The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man, by David Maurer

The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man is the book that inspired the the movie, The Sting. The book's author, David Maurer, was a linguist who studied the jargon of different professions. He was so captivated by the charm of con men (who befriended him and opened up to him completely), he decided to write a whole book about their lives and their ruses. If you've seen The Sting, then you have the basic idea of how a big con works. It's basically a theatrical production with elaborate sets and costumed actors for an audience of one. But the audience member thinks the production is real, and ends up losing his life savings by the time the curtain closes. The two most surprising things I learned from reading this book: one, the con men, who work so hard to set up a con and take the mark's money, usually blow their cut immediately by gambling it away, and two, the victims of cons often return to the con men to get fleeced again, even when they know they were conned the first time. Link

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