Speaker’s Book:
- The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, by David Maurer
The Affair of the Necklace: When Diamonds Were Not the Queen’s Best Friend
Online:
- Libelles and Political Pornography – Alpha History
- French Revolution Digital Archive – Stanford.edu
- A Mistress’s Tale: From Versailles to the Guillotine, Take a Walk in Madame Jeanne du Barry’s Shoes – Jan Kelley
Print:
- How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette and the Diamond Necklace Affair, by Jonathan Beckman
- Memoirs of the Countess de Valois de la Motte: Containing a Compleat Justification of Her Conduct, and an Explanation of the Intrigues and Artifices Used Against Her by Her Enemies, Relative to the Diamond Necklace, by Jeanne de la Motte, English translation available on Archive.org
- The Queen’s Necklace, by Alexandre Dumas
The Big Con: The Lingo of Grifters, Swindlers and Con Men
- The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, by David Maurer
Shady Princes and Spanish Prisoners: The Oldest Scam in the Book
Online:
- ‘The Spanish Prisoner’ by Arthur Train – Arthur Train, originally published in The Cosmopolitan Magazine, March 1910
- An Old Swindle Reevived: the “Spanish Prisoner” and Buried Treasure Bait Again Being Offered to Unwary Americans. – The New York Times, 20 March 1898
- Yesterday’s News: Feb. 13, 1910: Spanish Fraud Letters Flood State – Star Tribune
Print:
The Confidence Queen of New York
Online:
- Collection of Newspaper Articles on “Big Bertha” – The California Digital Newspaper Collection
- Found SF
Print:
- Professional Criminals of America, by Thomas Byrnes on Archive.org
- Swindler, Spy, Rebel: The Confidence Woman in Nineteenth-Century America, by Kathleen De Grave
- Women Swindlers in America, 1860–1920, by Kerry Segrave
“Tossin’ the Broads” – History and Exposé of the Three Card Monte
Online:
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
Print:
- Notes On Three Card Monte, by Whit Hayden
- Three Card Monte, by John Scarne
- Harry Anderson’s Games You Can’t Lose: A Guide for Suckers, by Harry Anderson, Turk Pipkin
The Oily Trade Of the Rattlesnake King
Online:
- A History of ‘Snake Oil Salesmen’ – NPR
- Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something – Scientific American
- The History of Snakeoil – It May Not Be What You Think: Original Snakeoil May Have Therapeutic Properties – About Health
- The Rattlesnake King. Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America’s Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry – Dan Hurley
- Patent Medicine: Cures & Quacks – Peggy M. Baker
Print:
- Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters, by Gene Fowler
- True Life in the Far West by the American Cowboy, by Clark Stanley, the ‘Rattle-Snake King’ – on Hathi Trust Digital Library
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!
