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| The Lima Litizen (Lima, Ohio), March 3, 1958, page 19. |
In American pop-culture, “selling” the Brooklyn Bridge has been the gold-standard of innocent gullibility and supreme salesmanship for more than a century. Formulated something like, “if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you” or “he’s so persuasive he could sell the Brooklyn Bridge,” the Brooklyn Bridge replaced the “gold brick” as the gold-standard in the early 20th Century. The scam was first reported in the spring of 1900.
Out of Fashion.
The gold brick has gone out of fashion in the East. New York bunco men now sell Italian immigrants of means half interests in the Brooklyn bridge, the custom house and the animals in Central Park. Complaints received at police headquarters indicate that the new business is quite popular.
The Selma Times (Selma, Alabama), June 1, 1900, page 2.
John McCarthy, alias Capt. Parker, alias “Warden” James, alias I.O.U. O’Brien, alias William McCloundy, alias George C. Parker, The Brooklyn Daily Times, July 8, 1928, page 16.
George C. Parker
A man named George C. Parker is widely credited with inventing the Brooklyn Bridge selling scam. But if you believe that, without at least a grain of salt, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.
Parker’s reputation as an early bridge seller appears to rest entirely on widely circulated reports of his last arrest and sentencing (he would spend the rest of his life in Sing Sing) in 1928. I have not been able to find any contemporary accounts of him by name, or under any of his numerous known aliases, before 1928, even in the occasional human interest stories that recount the lives and crimes of notorious bunco artists. It may be true that he was well known to police at the time of his arrest, but he does not appear to have been well known outside of law enforcement or criminal circles until that time. And even if he had sold the bridge on occasion, it’s not clear that he did it as often or as early as is frequently claimed.
The newspaper in Asbury Park, New Jersey (where he was arrested in June 1928), for example, reported that he had sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice, once for $50,000 and again for $25,000 two weeks later.[i] Newspapers in Brooklyn (where he was brought to stand trial) reported that he had “at one time” sold the Brooklyn Bridge.[ii]
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| The Brooklyn Daily Times, July 7, 1928, page 2. |
It was back in 1901, the police say, that [he] ‘sold’ the Brooklyn Bridge. He was convicted of grand larceny at that time and served two years and six months in Sing Sing Prison the police say.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 7, 1928, page 20; The Brooklyn Citizen, July 7, 1928, page 3; The Brooklyn Daily Times, July 7, 1928, page 2.
Not to be outdone, the notoriously sensational New York World (the model for the expression “Yellow Journalism”) upped the ante, “reporting” that Parker “used to sell the Brooklyn bridge to visitors on an average of twice a week, and once he supplied a deed to the Statue of Liberty for $75,000.”[iii] The New York World’s version also reports his age and date of earliest arrest record differently from every other early, local, contemporary account, casting more doubt on the authenticity of its more sensational claims.
When he was sentenced to life in prison five months later, a newspaper in Brooklyn again reported that he had “once ‘sold’ the Brooklyn Bridge.” Wire stories in remote locations, however, were less restrained in describing his criminal history. He was “the man who makes it his business to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge,”[iv] and who “once dealt extensively in that exciting structure, the Brooklyn Bridge.”[v] It was reported that his “exploits as a confidence man included frequent ‘sales’ of the Brooklyn bridge”[vi] and that he “thought nothing of ‘selling’ the Brooklyn Bridge over and over.”[vii] If he had actually sold the bridge as frequently as they claimed, one might expect the local newspapers, in the city where he stood trial, to have reported it as such, raising questions about the accuracy of the less restrained reporting.
At the time of his arrest, George C. Parker was reported as someone who had sold the bridge, but not characterized as an early adopter or the originator of the scam. But five months later, reports of his sentencing and pending trip up the river to Sing Sing referred to him as “one of the first to realize how desirable a parcel of realty was the first bridge to span East river”[viii] or even “the first man” to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
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| Indianapolis Times, December 18, 1928, page 11. |
Parker . . . is the city slicker who first sold the Brooklyn bridge to what then was called a hayseed. It made him.
Miami Herald, December 18, 1928, page 1.
The question of how often or how early he sold the Brooklyn Bridge is not the only mystery about Parker; even his name is uncertain. He “had so many aliases in more than twenty years that the police are not certain just what his right name is.”[ix] They seem to have settled on George C. Parker when he was sent to Sing Sing, but reports from the time of his arrest five months earlier generally referred to him as William McCloundy or John McCarthy, with “Captain Parker” as one of his many aliases (several discussions of the old Brooklyn Bridge scam published decades later mistakenly list McCloundy as a separate person who supposedly sold the bridge).[x] All of which made it that much more difficult to find earlier references to him in print. But even so, I could only find references to one man, by name, in connection to selling the Brooklyn Bridge during the first decade of the 1900s, and his name was not George C. Parker or any of his known aliases, and he doesn’t fit the same description.
The truth about George C. Parker may lurk out there in some criminal or judicial records in New York City, or archives of Sing Sing, but without more conclusive evidence, the various claims that he originated the scheme seem unproven at best and mistaken at worst. Moreover, even taking the claims at face value, 1901, the year George C. Parker is generally said to have first sold the Brooklyn Bridge, is one year later than the earliest known report of the Brooklyn Bridge selling scam.
Did George C. Parker sell the bridge in 1901 or earlier? Maybe. If the reports are to be believed, he had been a notorious bunco artist for many years, and had on at least one occasion made a big score selling the Brooklyn Bridge. Most of the articles from the time of his arrest and sentencing give 1901 as the earliest date, although there are a few exceptions. In addition to the New York World which gives the year as 1900, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle gave the earliest year as 1885[xi] on at least one occasion and the Brooklyn Daily times 1895.[xii]
The report in The Brooklyn Eagle is internally inconsistent; on the one hand saying he did it in 1885, but on the other hand saying that his first arrest was in 1901. It doesn’t add up. In addition, I could not find any references to high-value, fraudulent sales of the Brooklyn Bridge or City Hall lots that year, even though bunco games of much smaller value were reported regularly in the New York press throughout the year.
