands with a forger named William Watts. Soon they were circulating counterfeit US currency in large numbers.

In 1934, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) finally caught Lustig with thousands of counterfeit money. Put in the Federal House of Detention in New York city, Lustig however, managed to escape from prison the day before his trial.

Recaptured a month later, Lustig was sent to Alcatraz prison, in California in 1935. On March 9, 1947, Lustig contracted pneumonia and died.

Victor Lustig made full use of the adage "there's a sucker born every minute". Though crime never pays and the criminal is ultimately caught, conmen survive only because when it comes to the thought of making easy money, even the smartest get suckered.