The con artist ost8/31/2023 ![]() This conman managed to “sell” the Eiffel Tower and allegedly even swindled notorious mobster Al Capone. ![]() Nearly all “confidence men” or scam artists are charming. According to historian Karen Halttunen, approximately 10 percent of all criminals in New York City in the 1860s were con artists. Thompson was consequently known among local authorities as “the confidence man,” which was eventually shortened to “con man.” But Thompson was hardly alone in his clever grifts. In 1849, Thompson was arrested in New York City for a slew of successful scams during which he duped unassuming passersby on the street into lending him their valuables before vanishing with them. The term “con artist” or “conman” comes from one of American history’s earliest scammers, a man by the name of William Thompson. From the conman who invented the Ponzi scheme to the modern scam artist who built a multi-billion-dollar company on a fake medical breakthrough, these are history's most conniving grifters.
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