This is a fun book to read. Great stories about pickpockets, burglars, bunco men, thiefs, and others. Houdini collected interesting cases talking to detectives, and police chiefs. The book describes the methods used to scam innocent victims. Some of these schemes are still popular, which shows again, that one can learn a lot from the past.
published 1906 by Harry Houdini, Boston MA; later reprinted by Gamblers Book Club, Las Vegas; 96 pages
Table of Contents
page
- Preface
- Shot One - Income of a Criminal
- Shot Two - Professional Burglary
- Shot Three - Difficulties of Burglary
- Shot Four - Burglars's Superstitions
- Shot Five - Thieves and Their Tricks
- Shot Six - The Aristocrat of Thievery
- Shot Seven - Pickpockets at Work
- Shot Eight - Beggars and Dead Beats
- Shot Nine - Begging Letter Swindlers
- Shot Ten - Tricks of Bunco Men
- Shot Eleven - The Game of Wits
- Shot Twelve - Fake! Fake! Fake!
- Shot Thirteen - Bogus Treasures
- Shot Fourteen - Famous Swindles
- Shot Fifteen - The Fair Criminal
- Shot Sixteen - The "Brace" Game
- Shot Seventeen - Cheating Uncle Sam
- Shot Eighteen - Humbugs
- Shot Nineteen - Houdini
- Shot Twenty - Conclusion
word count: 26590 which is equivalent to 106 standard pages of text
