The Eiffel Tower Was Sold Twice by the Same Person as Scrap Metal
Did this guy have a vision for the future?
Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower for scap metal twice!
Protests against the new retirement age have been going on since January. Of course, the efforts bore no fruits, but those who choose to protest, must have been used to that sort of thing by now, especially after what happened to the Canadian Truckers and whatever is happening to the farmers in the Netherlands. It always upsets me, when sources tell the peasants to resist or “not to comply,” as if Jane or John Doe had a trick up their sleeves to prevent things from happening:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/do-not-comply-no-kidding
Already in 1997, there were nearly 300 “autonomous” territories in France, where the police wouldn’t enter (I guess, Swedes and Germans must have become accustomed to the phenomenon by now). Somehow, when the French left their colonies, they forgot to deprive residents there from immigrating to France. Oh, well.
My favorite story from France is still about this guy who sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap metal twice. Of course, he was a small-time punk compared to the Fed or the Stock Market scammers, but his story does provide some comic relief:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/victor-lustig
Born on Jan. 4, 1890 in the Austro-Hungarian town of Hostinne, Victor Lustig displayed a penchant for crime right from the start: pickpocketing, burglary, and rigged card games all composed a crucial part of Lustig’s teen life.
As Lustig entered adulthood, his crimes grew bolder. Besides constantly counterfeiting money, Lustig ran bogus horse races, faked seizures during business meetings, and instigated several phony real estate deals.
The biggest of Lustig’s real estate scams occurred shortly after World War I and involved no less than the Eiffel Tower.
Arriving in Paris during the spring of 1925, Lustig checked into the sleek Hotel de Crillon, introducing himself as an official representative of the French government.
At the time, it was public knowledge that maintaining the Eiffel Tower was a big financial burden on the city. Taking advantage of this fact, Lustig settled into his hotel room and composed letters to some of the most powerful people in France’s scrap metal industry.
“Because of engineering faults, costly repairs, and political problems I cannot discuss, the tearing down of the Eiffel Tower has become mandatory,” Lustig allegedly told the scrap metal industry leaders in a meeting.
The leaders took the bait, and the bidding for the landmark took off.
Somehow, Lustig managed to get away with this bold fraud, and, according to some accounts, he was even able to trick people into bidding on the Eiffel Tower a second time.
Lustig wasn’t content with selling off the Eiffel Tower, though. Returning to America in the late 1920s, Lustig boldly stole $16,000 from a businessman in Massachusetts and used counterfeit money to swindle a sheriff in Texas — and then talked himself out of an arrest after the sheriff caught tracked him down afterward.
The scam with the sheriff put Lustig on the radar of the Secret Service. As Secret Service agents hunted Lustig throughout America, the conman perfected his craft, counterfeiting money so pristine that even bank tellers couldn’t tell that it was fake.
Slippery as a fish, Lustig evaded exasperated agents time and time again by effortlessly disguise himself as a rabbi, a priest, and a down-on-his-luck baggage man.
Finally, however, on a Saturday night in Sept. 1935, agents found Lustig in Pittsburgh, and, after a car chase, nabbed their mark.
For his remarkable work, Victor Lustig earned a 20-year prison sentence at the infamous Alcatraz. Before he was locked away, a journalist heard a Secret Service agent tell Lustig, “You’re the smoothest con man that ever lived.”
In March of 1947, Lustig contracted pneumonia and was pronounced dead two days later at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. His occupation was listed as apprentice salesman on his death certificate.
I read recently that the owner of the Titanic had just previously built almost identical ship, the Olympia and that went into service without big publicity. It had some problem, making it unseaworthy and was only fit for scrap. The owner not pleased at all and did some scullduggery. The vessel got steel rods welded in the bowels to hold it together and name swops happened, Olympia was repainted with Titanic and Titanic became Olympia! Big fanfare of launch of Titanic, well insured, no doubt too! When underwater explorers discovered the Titanic, one of the points remarked upon were these steel trusses across the belly of the ship. I don't know how these people can do these things and sleep at night.