Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. The twenty one century
Speaker 1: is a scammers paradise. The Internet has made it easy
Speaker 1: to snatch any dewy eyed persons. Dollars or identity were
Speaker 1: only one phone call, malicious link, or credit cards swipe
Speaker 1: away from fraud or extortion these days. But scams certainly
Speaker 1: aren't a modern invention. Plenty of people in the past
Speaker 1: fell victim to sneak oil salesman and smooth talkers. It
Speaker 1: took a bit more effort to swindle people out of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
Speaker 1: but it was possible, and longtime con artist George C.
Speaker 1: Parker was a pro at it. At the time, millions
Speaker 1: of immigrants seeking better lives entered the United States through
Speaker 1: the Golden Door that is New York City. Largely impoverished
Speaker 1: and hopeful, these immigrants were the perfect targets for opportunistic
Speaker 1: tricksters like Parker. Cunning and ruthless. Parker took advantage of
Speaker 1: naive immigrants and tourists by selling them buildings and monuments
Speaker 1: that he never owned. To begin with, Parker's Brooklyn Bridge
Speaker 1: grift likely began in the eighteen eighties. The ruse was
Speaker 1: relatively simple. Parker would scout out marks who had recently
Speaker 1: arrived in New York City, convinced them that he owned
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Bridge, and sell it to these eager investors
Speaker 1: for as much as fifty thou dollars. He charmed his
Speaker 1: victims into thinking that they would easily profit by charging
Speaker 1: people for access to the bridge. Soon they would try
Speaker 1: to set up poll booths on the roadway, But their
Speaker 1: new venture, pitched as a lucrative business and promising start
Speaker 1: to life in the Big Apple, was destined to fail.
Speaker 1: Police would shut down their attempts to control the road,
Speaker 1: and all their dreams of getting rich off of driver's
Speaker 1: pocket change were dashed. It was such a pervasive grift
Speaker 1: that eventually pro sessors of Ellis Island started handing new
Speaker 1: arrivals cards warning them you can't buy public buildings or streets.
Speaker 1: Parker was a career fraudster. At times he posed as
Speaker 1: a prison warden or the captain of a ship. He
Speaker 1: had at least six pseudonyms. In The New York Times
Speaker 1: reported then a man named William mcclundie, also known as
Speaker 1: io U O'Brien, was arrested. As it turns out, this
Speaker 1: was just another one of Parker's aliases. In this case,
Speaker 1: he used it to sell someone ten lots that Pete
Speaker 1: didn't own, and detectives found Parker measuring a backyard in
Speaker 1: Asbury Park. Another New York Times article reported only that
Speaker 1: he was captured. He told the police he would have
Speaker 1: been able to sell the place for seventeen thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: It's unlikely that Parker sold Brooklyn Bridge as many as
Speaker 1: two times a week for years, which some sources say
Speaker 1: that he claimed to have done, but Parker did manage
Speaker 1: to sell the bridge many times. He also sold the
Speaker 1: Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, Ulysses S. Grants Tomb,
Speaker 1: and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But he couldn't avoid
Speaker 1: getting caught, and he went to jail several times for larceny, forgery,
Speaker 1: and impersonating a police officer. Of course, that didn't stop
Speaker 1: his cons Parker escaped a stint at Raymond Street jail
Speaker 1: one New Year's Day by putting on clothes that a
Speaker 1: sheriff took off and then waltzing out the door. However,
Speaker 1: after decades of scheming on fifty dollar check sent Parker
Speaker 1: to prison for good. According to a contemporary news article,
Speaker 1: the check quote bounced back with startling elasticity. Under New
Speaker 1: York law, people convicted of a fourth felony had to
Speaker 1: be imprisoned for life, so in a judge sentenced Parker
Speaker 1: to life in Sing Sing. Parker died there in seven
Speaker 1: and was buried at the prison cemetery. The Brooklyn Bridge
Speaker 1: racket lost steam after the nineteen twenties, since more people
Speaker 1: were aware that it was fraud, but Parker's infamy lives
Speaker 1: on in a phrase that you might have heard if
Speaker 1: you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to
Speaker 1: sell you. Today's episode is based on the article Meet
Speaker 1: the con man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge many times
Speaker 1: over on how stuff works dot com, written by Eve's
Speaker 1: Jeff Cote. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in
Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.