Double Your Money – Part Nineteen
George C Parker (1860 – 1936)
I do like a good scam – obviously only if I am not the victim. Those who live in or have visited the Big Apple will know that the Brooklyn Bridge which spans the East River linking Manhattan with (ahem) Brooklyn is one of the iconic images of the city that never sleeps. With a span of 486.3 metres it was the first steel-wire suspension bridge built and opened in 1883.
There was a time when America welcomed migrants with open arms. Ellis Island and then New York was often their portal to a new life in the States. Many were innocents abroad and together with a steady influx of tourists offered easy pickings to the unscrupulous. One such was George C Parker who up until the opening of the bridge had been a small-time confidence trickster. On a whim he decided to see whether he could sell the new bridge to an unsuspecting new arrival. And, surprisingly, he could and did, time after time. So successful was he that he concentrated on the scam on a full-time basis.
Parker would identify his victim in the street and sidle up to him. His opening gambit wasn’t “psst, wanna buy a bridge?” Instead, he represented himself as the owner of the brand spanking-new bridge and was looking for a toll booth operator. Was the victim interested? Bearing in mind they had often just stepped off the boat, the offer of immediate employment must have been attractive. If the victim showed a vestige of interest, Parker would then change tack. He would say that whilst he was a builder of structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, he really couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of taking the tolls. Would the victim like, for a fee, to have exclusive rights to collecting the tolls from the steady stream of vehicles and pedestrians tramping across the structure?
This amazing offer seemed too good to be true – and, of course, it was – but many, unable to believe their luck and seeing this as a prime example of the land of opportunity to which they had just arrived swallowed it hook, line and sinker. There was no set price for the franchise – Parker just winged it and fleeced his victim for as much as he could. Some paid as little as $50 for the privilege – regrettably, a major proportion of their worldly wealth but, hey, it was a never to be repeated opportunity – whilst at least one person paid an astonishing $50,000. For those who found the capital outlay a bit of a stretch, Parker allowed them to pay on an instalment basis. Some paid for a number of months before they realised they had been had.
Of course, some would want to exercise their newly acquired rights and the New York Police regularly had to be called to the bridge to prevent Parker’s victims from erecting a toll booth. Emboldened, Parker turned his sales talents to flogging other New York landmarks, including Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Grant’s Tomb. He also sold rights to successful Broadway shows and plays – naturally, he had no rights over them.
Eventually, the long arm of the law caught up with Parker and on the third occasion he appeared in front of the beak, in December 1928, after a career in fraud of some thirty-five years, he was sentenced to life in Sing Sing where he died eight years later. His misdemeanours were popularised in the expression for gullibility, “if you believe that, I’ve a bridge to sell you”.
Now, that’s what I call a scam.
Filed under: Culture, History Tagged: Brooklyn Bridge, George C Parker, infamous scams, the Brooklyn Bridge scam
