The Big Con - words used by grifters
So on my 50th birthday, I announced to all my family, friends, & colleagues that while I was satisfied being a conceptual artist for my first fifty years, I aspire to be a con artist for my last fifty. I also said I would initiate the gRift on February 2: Groundhog’s day (six more weeks of winter, Cf. six more weeks to spring?). Not to rumble you, but as usual, I missed my deadline; pulling off a good heist requires patience and attention to detail. Which means on February 2, I simply started this blog. I hope to start roping in the marks on April 1!
To stay right, I highly recommend you apples read “The Big Con - the story of the confidence man” by David Maurer, 1940. It is a truly delightful ethnographic and linguistic study of Con Men! It has a whole chapter defining Terms*!
Thanks for hopscotching with me,
xo fly-gee
The Con-Man Argot:
Apple: any person.
The big con: any big-time confidence game in which a mark is put on the send for his money, as contrasted to the short con where the touch is limited to the amount the mark has with him
The big store: An establishment against which big-con men play their victims. For the wire and the pay-off, it is set up like a poolroom which takes race bets. For the rag, it is set up to resemble a broker’s office. For the gRift, a fancy box of mud is set up to resemble a finite planet loaded with natural resources for the taking. Stores are set up with a careful attention to detail which makes them seem bona fide. After each play, the store is taken down and all equipment store away in charge of the manager. Also store.
The boodle: a fake bank roll of small bills made up to pass for, say $100,000
The bookmaker: the manager of the pay-off
The boost: the shills used in big-con games
To blow: to allow a mark to win some money in a confidence game
Bumblebee: a one-dollar bill
Confidence game or con game: any type of swindle in which the mark is allowed to profit by dishonest means, then is induced to make a large investment and is fleeced
C-gee: confidence man (not to be confused with a fly-gee which is an outsider who understands confidence games, or who thinks he does).
Cush: money
Cut up the score: To divide the profits of a con game
Drop-in: something which is easy; easy money
The flop: a short con racket sometimes worked by con men when they are short of money. Also the hype, the sting. Not to be confused with the slide, the push, and the boodle, which work on a different principle and are restricted largely to short-con workers and circus grifters!
Grift: a group of criminal professions which employ skill rather than violence.
Grifter: In the strict sense, one who lives by his wits as contrasted to the 'heavy-men’ who use violence
Gun moll: a thief-girl, especially a female pickpocket
The handler: the accomplice to the con game who directs the betting of the shills
Heavy-gee: A professional on the heavy-rackets, usually a safeblower.
To hopscotch: to go on the road with a confidence man.
The insideman: the one who operates the game
The joint: an establishment where the marks are trimmed, also the big store, or gaff
Joe Hep or Hep. Smart, or ‘wise’ to what is happening
jug or jay: a bank
The mark: the victim, or the intended victim
The outsideman: a member of the con mob who assists in fleecing the mark
right: as in right guy, one who is trustworthy, especially one who is in sympathy with criminals Cf. wrong
to rope: to secure a mark for a confidence game, also to lug, to steer, to guide.
To rumble: to excite a mark’s suspicions!
The send: the stage in the big-con games at which the mark is sent home for a large amount of money
The shill: an accomplice who plays a confidence game so that the mark sees him win. Many con games use shills, but in the big con the shills are frequently professional confidence men who dress and act the parts of men high in the financial world.
The short con: as contrasted to the big con, those games which generally operate without the send
sneezed: arrested
spud: a swindle in which the con men convince the mark that he can buy real money from a man who has stolen plates from the government. Also the green-goods racket.
To sting: To take a mark’s money
The sting: The point in a confidence game where a mark’s money is taken.
The touch: the money taken from a mark
*The book has ~20 pages of definitions!
