Perpetrator
Victor Lustig
- Born
- 4 January 1890
- Died
- 11 March 1947, aged about 57
- Record
- Wikidata Q347318 · Wikipedia
Perpetrator in The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
Confidence man and counterfeiter, convicted in 1935; his birth date and birthplace come from prison records he supplied himself, and other documents differ.
1925–1947 · Paris; New York · Convicted
Did Victor Lustig really sell the Eiffel Tower for scrap in 1925? His counterfeiting and Alcatraz are on record. The tower sale rests on one later book. Read the case.
Dated events
Lustig's recorded date of birth, in Hostinné, Bohemia, according to his prison records.
Lustig is said to sell the Eiffel Tower to a Paris scrap dealer; the story is first recorded in 1961.
Lustig is arrested in Chicago, travelling as Robert Miller with forged papers and a money box.
The Secret Service arrests Lustig in New York for counterfeiting; plates and about $51,000 in notes are found in a subway locker.
Lustig escapes from the Federal House of Detention in Manhattan.
Lustig arrives at Alcatraz as prisoner 300.