PART II: USE SMOKE SCREENS TO DISGUISE YOUR ACTIONS Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smok...
PART II: USE SMOKE SCREENS TO DISGUISE YOUR ACTIONS Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people's attention from your real pur pose. The bland exterior-like the unreadable poker face-is often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won 't catch on when you lead him into a trap.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I In 1910, a Mr. Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for close to $1 million. He settled down to semiretirement and the managing of his many properties, but deep inside he itched for the old days of deal-making. One day a young man namedJoseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment he had up for sale. Geezil explained the terms: The price was $8,000, but he only required a down payment of $2,000. Weil said he would sleep on it, but he came back the following day and offered to pay the full $8,000 in cash, if Geezil could wait a couple of days, until a deal Weil was working on came through.
Even in semiretirement, a clever businessman like Geezil was curious as to how Weil would be able to come up with so much cash (roughly $ 150,000 today) so quickly. Weil seemed reluctant to say, and quickly changed the subject, but Geezil was persistent. Finally, after assurances of confidentiality, Weil told Geezil the following story. Weil's uncle was the secretary to a coterie of multimillionaire financiers. These wealthy gentlemen had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan ten years ago, at a cheap price. They had not used the lodge for a few years, so they had decided to seIl it and had asked Weil's uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons-good reasons-of his own, the uncle had been nursing a grudge against the millionaires for years; this was his chance to get back at them. He would seIl the property for $35,000 to a setup man (whom it was Weil's job to find). The financiers were too wealthy to worry about this low price. The set-up man would then turn around and seIl the property again for its real price, around $155,000. The uncle, Weil, and the third man would split the profits from this second sale. It was all legal and for a good cause-the uncle's just retribution. Geezil had heard enough: He wanted to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant to involve hirn, but Geezil would not back down: The idea of a large profit, plus a little adventure, had hirn champing at the bit. Weil explained that Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash to bring the deal off. Geezil, a millionaire, said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally relented and agreed to arrange a meeting between the uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in the town of Galesburg, Illinois. On the train ride to Galesburg, Geezil met the uncle-an impressive .1 1"111 r "I"<: OF ISHAE I .
. H·:IC\S \\ OHSIlIP Oie Tl f l·: IDOL BA·A L Then fehu assembled all the people, and said to them, "Ahab served Ba ' al a fittle; but fehu will serve hirn much more. Now therefore call to me a/l th e prophets of Ba 'al, all his worshippers and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a greal sacrifice to olIer to Ba 'al; whoever is missing shall not live. " But fehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshippers of Ba 'al. And fehu ordered, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for Ba 'al. " So Ihey proclaimed it. And .fehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshippers of Ba 'al came, so thaI there was not a man Icft who did not come. And they entered the house of Ba 'al, and the house of Ba 'al was filled from one end to the other .... Then fehu went inlo the house of Ba 'al ... and he said to the worshippers of Ba 'al, "Search, and see that there is no servant ofthe LORD here LAW 3 23 among you, but only the worshippers of Ba 'al. " Then he went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, " The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life. "
So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, "Go in and slay them; let not a man escape. " So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room of the house of Ba'al and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Ba'al and burned it. And they demolished the pillar of Ba'al and demolished the house of Ba 'al, and made it a latrine to this day. Thus Jehu wiped out Ba'al from Israel. OLD TESTAMENT, 2 KINGS 10:18-28 24 LAW 3 man, with whom he avidly discussed business, Weil also brought along a companion, a somewhat paunchy man named George Gross. Weil explained to Geezil that he hirnself was a boxing trainer,
that Gross was one of the promising prizefighters he trained, and that he had asked Gross to come along to make sure the fighter stayed in shape. For a promising fighter, Gross was unimpressive looking-he had gray hair and a beer belly-but Geezil was so excited about the deal that he didn't really think ab out the man's flabby appearance. Once in Galesburg, Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who promptly put on his boxing trunks. As Geezil half watched, Gross began to shadowbox.