A comment in one such article published in 1885 suggests that it may have been destiny for the Brooklyn Bridge to be featured in a well known con of its own some day.
Bunco sharks being rather plentiful around the Bridge, it occurred to the big policeman that this might be a new device of the fraternity to rope in the guileless countrymen [(people from the country)] who frequent the big structure at this season of the year, so he strolled over to the table and glanced it over.
The Brooklyn Union, April 11, 1885, page 5.
Similar comments about bunco artists, sharpers and conmen at the bridge and other popular tourist destinations can be found throughout the following years. Yet nevertheless, there are no reports of bunco games involving the bridge itself, or any other public edifice, until 1900.
The Brooklyn Daily Times narrows the date of George C. Parker’s earliest sale to June 1895. But there are no contemporaneous reports of any such high-value bunco games during the month, despite the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge and high-profile bunco artists were both in the news that month, albeit for different reasons. A Hungarian man named David Cohen made international headlines when he jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. And news reports circulated that month about the possible return to the United States from France of a famous conman named O’Brien (O’Brien had murdered a notorious grifter named Reed C. Waddell in Paris a few months earlier). Smaller-value bunco games were also in the news that month, so it seems unlikely that a scam worth $50,000 would have gone unnoticed by the New York press.
Additional evidence weighing against the notion that Parker might have sold the Brooklyn Bridge in June 1895 or earlier comes in the form of the Thomas F. Byrnes’ (the Chief of the New York Police Department’s Detective Bureau) new and revised edition of a photographic “rogues gallery” of notorious criminals, Professional Criminals of America, which was finalized in late-1895 and first advertised for sale in January 1896. The book includes updates on the status of some crimes by some criminals dated as late as December 1895.
The book includes photographs and descriptions of more than 500 known criminals and their crimes, including a number of “banco” artists, “confidence men,” “sharpers,” and other criminals. It also includes general descriptions of the steps involved in several common, confidence schemes, including the “gold brick” “green goods” and “sawdust” scams.
But what’s more interesting for our purposes is what the book does not include. It does not include any descriptions of anyone selling the Brooklyn Bridge or any other public property, and only a few references to crimes involving more than a few thousand dollars. While this does not prove that the bridge scam did not exist before December 1895, it is strongly suggestive that it is likely that George C. Parker had not yet sold the bridge for $50,000 or any amount, at least as far as the police or public knew.
Although I have been unable to identify any references to George C. Parker’s criminal career before his final arrest in 1928, I ran across an interesting news item from 1874 that reads like a precursor to his selling the Brooklyn Bridge. A man named George C. Parker rented the rights to the sidewalk in front of his store to a street vendor, even though the sidewalk was available for public use.
FIRST DISTRICT COURT.
How the Renter of a Sidewalk Made a Mistake.
Before Judge Quinn.
George C. Parker rented the stoop and sidewalk in front of his store No. 259 Washington street to Andrew C. Blauvelt for $25 a month. After occupying the place for four months Blauvelt sued Parker in this Court to recover $96 he had paid, on the ground that Parker had no legal right to rent the sidewalk. Judge Quinn gave judgment for the defendant, holding that Blauvelt had enjoyed what he had contracted for, and had paid the money under mistake of law and not of fact.
The New York Herald, February 3, 1874, page 8.
This story cannot, however, be easily linked to the notorious George C. Parker who was arrested and sentenced in 1928. That George C. Parker would have been barely 14 years old in 1874 (or 4, depending on the source) and unlikely to have owned his own store. Sadly (for my purposes), it is most likely a strange-but-true coincidence, which is too bad because it would have made for a much more interesting story.
But the true story is interesting enough. It involves Italian-on-Italian crime, immigration fraud, defrauding immigrants, and a seemingly boundless lack of shame. The dubious honor of originating the practice of selling the Brooklyn Bridge may go to an Italian man named Edward Basso.
Basso’s name was attached to selling the Brooklyn Bridge on at least three occasions during the first decade of the 1900s, and no one else’s name appears in connection with the scheme during that time. In addition, although his name was not mentioned specifically in the earliest description of the scam in 1900, the description of the fugitive suspect in that case matches descriptions of Edward Basso, who was named as a Brooklyn Bridge seller several times during the following decade.
You be the judge.
Edward Basso
The earliest known account of a fraudulent sale of the bridge appeared in the New York Sun in May of 1900. The story caught the attention of telegraph operators and newspaper editors, quickly spreading across the country and reaching as far as Hawaii within a few weeks.[xiii]
The report suggests that this was one of the first, if not the first, time someone had been known to “sell” the Brooklyn Bridge. The con was described as a “new bunko game,” done in a “novel manner,” and the attorney to whom the initial complaint was made seemed unfamiliar with the scam.
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| Buffalo Weekly Express (Buffalo, New York), June 7, 1900, page 5. |
SELL-A HIM DE BROOKLYN BRIDGE.
If Mr. Bunco No Buy-a Back Signor Corelli Kill-a Him Presto.
The police are looking for an Italian bunco man who has been swindling his fellow-countrymen for the past month in a novel manner. He was first heard of when Signor Luigi Corelli, an Italian merchant who recently landed in New York, went to the office of Lawyer Robert Racey in the Ahrens building, at the corner of Elm and Franklin streets, and told a remarkable story of how he had been fleeced by the swindler. He told his story through an interpreter, explaining that he had been buncoed out of $500.
