Case #026: "Count" Victor Lustig- Con Man

Noir Factory Podcast

Case #026: Victor Lustig-Con Man Extraordinaire

“I’ve always loved movies about con men. I think con men are as American as apple pie.”

-Bill Paxton, actor

Victor Lustig was born on January 4th, 1890.  Maybe. He said, more than once, that he came from the Austria-Hungarian town of Hostinné, in what is now the Czech Republic. He said once that he was the son of the town’s burgomaster. He also said that he was the son of the poorest couple in the village. Believe what you like about the childhood of Victor Lustig, just know that there’s not a lot of upside in taking the word of a con man.

As a boy, Victor Lustig was an excellent student. Not of books and notes, not of procedure and equations. He was a student of people. He picked up languages quickly and he saw patterns in people’s behaviors where others didn’t.

He studied at the University of Paris and became fluent in Czech, French, English, German, and Italian. While he never was an imposing person, he learned charm and poise, and he learned to make them work for him.

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