Distracted as he was, Geezil ignored how badly the boxer wheezed after a few minutes of exercise, although his style seemed real enough. An hour later, Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive, intimidating group of men, all wearing fancy suits. The meeting went well and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil, who had already had the $35,000 wired to a local bank. This minor business now settled, the financiers sat back in their chairs and began to banter about high finance, throwing out the name 'j. P. Morgan" as if they knew the man. Finally one of them noticed the boxer in the corner of the room. Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier countered that he too had a boxer in his entourage, whom he named. Weil laughed brazenly and exclaimed that his man could easily knock out their man. Conversation escalated into argument. In the heat of passion, Weil challenged the men to a bet. The financiers eagerly agreed and left to get their man ready for a fight the next day. As soon as they had left, the uncle yelled at Weil, right in front of Geezil: They did not have enough money to bet with, and once the financiers discovered this, the uncle would be fired. Weil apologized for getting hirn in this mess, but he had a plan: He knew the other boxer well, and with a little bribe, they could fix the fight. But where would the money come from for the bet? the uncle replied. Without it they were as good as dead. Finally Geezil had heard enough. Unwilling to jeopardize his deal with any ill will, he offered his own $35,000 cash for part of the bet. Even if he lost that, he would wire for more money and still make a profit on the sale of the lodge. The uncle and nephew thanked hirn. With their own $15,000 and Geezil's 1$35,000 they would manage to have enough for the bet. That evening, as Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind reeled at the killing he was going to make from both the boxing match and the sale of the lodge. The fight took place in a gym the next day. Weil handled the cash, which was placed for security in a locked box. Everything was proceeding as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at how badly their fighter was doing, and Geezil was dreaming about the easy money he was about to make. Then, suddenly, a wild swing by the financier's fighter hit Gross hard in the face, knocking hirn down. When he hit the canvas, blood spurted from his mouth. He coughed, then lay still. One of the financiers, a former doctor, checked his pulse; he was dead.
The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out before the police arrivedthey could all be charged with murder. Terrified, Geezil hightailed it out of the gym and back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000 which he was only too glad to forget, for it seemed a small price to pay to avoid being implicated in a crime. He never wanted to see Weil or any of the others again. After Geezil scurried out, Gross stood up, under his own steam. The blood that had spurted from his mouth came from a ball filled with chicken blood and hot water that he had hidden in his cheek. The whole affair had been masterminded by Weil, better known as "the Yellow Kid," one of the most creative con artists in history. Weil split the $35,000 with the financiers and the boxers (all fellow con artists)-a nice little profit for a few days' work. SI\E.�K AC ROSS 'j'1 J f: 0(:1-:,\:\ L\ BHOAD DAYL!CllT This means to create a front that eventually becomes imbued with an atmosphere or impression of familiarity, within wh ich the strategist may maneuver unseen while all eyes are trained to see obvious familiarities. "THE THIRTY-SIX STRATEGIES," QUOTED IN THE JAPANESE ART OF WAR, Interpretation THOMAS CLEARY, 1 991 The Yellow Kid had staked out Geezil as the perfect sucker long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing-match scam would be the perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money quickly and definitively. But he also knew that if he had begun by trying to interest Geezil in the boxing match, he would have failed miserably. He had to conceal his intentions and switch attention, create a smoke screen-in this case the sale of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil's mind had been completely occupied with the pending deal, the easy money, the chance to hobnob with wealthy men. He had failed to notice that Gross was out of shape and middle-aged at best. Such is the distracting power of a smoke screen. Engrossed in the business deal, Geezil's attention was easily diverted to the boxing match, but only at a point when it was already too late for hirn to notice the details that would have given Gross away. The match, after all, now depended on a bribe rather than on the boxer's physical condition. And Geezil was so distracted at the end by the illusion of the boxer's death that he completely forgot about his money. Learn from the Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your mark with an idea that seems ordinary enough-a business deal, financial intrigue. The sucker's mind is distracted, his suspicions allayed. That is when you gently guide hirn onto the second path, the slippery slope down which he slides helplessly into your trap
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