During the first years of the last century, an expression became popular in the United States to refer to a person who was too gullible, too innocent: “If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you“.
The bridge in question was none other than that of Brooklynerected on the East River to connect the neighborhood that gives it its name with the island of Manhattan, for what supposes an essential artery in the internal traffic of the city.
The quote comes from the adventures of one of the “brokers” real estate most prominent in New York at the beginning of the 20th century, but not because of the projects he developed but because of the scams he committed, which exceed anything imaginable.
It is the case of George C. Parker, who was born in New York in 1860 into a family of Irish immigrants.
A life of scams
To carry out his scams, he took advantage of the fact that at the beginning of the last century there were unsuspecting people who thought that each of these buildings and monuments could be privately owned.
In this sense, he falsified documents and property titles, bribed police officers and created offices that allowed him to prove that he was the owner of a large number of emblematic places. He even went so far as to sell the mausoleum where General Grant is buried.
George C. Parker managed to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
Not content to manage to sell any of his “architectural gems” once, in some cases, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, He knew how to deceive dozens of businessmen, whom he even persuaded to pay sums that reached a million dollars. of the time in comfortable monthly installments.
Like all legendary con artists, Parker had a way with people and never got in directly with his victims. His technique was to present himself as one of those responsible for the construction of the bridge and its administrator, a job that he did not like at all. Once he had aroused the cousin’s interest, he released his reflection on the lucrative possibilities of owning the engineering work. He, Parker justified himself, preferred not to get entangled in these issues in order to dedicate himself entirely to his work as an architect.
In subsequent meetings, Parker would put on the table a duly stamped and signed title deed to the bridge, as well as a sales contract with all the legal requirements to appear authentic. The scam had been completed.
Furthermore, he was willing to “make a sacrifice” and sell the bridge below its value. In the minds of their greedy victims appeared the thousands of dollars they would earn with such a lucrative, and at the same time simple, business. Most of them took the bait and paid Parker for a title deed. Fake, obviously.
Ostentation and simulation as part of the scam
Parker used to promote himself as the billionaire businessman who had built the bridge but had no interest in blowing it up.
To your potential customers made them believe that would make rich Through the payment of tolls to be able to cross it on either side of the river. And the incredible thing about the case is that most of them invested in their projects.
Several unwary put up money to buy the bridge.
Until one fine day, some federal agents realized that a sentry box was being built at one end of the bridge and they asked the person in charge for a work permit. He showed them the papers and insisted that everything was legal until a municipal authority came to tell him that the Brooklyn Bridge was public property and that the buyer had been cheated.
Parker was an expert in simulating complex set-ups, such as the sale of premises that were not his own next to Grand Central Station, for which he managed to convince a dozen businessmen that a shopping complex was going to be installed there for the that train passengers would transit.
Parker: Arrested and Held
The fraudster was registered by the Police because he had suffered arrests and brief periods in jail. On one occasion he was arrested and tried for paying with a bad check for $150.
He accepted his guilt without question, was placed in a police station cell, but managed to escape by stealing an inspector’s coat and hat. He slipped out the door without anyone noticing.
But his luck ran out in 1928, when he was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for fraud and forgery. of documents three times. He had reached the age of 68 and would no longer leave Sing Sing, the prison to which he was sent and in which he spent eight years until his death.
Curiously, he was received by his guards and fellow inmates as a hero and was always surrounded by people to whom he recounted his exploits.
Even as the years passed, newspapers continued to publish his escapades, which made him a myth to the point that there were popular sayings based on his legend.
A flashy “property” that George Parker knew how to sell.
Lots of shoppers for the Brooklyn Bridge
Parker frequently changed his identity to mislead those who investigated him, based on some complaints that marked him as one of the inventors of the pyramid scheme, since he also sold remunerated titles with high interest that he paid with the contributions of the unwary who fell in your hands.
His audacity was such that between 1883 and 1928 he sold the Brooklyn Bridge to 4,500 gullible and greedy moneyed. In order to come up with that number, he sold the bridge twice a week for decades.
On many occasions, the unsuspecting realized the deception when they built the toll booths, being warned by the police that they had been victims of a scam.
In his strategy as a con man, Parker warned that in addition to greed, the vanity It was another weak point to exploit, in a tireless desire to acquire greater notoriety in respect.
This reflection led him to consider the sale of great monuments of the young American republic, such as the Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty, or even a tomb! Nothing less than the mausoleum of General Ulysses S. Grant.
