In 1848 William Thompson came up with a disarmingly simple trick for separating New Yorkers from their assets. Well-dressed and polite, he approached a genteel-looking stranger on the street. After a bit of conversation, he asked, "Have you confidence in me to trust me with your watch until tomorrow?" When a sucker did, Thompson walked off richer by a watch. This dodge gave birth to a new term: "confidence man," or con man for short. Thompson's story, and much more, can be found in Richard Rayner's new book, Drake's Fortune (Doubleday, $23), which illuminates great cons by analyzing one of history's most successful―the so-called Drake estate scam.
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