“How did the bunco man get it?” asked Lawyer Racey.
“He sell-a de Brooklyn Bridge to my friend,” explained the interpreter.
“Sold the Brooklyn Bridge to your friend?”
“Sure,” answered the interpreter. “Only not all de Bridge. Only New York-a side. He tell-a my-a friend Mayor VanWyck own-a de rest. He tell-a my-a friend de Brooklyn Bridge do much-a business. He met-a my-a friend just so soon de ship come in. He find out his name. Sure. Pooty soon he said ‘Hello, Signor Corelli,’ and he shake-a de hand. My friend think he know-a him in old country, but forget-a de name. All right. . . .
“He say he sell-a my-a friend one piece New York-a side for week an’ when he like he buy all Brooklyn side, too, for ten tous’ dol’.”
“Very cheap for the Brooklyn side of the Bridge,” remarked Lawyer Racey. I’d give that much myself for it.”
“My friend buy-a Central Park bear, too, an’ two stores,” continued the interpreter.
“He was lucky in not buying the new Zoological Gardens,” remarked the lawyer. “I had a man in here the other day who told me he bought the Aquarium from an Italian who met him who met him at the Battery. He had been in New York but a few days and he signed a contract to buy a third interest in the Zoo for $500, from another Italian. I guess it’s the chap who sold the Brooklyn Bridge to your friend. He took one of my clients down to the City Hall, told him it ws a hotel, sold him some of the furniture and then brought him over to the County Court House where he got his money in return for appointing him chief of the Court House hotel.”
Signor Corelli listened attentively while the lawyer was talking and the interpreter repeated the story, ending by telling the Signor that the only thing the lawyer could do would be to report the matter to the police.
“You no catch-a him to-day?” asked the interpreter, and when the lawyer said “No,” the Signor threw out his chest, tugged at the end of his mustache and exclaimed:
“L’uccido domain!”
“My friend ver’ mad,” explained the interpreter. “He say when Mr. Bunco no buy-a da Bridge back he kill-a Mr. Bunco to-morrow. Good-by.”
The New York Sun, May 27, 1900, section 3, page 1.
The fugitive Italian confidence man remained anonymous in accounts of the 1900 incident, but his identity may be inferred from reports of an Italian “sharper” named as a fraudulent bridge seller two years later – Edward Basso.
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| The Brooklyn Standard Union, November 14, 1902, page 1. |
The story emerged during a hearing in federal court on a separate immigration fraud case, which witnesses suggest had been perpetrated by someone who had also recently sold the “Brooklyn Bridge.” A man named Frank Maddalene, the son of an Italian saloon keeper, had been arrested for “making a false statement in his application for citizenship papers.” During his confession, he said that he had been hoodwinked by someone claiming to be his “cousin,” and who gave his name as “James Maddalene,” and had assured him that he could help make Frank “a full-fledged citizen.”
A witness at the hearing also testified that the suspect, “James,” had also “sold” the Brooklyn Bridge to two other Italians.
Two Italians, he said, a short time ago came to the missing witness after they had been here a short time and wanted to do a little quiet speculation. . . . [“James”] said he would buy the Brooklyn Bridge for them if they’d each chip in five dollars. So they did, and the Italians went looking for their newly-acquired property. They found the bridge, but could not find the seller.
. . . The authorities are searching for the “Cousin” James Maddalene.
The Brooklyn Standard Union, November 14, 1902, page 1.
After his arrest, “James Maddelene” was identified as Edward Basso.
Alleged perjurer held for examination. Edward Basso, alias James Maddalene, who was arrested on Wednesday in Baxter street, Manhattan, on a charge of perjury, was brought before United States Commssioner Morle to-day for examination. Basso, it is alleged, swore that he was the cousin of James Madalene, who applied for citizenship papers. It is further alleged that he had taken the false oath for $10, one dollar of which was paid by his victim on account.
The Brooklyn Standard Union, November 22, 1902, page 12.
A Federal Grand Jury would indict Edward Basso (alias James Maddalene) a few months later, on charges of “having impersonated another in obtaining naturalization papers.”[xiv]
Within the year, Edward Basso was back in court, this time on charges of selling “bogus citizen papers” to Antonio Petrillo for $20. Ever the conman, he claimed to be a U. S. Court Interpreter assisting the Secret Service in an investigation to identify the source of counterfeit naturalization papers.[xv]
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| The New York Tribune, October 21, 1903, page 4. |
The case arose from events seven years earlier, and which came to light when Petrillo was arrested for registering with illegal naturalization papers. He testified that Basso had sold him the papers in 1896, and that “he did not go before the court to swear his allegiance to the United States, but that the transaction was made in an anteroom.”[xvi]
In 1904, he was arrested and imprisoned for numerous frauds related to the hiring of immigration attorneys to assist immigrants at Ellis Island, and at least one scam in which they charged two Italians en route to Canada for a phony railroad ticket voucher. The schemes had been brought to the attention of authorities by the Society for Protection of Italian Immigrants. At trial, Basso turned “States evidence,” testifying against the attorneys who had paid him to bring them easy marks.
Salvatore Zemante and two companions were going to North Bay, Ontario. Their banker gave them the address of a ticket agent in Battery Place for the purchase of their tickets. On an elevated train they showed this address to the first man they met, inquiring the way. The man, Edward Basso, claimed to be an agent from the place they desired, and took them to an office on the third floor of No. 44 Broadway. Leaving them a moment, he returned with a man named G. Capporelli and an American, who said the tickets would be $9.40 apiece. The men paid this money and received in return an order on the West Shore Railroad for three prepaid tickets. This order, of course, was not honored at the Grand Central Station, and the men and their banker brought the matter before the society. They identified the men, who are locked up in jail under $1,000 bail, pending trial.
