The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

Author: Floyd Miller
Publisher: Pocket 7030 Year: 1963 Print: 1 Cover Price: $0.50
Condition: Very Good Plus
Genre: Crime

Victor Lustig, the man who sold the Eiffel Tower, was a master of persuasion, able to convince nearly anyone of nearly anything. He used his skill to become one of the greatest criminals in recent history. He approached a frenchman and explained that he was a representative of the french government and was selling the Eiffel Tower for scrap. The man was somewhat doubtful until Lustig hinted that he needed a bribe. The man knew of the corruption in his government, and assummed that he must be for real if he wanted a bribe. So Lustig sold him the tower, left the country, and came back and sold it again later. Many of his exploits are simply amazing. For example, after being arrested once he manages to convince the sheriff to not only release him, but also to pay him $10,000 (quite a bit at the time) for a machine that supossedly copied money. Another time, when he was coming into the U.S. and knew he would be arrested when he passed through customs, he managed to use the Secret Service to get into the country by telling them he had some information about a counterfeiting ring. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten what it was after they got him past customs.