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Further Reading: GRIFT

fortunetellerboulogne
Fortune Teller with Soldiers by Valentin de Boulogne, c. 1620. Note the pickpocket pickpocketing the pickpocket on the left.

Speaker’s Book:

The Affair of the Necklace: When Diamonds Were Not the Queen’s Best Friend

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The Big Con: The Lingo of Grifters, Swindlers and Con Men

Shady Princes and Spanish Prisoners: The Oldest Scam in the Book

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The Confidence Queen of New York

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“Tossin’ the Broads” – History and Exposé of the Three Card Monte

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Notice how the boxes are taped together. There’s also a lip made of cardboard around the top edges of the make-shift table. This keeps the cards from sliding off to the ground or being blown off by the wind. At the end of 20 second clip, either someone gives a signal the cops are coming or it’s discovered that they’re being filmed by a cell camera. Everything gets tipped over together and people start making their getaway, with possibly the camera guy being the most scared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y51TRQwgek

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The Oily Trade Of the Rattlesnake King

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For each salon, we invite our speakers to share the resources and interesting reading they came across in researching their talk, so that we can all dig more deeply. This reading list was compiled by Odd Salon with Eva Galperin, Casey Selden, Leonard Apeltsin, Besha Grey, Christian Cagigal, and Imogen Speer. Thank you!