New York Tribune, June 30, 1904, page 4.
They were indicted and turned State’s evidence. Basso swore that he was in the habit of bringing Italians to the lawyers on the pretext that he knew some one who would help them, and that he got fifty per cent of what they received. He declared that he had taken to the firm the cases of more than 50 Italians who were looking for friends or relatives at Ellis Island, and that of these cases 90 per cent were not detained cases, but were cases for which there was no necessity for the services of a lawyer. He admitted that the ticket transaction was a swindle and declared that he got a third of the money.
The New York Sun, November 6, 1904, section 4, page 7.
It’s not clear what, if any, break he was given for
cooperating with the Feds in 1904, but in 1905 he was up to his old tricks
again. This time he was sentenced to a
year in jail for selling passes to Ellis Island to friends of relatives of
immigrants arriving there for $10, although the passes were available for
free. He was again remembered as the man
who had “once upon a time derived a considerable income from the sale of shares
of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Custom House, and the City Hall to confiding
fellow-countrymen just landed.”
The charge against him was petty larceny, and was made by Antonio Mancuso, a Brooklyn shoemaker, who said that Basso sold him a pass to Ellis Island for $10. Passes to Ellis Island are free upon application to the steamship companies.
Owing to the efforts of the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants, Basso was arrested last April on the charge of grand larceny. He pleaded guilty before Judge Newburger, in General Sessions, and on an apparent earnest promise to reform, sentence was suspended. His lawyer yesterday made a plea for him, and on the ground that he had a wife and eight children to support.
“That’s a poor reason for defrauding the wives and children of hundreds of families,” remarked Justice Wyatt, as he imposed the limit allowed by the law.
The New York Times, January 5, 1905, page 2.
Edward Basso was out of jail and back in another courtroom two years later and was again remembered for having once sold the Brooklyn Bridge.
Works Game on Immigrants.
Nicholas Passanto . . . told the police that Edward Basso, who once sold the Brooklyn Bridge to an Italian for $300 and did a year in prison, was working a new game, this time pretending to get immigrants through Ellis Island and charging $25 for his influence, though he had failed to get through the brother-in-law of Passanto.
The New York Sun, September 10, 1907, page 1.
A year later, a retired detective described a confidence man known for selling the Brooklyn Bridge, in words that suggest that Edward Basso (or someone fitting his description) had been the most notorious Brooklyn Bridge “seller” during the first decade of the 1900s.
“Wandering around the streets to-day is a man who has sold the city hall, the Tombs, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Criminal Courts building, each of them at least once. He is an Italian of no great intelligence and of a repulsive appearance. It is true that his victims were fellow-countrymen, but it is also true that several of them were not ignorant men.
“Now, the institutions that this Italian got money for are imposing enough to make even the most unsuspecting imagine that he is entering into a deal of some magnitude. But the Italian never got much money - $50 or $100. He sold the rights to operate the Brooklyn Bridge, collect from the railroads, pedestrians and teamsters for $50.”
The New York Sun, October 25, 1908, section 4, page 5.
Even as late as 1915, in an article about an influx of confidence men, aristocrats and diplomats in New York City to avoid the turmoil of war-torn European cities, the "sharper" credited with selling the Brooklyn Bridge was said to have been an Italian.
One Sells Brooklyn Bridge.
Russian, French, Italian, and Spaniard, however, have seemingly no limitations. It was an Italian who sold the Brooklyn bridge to an Ohio farmer; the same man staged a glorified badger game so skillfully that the victim still does not realize he is being stung for a tidy monthy income.
The Washington Post, November 20, 1915, page 4.
Although little is known about what happened to Basso before his first arrest, and nothing is known about what happened to him after his arrest in 1907, small clues about his background and experience suggest that he may have been a financial and immigration schemer long before the first reports of a fraudulent sale of the Brooklyn Bridge, and that he had local political connections that may have helped him win the confidence of his marks.In 1887, the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader published an article about how political reformers frequently become corrupted by entering the political system they intended to reform; “There is nothing so offensive as an antiseptic which has become spoiled.” The politician at issue was the economist and journalist Henry George, who ran for Mayor of New York in 1886 as the candidate of the United Labor Party, losing to the Tammany Hall candidate Abram Hewitt, but outpolling the Republican and future President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
In support its assertion, The Times Leader published an English language translation of a political advertisement said to have appeared in the New York Italian language daily, Il Progresso Italo Americano on October 16, 1886. It names Edward Basso as someone who could provide Italian language information about the campaign – and immigration assistance.
Full information concerning the opinions of Henry George will be given to you at No. 89 Park Street, where Signor Edward Basso will be found at all hours of the day and evening.
The necessary papers for obtaining American citizenship can be procured without any expense.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, February 11, 1887, page 2.
A man named Edward Basso made headlines later that same year, in a sensational story about alleged the kidnapping of an underage Italian heiress.
GONE WITH A FASCINATING BARBER.
Kate Sandos is Not 16, Though Old enough to be an Italian Matron.
Lawyer William A. Keeler . . . asked Superintendent Murray yesterday to procure the arrest of Edward Basso, an Italian barber of Newark, for the abduction of 15-year-old Kate Sandos of 189 Mott avenue. The charge of abduction is only technical. The girl went with him willingly, but is under 16, and the law makes no allowance for the early maturity of Italian women. The girl’s aunt, who is the wife of Pasquale Zottarelli, an Italian banker at 2,209½ First avenue, joined with Lawyer Keelr in asking for Basso’s arrest. . . . The girl will inherit $18,000 from a relative in Italy in the course of time. She became infatuated with Basso, who is 35, and who, it is said, has a wife in Italy.
The New York Sun, September 11, 1887, page 2.
