Con Man by J.R. “Yellow Kid” Weil and W.T. Brannon (book review).
Oddly, this is the second copy of Con Man by J.R. “Yellow Kid” Weil and W.T. Brannon that I’ve pulled. The first, (pub: Forgotten Worlds, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-265471616), was a hardback and although I hope my copy was a printing fluke, a quarter of the book had a column size text missing, I didn’t want to buy a second copy to find out when I could get a different published version. So I got this Library Of Larceny published edition instead.
Released originally in 1948, W.T. Brannon managed to track down Joseph Weil also called the Yellow Kid because of his look similar to the comicbook character the Yellow Kid and persuaded him to relate his life story. Joe Weil was born in 1877 and died at the age of 101 in 1978, so he was 71 when he told his history and retired. I haven’t counted up just how many con men have given their histories this way and I doubt there would be many because they are revealing their crimes.
The reason this book is of interest in what is essentially an SF website is to understand how con men work, in any age, for possible characters in stories. I mean, if you have to choose an example from SF then all we really have is ‘The Stainless Steel Rat’ series by Harry Harrison. I suspect the reason there aren’t more is most SF writers tend to write out of honesty than to think such criminals would exist in the future. Weil himself states that the majority of people he encountered are easy to con if they think they can get something for nothing and it’s a primeval urge in most people. Don’t confuse this with the modern swindlers who exploit the telephone or Internet to trip you up to get your money. The traditional con man likes to do things in person and there were rich pickings in Weil’s time, not to mention a lot of greedy people. His marks were never honest people.
Oh, Weil was the creator of ‘The Wire’ con and all of its variants and seeing how it was used against one mark makes for fascinating reading. It’s also pretty obvious that ‘The Sting’s plot followed this template. It doesn’t take a jump in imagination that Kid Twist (played by actor Harold Gould) was based on Weil. He points out that you need to be creative in creating cons and think on your feet, not necessarily running, when there is a problem. I did note that he never had a name for cut-offs to stop his marks coming after him although, most of the time, ensured he kept distance after a con. However, back in the day, American laws gave con men a certain amount of freedom and cases closed as the mark was in the middle of the swindle of the bookmaker. Even so, he was jailed on three occasions and even when he tried to go straight, found his past worked against him.
Part of the learning curve of seeing how Weil worked is spotting an opportunity and following it up. Sometimes, it takes a while to put things together but it shows how some care is taken. Not always, especially when he cons cops and has to avoid them later.
Something that comes out of his tales from time to time is Weil’s spending money like water and, occasionally, some marks catch up with him and he gets a beating or has to go abroad for a while for things to quieten down. Don’t ever think being a confidence trickster is all gold (sic) as sometimes the paste jewellery catches up with you.
Oddly, even when Weil tries to go straight, his reputation precedes him the people he co-ops find out who he is. Looking objectively, some con men do know a lot of things that work well in business. These particular types can see opportunities and can set up businesses. It’s only them being bent and a boredom threshold that gets in the way.
Weil’s assessment of his own career, an estimated $8,000,000 profit made from swindles up to the 1950s and its own ups and downs is well-considered. It did give me some insight on how to write such characters although I did find myself only taking in a few chapters a day, mostly because it did make me feel uncomfortable because of my own honesty levels. Read, understand but be careful who you buy stock from and don’t be greedy. Me? I’m just too honest.
GF Willmetts
August 2023
(pub: Library Of Larceny, 2004 reprint of the 1948 book. 335 page small enlarged paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-0-7679-1737-7)
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