How Did a Conman Sell the Brooklyn Bridge -- Over and Over?

Around the turn of the 20th century, career criminal George C. Parker 'sold' property he didn't own, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dozens of times over. Learn more about his scams in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/conman-sold-brooklyn-bridge.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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

(00:22):
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.

(00:44):
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

(01:06):
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

(01:29):
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,

(01:52):
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

(02:12):
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

(02:32):
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

(02:53):
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,

(03:14):
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

(03:35):
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

(03:56):
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

(04:20):
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
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