The police tracked them down quickly.
The Italian Heiress and her Barber Found.
Edward Basso, the East Newark barber, who is accused of abducting Kate Sandos, a naughty Italian heiress, from Harlem as is related elsewhere in The Sun, was arrested with her last night in Harrison. She says that she is 20 years old and was not abducted, and Basso says he has not been in New York for two weeks.
The Sun, September 11, 1887, page 9.
She was an heiress of sorts, set to inherit the modest sum of $18,000. But she wasn’t underage, at least not legally. He was, however, about twice her age, leaving open the question of whether he loved her for youth and beauty, or for her potential windfall.
FAILED TO PROVE ABDUCTION.
Edward Basso, the Italian barber arrested in Newark on Saturday on a charge of having abducted Katie Sandos from the residence of her guardian, Mrs. Anna Zotterelli, of 198 Mott-street, was examined in the Tombs Police Court yesterday. Katie stated that she was 19 years old and that she was not abducted, but left home of her own free will because she had been abused by the zotterellis and their son Joseph. Basso was discharged, and the girl and he left the court together.
New York Times, September 13, 1887, page 8.
In 1894, a man named Edward Basso became entangled in another marriage, not his own, in circumstances suggesting a possible financial motive. He was arrested for assaulting a woman who accused him of enticing her husband away from her home for weeks at a time.
Edward Basso, of 68 Baxter street, was this morning in the Tombs Police Court held for examination on a charge of disorderly conduct. . . .
“The man had been robbing my husband,” said Mrs. Whelan, “and had been enticing him away from home on long drinking bouts which often lasted for weeks at a time. All I had done to him to cause his assault upon me was to ask him where my husband was.”
The New York Evening World, January 13, 1894, page 1.
For several years during the early 1890s, a man named Edward Basso held a position as a minor functionary in the New York City judicial system, a position he could have secured through political connections, and which may have helped make his confidence-winning activities more believable and successful.
During the years 1890 through 1892, New York City records show that a man named Edward Basso was employed as a “check clerk” in the office of the Commissioner of Jurors of New York City, at a salary of $840 per year. One might also wonder what a natural swindler might get away with handling city checks.
Selling the Bridge
Edward Basso appears to have originated the scam of selling the Brooklyn Bridge. There is at least more evidence that he did it, as opposed to George C. Parker who regularly gets the lion’s share of the credit. But regardless of who devised the scam, the scam eventually caught on in the public imagination, becoming a staple comedy trope by the 1920s. Awareness of the scam outside the confines of New York City grew throughout the 1910s.
The earliest references to selling the Brooklyn Bridge as a prototypical scam suggests that it was becoming a piece of American pop-culture even before 1910.
Chicago reports the capture of a humorous bunco-steerer who sold a privilege of fishing in lake Michigan for $20. Must have been the same man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge to a prosperous foreigner for $1,200.
Gainesville Daily Sun (Gainesville, Florida), January 5, 1908, page 4.
A couple suckers from Fond du Lac on their way to Germany, were caught by confidence men in New York wh sold them a couple lots in Central Park fo $2,000. The suckers were staking off the lots when the police run them in but the confidence men got away with the coin. It's a wonder they didn't buy the Brooklyn bridge.
The Representative (Fox Lake, Wisconsin), May 1, 1908, page 4.
In 1909, New York City’s short-lived Police Commissioner, William Frazer Baker (July 1909-October 1910; better known as the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies) reportedly issued a list of “don’ts” for tourists visiting New York. The list appears in a syndicated column by the humorist Wex Jones, together with some of his own tongue-in-cheek suggestions.
Among the “don’ts” issued by Police Commissioner Baker are these:
Don’t buy the Brooklyn Bridge from a stranger.
The same advice applies to the Metropolitan Tower and Central Park.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 17, 1909, Comics Section.
Despite the warnings, a tourist from Kansas City apparently fell for the scam a couple years later; conned by “a jocund youth known to his associates as ‘Smooth Wilfred.’”
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| Harrisburg Telegraph (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), November 21, 1911, page 1. |
Of all of the references to specific sales of the Brooklyn Bridge, this one seems most likely to be related to George C. Parker. Several accounts of his past crimes as described in 1928 described his “purchaser” as a man from the “southwest,”[xvii] which by “cosmopolitan” standards prevailing in New York City then, as now, may be pretty close. Also, Parker is said to have been sentenced to prison in 1911, although some sources suggested that it was for selling “City Hall plots,” not the bridge.[xviii] “Smooth Wilfred” was never listed as one of George C. Parker’s many aliases, but for someone with many aliases, it’s not impossible that he used another one. It is possible that police interviewed in 1928 remembered the person then referred to as “Parker” as the same person who, in 1911, had sold a public property under another alias, and simply misremembered what he had sold (or that it was misreported in 1911). It is also possible that the two have nothing whatsoever to do with one another, but the similarities invite speculation.
Fraudulent sales of public edifices were not confined to New York City. Over the next few years, similar incidents were reported in Pittsburgh and St. Augustine.
The bunco limit has been reached in Pittsburg. Saturday evening a slick foreigner sold the city hall to a fellow countryman for $11,000. Mayor Magee’s mahogany office furniture was disposed of for an extra hundred.
Two hours later Frank Spatola, the purchaser awakened. He went to claim possession. Comptroller Morrow objected to getting out of his office, and John P. Dailey, secretary to the mayor, wouldn’t give a quit-claim deed to the mayor’s desk, which now is installed in his offices in the Oliver building.
. . . This makes the third big bunko in Pittsburg this week. Foreigners have sold $22,000 in counterfeit bank notes. They were in packages which when opened proved to be newspaper.
Another foreigner purchased an oil well in the heart of the city, and now the City Hall has been sold.
Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana), August 22, 1910, page 4.
It happened in a Southern tourist town. A visitor with more dollars than sense was stopping at one of the large hotels, and during his stay met with a very pleasant gentleman (?), who took pleasure in telling him all about the city and its advantages. Among other things, the story of excellent bargains in the way of real estate was told to the credulous stranger. In fact there was an unusual bargain just then for a man with a little ready case, and if he had a little time the gentleman (?) would show it to him. To make a long story short, the gentleman (?), who was a crook of the first order, took the stranger to the handsome R. R. Y. M. C. A. building, erected at the cost of about $75,000, about six years ago, and told him that it could be bought for $10,000, and that he could sell it to him for that amount. The man with the dollars and no sense took him up and paid over $500 in cash to bind the bargain until the agent could make out the papers. The crook took the $500 and “folded his tents like the Arab and silently stole away.”
“Sold,” Railroad Association Magazine, volume 1, number 4, August 15, 1912, page 24.
In 1913, a colorful Brooklyn Bridge incident caught the fancy of newspaper editors across the country, with versions appearing in dozens of newspapers in all corners of the United States. A man from Holland named Karl Hoops (or Hoopes) is said to have come to the United States with $2,000 to invest, having heard that it was easy pickin’s to make money in America. As it turns out, he was easy pickin’s for American conmen. Within the span of a few weeks, he was scammed not once, but at least twice, and perhaps a third time, depending on which version of the story you read.
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| The Bucyrus Evening Telegraph (Bucyrus, Ohio), March 20, 1913, page 1. |
First, he bought the Brooklyn Bridge for $500, then the contract to shave the New York City police force, 10,000 men at 12 cents a day each.
Karl paid the $500, walked out on the bridge and began to boss things. He bossed for almost three seconds before he was escorted from the place by a policeman who refused to understand that he was addressing the owner of the structure.
When funds began to run low Karl decided to take a job in a barber shop. A stranger whom he was shaving told him he had an option on the shaving contract for the New York police force, 10,000 men at 12 cents a man, daily. For $100 he offered to obtain the option for Karl. Karl paid the $100 and the stranger hurried away to close the deal. He hurried so fast that Karl never caught him.
“Trimmed, skinned and flimmed, I was,” said Mr. Hoops today as he sailed away. “I’m going back to Amsterdam,” and the last syllable was profoundly accented.
Boston Globe, March 19, 1913, page 1.
Another version added one more humiliating loss.
The man from Amsterdam next met another man at a Socialist meeting. Karl told of his misfortunes in the investment line and the man gave him the right steer. He told him to marry an heiress, first digging up some sort of title. Karl did so – he was the Count von Hoopes.
The meeting with an heiress was arranged, Karl took her to supper and during the meal said she wanted $100 to send to her maid. She had forgotten her purse. Karl obliged. A little later the “heiress” disappeared and so did the man.
After this series of misfortunes Karl decided to return to dear old Amsterdam, where they don’t swindle.
The Morning Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), March 20, 1913, page 3.
A few months later, when someone tried selling the Market Street ferry building in San Francisco, it was compared to the “common” practice of selling the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
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| Los Angeles Times, September 28, 1913, page 19. |
In 1914, a Philadelphia newspaper mocked the legally sanctioned practice of paying admission to the beach, comparing it to oft-ridiculed rube who buys the Brooklyn Bridge.
New Yorkers make all manner of fun of the “rube” who falls for the old gag of buying the Brooklyn Bridge, but, as sheep are dumb before their shearers, so theyopen not their mouths when a highway robber puts up a gate on their own beach and demands two dollars per for the privilege of allowing them to bathe in their own ocean. Hey, Rube!! – Philadelphia Inquirer.
The New York Tribune, August 1, 1914, page 6.
The old adage about the high birth rate of “suckers” finds new proof in the daily records of the Manhattan police Wireless wiretappers, smooth gentlemen who sell the Brooklyn Bridge or sections of Central Park to guileless foreigners, even the purveyors of green goods and gold bricks, still find victims in spite of the frequency with which they have been exposed.
The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), August 22, 1914, page 12.
There is no virtue so magnanimous as faith. Faith removeth mountains . . . Faith has, on the other hand, certain dire possibilities. Faith removeth common sense as well as mountains. Without faith, oodles of it, no man ever nerved himself to buy the Brooklyn Bridge for sixty-seven dollars.
The New Republic, volume 6, number 73, March 25, 1916, page 220.
When a swindler admitted to trying to sell the New York subway system, a reporter imagined that the great swindlers who had gone before would not have approved.
[W]hen he did so, the following turned in their graves: The man who used to sell tickets to go up in the obelisk in Central Park, the man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge to a farmer from Pennsylvania in 1912, the man who sold City Hall to another farmer in 1897 and the man who sold the park around the Hall to the same farmer the next day, the man who sold the East River to an Australian in 1903 and the man who sold the Statue of Liberty to a Calabrian in 1917.
The Dayton Herald (Dayton, Ohio), May 2, 1919, page 6.
In the fourth inning Mr. Young, of the Tigers, took a gross advantage of Mr. Bodie, our Wonderful Wop, and trapped him with the hidden ball trick. This is considered as inhospitable as selling the Brooklyn Bridge to a trusting stranger.
The New York Tribune, August 9, 1920, page 10.
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| The San Francisco Examiner, August 14, 1920, page 3. |
In time, selling the Brooklyn Bridge became a common humorous trope.
WE’VE MET HIM.
A man was convicted the other day in New York for selling the Brooklyn bridge. He must be the same chap who sold us that 27-volume set of short story classics. – Detroit News.
Dayton Daily News, June 14, 1919, page 4.
