Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. The twenty one century is a scammers paradise. The Internet has made it easy to snatch any dewy eyed persons. Dollars or identity were only one phone call, malicious link, or credit cards swipe away from fraud or extortion these days. But scams certainly aren't a modern invention. Plenty of people in the past
fell victim to sneak oil salesman and smooth talkers. It took a bit more effort to swindle people out of thousands of dollars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it was possible, and longtime con artist George C. Parker was a pro at it. At the time, millions of immigrants seeking better lives entered the United States through the Golden Door that is New York City. Largely impoverished and hopeful, these immigrants were the perfect targets for opportunistic
tricksters like Parker. Cunning and ruthless. Parker took advantage of naive immigrants and tourists by selling them buildings and monuments that he never owned. To begin with, Parker's Brooklyn Bridge grift likely began in the eighteen eighties. The ruse was relatively simple. Parker would scout out marks who had recently arrived in New York City, convinced them that he owned the Brooklyn Bridge, and sell it to these eager investors
for as much as fifty thou dollars. He charmed his victims into thinking that they would easily profit by charging people for access to the bridge. Soon they would try to set up poll booths on the roadway, But their new venture, pitched as a lucrative business and promising start to life in the Big Apple, was destined to fail. Police would shut down their attempts to control the road, and all their dreams of getting rich off of driver's
pocket change were dashed. It was such a pervasive grift that eventually pro sessors of Ellis Island started handing new arrivals cards warning them you can't buy public buildings or streets. Parker was a career fraudster. At times he posed as a prison warden or the captain of a ship. He had at least six pseudonyms. In The New York Times reported then a man named William mcclundie, also known as io U O'Brien, was arrested. As it turns out, this
was just another one of Parker's aliases. In this case, he used it to sell someone ten lots that Pete didn't own, and detectives found Parker measuring a backyard in Asbury Park. Another New York Times article reported only that he was captured. He told the police he would have been able to sell the place for seventeen thousand dollars. It's unlikely that Parker sold Brooklyn Bridge as many as two times a week for years, which some sources say that he claimed to have done, but Parker did manage
to sell the bridge many times. He also sold the Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden, Ulysses S. Grants Tomb, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But he couldn't avoid getting caught, and he went to jail several times for larceny, forgery, and impersonating a police officer. Of course, that didn't stop his cons Parker escaped a stint at Raymond Street jail one New Year's Day by putting on clothes that a
sheriff took off and then waltzing out the door. However, after decades of scheming on fifty dollar check sent Parker to prison for good. According to a contemporary news article, the check quote bounced back with startling elasticity. Under New York law, people convicted of a fourth felony had to be imprisoned for life, so in a judge sentenced Parker to life in Sing Sing. Parker died there in seven
and was buried at the prison cemetery. The Brooklyn Bridge racket lost steam after the nineteen twenties, since more people were aware that it was fraud, but Parker's infamy lives on in a phrase that you might have heard if you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Today's episode is based on the article Meet the con man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge many times over on how stuff works dot com, written by Eve's
Jeff Cote. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.