"Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler

"Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler

Bilked bankers, grifted gamblers, and swindled spinsters: welcome to the world of confidence men. You'll marvel at the elaborate schemes developed by The Yellow Kid and cry for the marks who lost it all to his ingenuity—$8,000,000 by some estimations. Fixed horse races, bad real-estate deals, even a money-making machine—all were tools of the trade for the Kid and his associates: the Swede, the Butterine Kid, the Harmony Kid, Fats Levine, and others. The Sting (1973), starring Paul Newman and based largely on the story of the Yellow Kid, is entertaining, but is no match for the real deal. J.R. Weil: J.R. "Yellow Kid" Weil (1875–1976) was a successful confidence man working mainly out of the Chicago area. His elaborate schemes, however, took him all over the world. W.T. Brannon: W.T. Brannon was a St. Petersburg, Florida-based journalist. He passed away in 1981. Bruno Ruhland: Bruno Ruhland is the editor of AK Press's Nabat Series. He's a veteran of the Bay Area book world. Bruno is a long time employee of Moe's Books in Berkeley and the Bound Together book collective in San Francisco.