Had the New York con man sent to the penitentiary for selling the Brooklyn bridge, been a Wall street promoter, he might still be an ornament of the tenderloin district.[xix]
The Daily Commonwealth (Greenwood, Mississippi), June 14, 1919, page 2.
“. . . Somebody’ll sell you th’ Brooklyn Bridge for 20,000 Bucks ‘for night I’ll bet a cookie!”
Oh no they won’t old bean – I’m no silly awss! And no one but a silly awss would considaw the Brooklyn Bridge a bawgain at $20,000 when – they’s been offawed a hawf intawest in Monte Carlo foah only seven thousand!”
The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario), April 6, 1922, page 21.
In Bucky Harris’ autobiography, the Washington Senators’ manager and player recalled advice he was given when, as a minor leaguer, his manager sent him into New York City to tryout with the New York Giants’ manager, John McGraw; “You both look about ready for the big show to me. Don’t get lost or try to buy the Brooklyn bridge.”[xx]
Sharper: “Say, stranger, would you like to buy the Brooklyn Bridge at only $1,000?”
Sightseer: “Nope, I ain’t got any money. I just bought the Statue of Liberty for $500.”
The Sentinel (Carlisle, Pennsylvania), January 27, 1926.
New York’s Way.
“So you been up to New York, eh?” remarked Josh.”
“Yep,” replied Si, “and I attracted quite a bit of attention while there.”
“So? Buy the Brooklyn Bridge or sumptin’?”
“Nope. Jes’ ran a race with my hat down Broadway and reckon there musta been four or five hundred folks watching me, and some of em’ bettin’ on me and some on my hat.”
“Huh! An’ they call us rubes up in the country!” – Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Evening News (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), April 13, 1926, page 10.
People are getting smart lately. They don’t buy the Brooklyn bridge any more. They invest their money in ferryboats and take options on fire engines.
El Paso Herald (El Paso, Texas), November 30, 1927, page 10.
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| Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, Florida), September 17, 1931, page 4. |
Years ago the “green goods man” used to sell the union station, Brooklyn bridge and the statue of liberty at least once a day; . . .”
The Miami Herald, January 6, 1924, page 16.
Hi Finance.
“I’ll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for five,” said the slick, sharp-faced gentleman. “Naw,” answered the hick, “I reckon I’ll want that ‘ere Wolworth Buildin’, stranger. How much kin ya take for it?” “That’ss cast you ten. Now, if you’re looking for something good, here’s the Aquarium you can get cheap.” “Reckon I’ll take it.” He took the postal card from the rack and handed the clerk dime. – C. C. N. Y. Mercury.
University Life (Wichita, Kansas), May 10,1926, page 5.
In 1937, in a film that took place in about 1899, Mae West’s character Peaches O’Day famously sold the Brooklyn Bridge in the opening of her film, “Every Day’s a Holiday.”
In order to steer clear of the police – who are after her for selling the Brooklyn Bridge once too often in “Every Day’s a Holiday,” . . . blonde Mae West becomes a brunette!
The Shreveport Journal (Shreveport, Louisiana), March 11, 1938, page 15. See the opening scenes on YouTube. Clip, Every Day’s Holiday, 1937. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPQUeQZvSQg
Ironically, in a show of gullibility, the tour guides at Untapped New York, on untappedcities.com, swallowed hook-line-and-sinker West’s fictional account of selling the bridge, giving her character credit as the first con artist to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
Parker also was not the first con man to sell the bridge. That distinction goes to Peaches O’Day who sold the bridge for $200 in 1899.
https://untappedcities.com/2016/03/16/famous-landmarks-scams-from-nyc-and-paris-to-london/
If true, the 1899 date would have preceded the earliest reported sales by Edward Basso and George C. Parker by one or two years, respectively. But if Peaches O’Day is fiction, it raises the question of who was first.
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| “Wylde and Wooly,” Bert Thomas, Minden City Herald (Minden City, Michigan), February 28, 1952, page 3. |
Credit Where Credit is Due
The earliest known contemporaneous account of a fraudulent sale of the Brooklyn Bridge appeared in 1900. It involved “an Italian bunco man who has been swindling his fellow-countremen” by selling interest in the Brooklyn Bridge, the Central Park Zoo and other things he had no personal interest in.
Edward Basso was an Italian bunco artist who routinely preyed on more recently arrived Italian immigrants throughout the first decade of the 1900s. He was arrested or prosecuted for immigration fraud or defrauding immigrants in at least 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1907.
A witness to the 1902 case testified that Basso had taken a deposit toward the purchase of the Brooklyn Bridge “a short time ago.” When Basso was sentenced to a year in prison in 1905, the New York Times reported that Basso had “once upon a time” sold the Brooklyn Bridge. And when he was arrested in 1907, local newspapers reported that Basso had “once sold the Brooklyn Bridge to an Italian for $300.”
In 1908, a retired police detective described a man “wandering around the streets” of New York and who had “sold the city hall, the tombs, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Criminal Courts Building.” The description, “an Italian of no great intelligence and of a repulsive appearance,” is at least superficially consistent with the character of Edward Basso, to the extent it can be gleaned from the text of reports of his various scams.
I have not been able to uncover any other early, pre-1908 reference that identifies anyone else by name, or otherwise, as someone who had pulled off the selling- the-Brooklyn Bridge scam. To the extent that anyone should be given the dubious credit for inventing or perfecting the scheme, Edward Basso would be the most likely candidate.
His name, however, was not passed down to history, supplanted nearly three decades later by George C. Parker, whose scams reportedly netted him paydays of $50,000 and $25,000 paydays, much more memorable than Basso’s “small potatoes.” Parker’s reputation as originator or earlier perpetrator rests entirely on widespread, yet inconsistent, reports published at the time of his arrest and later sentencing in 1928. But even those reports, if taken on face value, suggest that his first offense was in 1901, a year after Basso. The few exceptions, suggesting he may have sold the bridge even earlier, are inconsistent and unsupported by contemporaneous reporting.
