"Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler

by J.R. Weil, W.T. Brannon (With), Bruno Ruhland (Foreword by)

Overview

Bilked bankers, grifted gamblers, and swindled spinsters: welcome to the world of confidence men.

You'll marvel at the elaborate schemes developed by The Yellow Kid and cry for the marks who lost it all to his ingenuity—$8,000,000 by some estimations. Fixed horse races, bad real-estate deals, even a money-making machine—all were tools of the trade for the Kid and his associates: the Swede, the Butterine Kid, the Harmony Kid, Fats Levine, and others. The Sting (1973), starring Paul Newman and based largely on the story of the Yellow Kid, is entertaining, but is no match for the real deal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849350211
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	02/22/2011
Series:	Nabat Books
Edition description:	Nabat ed.
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	655,641
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

J.R. Weil: J.R. "Yellow Kid" Weil (1875–1976) was a successful confidence man working mainly out of the Chicago area. His elaborate schemes, however, took him all over the world.

W.T. Brannon: W.T. Brannon was a St. Petersburg, Florida-based journalist. He passed away in 1981.

Bruno Ruhland: Bruno Ruhland is the editor of AK Press's Nabat Series. He's a veteran of the Bay Area book world. Bruno is a long time employee of Moe's Books in Berkeley and the Bound Together book collective in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Preface Bruno Ruhland IX

Foreword W. T. Brannon 1

1 Early Adventures in Chicanery 3

2 Chicanery in Chicago 13

3 A Tip for Mr. MacAllister 21

4 How to Beat the Horses 41

5 Two Unwary Strangers 48

6 From Nags to Riches 60

7 Giving Away Real Estate 74

8 The Get-Rich-Quick Bank 87

9 Red Letter Days 96

10 Millionaires and Murder 106

11 I Tried To Go Straight 130

12 Easy Money on Rainy Days 142

13 A Deal with Father Flanagan 151

14 Some Credit - and Lots of Cash 155

15 The Man with a Beard 162

16 The Faro Bank Pay-off 174

17 Meet Me in St. Louis 192

18 The Law Catches Up 209

19 Magic Money 212

20 The Hotel Martinique 233

21 The Leavenworth Country Club 236

22 The Comtesse and the Kid 240

23 The Case of the Refugee 252

24 A Proposition for A. Hitler 265

25 Tricks of the Trade 269

26 The Little Things Count 282

27 Where the Money Went 288

28 The Last Word 292