There are, however, multiple accounts of Edward Basso having sold the bridge during the early days of the scheme. He clearly deserves more credit (or blame) than he’s received, and he may even be the one who invented the scheme.
Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Tales of selling the Brooklyn Bridge have been relegated to the realm of fiction for many decades, and even when the scam was more common, the “sale” itself was always a fiction. But the truth is stranger than fiction – the original Brooklyn Bridge was in fact sold, for $5,000, in 1905. No, not that newcomer connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn, but the original “Brooklyn Bridge” near Nicholasville, Kentucky, nearly ten years its elder.
The Fiscal Court to-day agreed to purchase Brooklyn Bridge, which spans the Kentucky River on the Lexington and Harrodsburg Pike, for $5,000. Mercer County was represented by Col. Jack Chinn, Dr. Pennybaker, Messrs. Forsyth and Burgin. All that is needed for the purchase to go into effect is its ratification by the Mercer Fiscal Court. There is no doubt that the court will agree to the purchase. The bridge was constructed in 1871 at a cost of $71,000. When it passes into the control for the counties the last toll gate in this section of the State will be removed.
Kentucky’s Brooklyn Bridge had been operated as a toll-bridge for many years. Local opposition to the continued collection of tolls had been simmering for several years. In 1902, for example, armed raiders attacked the toll-gate at least twice.
The Brooklyn bridge tollhouse was raided for the second time last night. The pole and gatepost were blown away with dynamite and the house was slightly damaged by the explosion. . . .
When the turnpikes in this county were made free no arrangement was made for the purchase of this bridge, and toll has been charged for the bridge since that time.
Several months ago about forty armed men rode up to the gate about midnight and destroyed the pole, leaving a note which stated that if they attempted to collect toll again that they would dynamite the house and kill the gatekeeper.
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), October 7, 1902, page 7.
The sale of the bridge made it possible to eliminate the tolls, and the peace prevailed. You can still visit the location at the abandoned Boone Tunnel, which led to the entrance of the old Brooklyn Bridge, across the river from Chinn’s Cave House.
Abandoned Boon Tunnel. Near Wilmore, Kentucky (YouTube), history and historical images of the Brooklyn Bridge.
[i] Asbury Park Press, June 29, 1928, page 1 (“. . . he ‘sold’ the Brooklyn bridge for $50,000 case, and two weeks later sold it again for $25,000, according to the New York men.”).
[ii] The Brooklyn Standard Union, July 7, 1928, page 3 (“. . . credited by [police] with having sold the Brooklyn Bridge at one time and a ‘few plots in City Hall’ at another.”).
[iii] The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), July 1, 1928, section 3, page 1 (“by leased wire from the New York World.”).
[iv] Journal and Courier (Louisville, Kentucky), November 29, 1928, page 6.
[v] Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), December 11, 1928, page 14.
[vi] Asbury Park Press, December 18, 1928, page 1.
[vii] Journal-0Tribune (Marysville, Ohio), December 1, 1928, page 1.
[viii] The Lincoln Journal Star, December 11, 1928, page 14.
[ix] The Brooklyn Standard Union, November 23, 1928, Extra Edition, page 2.
[x] See, for example, “For You, Half Price,” Gabriel Cohen, The New York Times, November 27, 2005, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/thecity/for-you-half-price.html
[xi] The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 8, 1928, page 3 (“According to Inspector Sullivan, McClundy’s super-salesmanship goes back to 1885, when he so impressed a visitor from the Est with his business importance that he had no trouble in selling the Brooklyn Bridge for $50,00. For that “sale” he served two years and six months in Sing Sing. After his release, McCloundy turned his selling ability from bridges to real estate and had clear sailing in disposing of four lots in City Hall Park, also to visitors from the West, for $25,000.”).
[xii] The Brooklyn Daily Times, July 8, 1928, page 16 (“For McCarthy [(alias)] is the astonishing man, who in June, 1895, sold Brooklyn Bridge for $50,000 to a group of guileless westerners, and a month later sold four lots in City Hall Park to a group of equally unwary New Englanders for $25,000.”).
[xiii] Reports of the scam, many of them reprints of the original story in the New York Sun, appeared, for example, in: The Chicago Inter-Ocean (Illinois), May 28 and June 3, 1900, page 7 and 21, respectively; The St. Joseph Herald (Missouri), June 6, 1900, page 4; The Cedar Rapids Gazette (Iowa), June 9, 1900, page 7; The Salt Lake Herald, June 11, 1900, page 4; The Hilo Daily Tribune (Hawaii), July 14, 1900, page 3.
[xiv] The Brooklyn Citizen, February 2, 1903, page 3.
[xv] The New York Sun, October 21, 1903, page 12.
[xvi] The New York Times, October 21, 1903, page 6.
[xvii] The Brooklyn Daily Times, December 18, 1928, Final Edition, page 10 (“Among the financial coups credited to him by police is the sale of the Brooklyn Bridge to a ‘customer’ from the Southwest.”).
[xviii] The Brooklyn Standard Union, July 7, 1928, page 3 (“For the City Hall plots ‘sale’ he was sent to Sing Sing in 1911 for two years.”).
[xix] The Daily Commonwealth (Greenwood, Mississippi), June 14, 1919, page 2.
[xx] Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska), January 23, 1925, page 12.
Edited February 25, 2021 to add 1908 reference from Gainesville, Florida, showing early use of selling the bridge as a prototypical scam, and 1915 reference to an Italian conman selling the Brooklyn Bridge.
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