Take a moment to look around and strain to spot the hayseed in the way . If you find him , congrats , that ’s liberal luncheon . If not , it looks like you ’re buying . The Mark in spite of appearance by Amy Reading take us inside the world of grifting and one of the slickest cozenage in history outside of Wall Street .
J. Frank Norfleet was feeling confident as he strode into the St. George Hotel in Dallas . He ’d just arrived from Dublin , Texas , where he ’d sold a shipload of mules at an admirable lucre . He was a prosperous fifty - four - year - old rancher from the Texas Panhandle , a third - generation trailblazer who had worked his whole life to turn the prairie , now swept unobjectionable of Indians and buffalo , into a profitable primer for agriculture and stock . Since he was a teenager , he ’d crowd sheep and hogs , driven cattle across the open orbit , and debate thousands of Acre of pasture . He ’d made foreman on the Spade Ranch in Hale County at a young historic period and pull through his modest wages until , when he was forty - nine , he was last capable to afford his own land . He buy about 8,000 acres near the Spade Ranch and continued to recruit livestock in small figure , investing the profits in adjacent land until his ranch had grown to 20,000 acres . On this November daytime in 1919 , he was in Dallas for his big mickle yet : he planned to sell 2,050 Acre of better body politic and utilise the payoff to bribe a choice 10,000 - acre parcel from the nearby cattle farm of Captain Dick Slaughter , the heir of a famed cattle baron .
Norfleet was as directly as they come up . He had banned gambling from the Spade Ranch . “ I do n’t booze , cud baccy , smoke , cuss , or tell lies , ” he would say , his sluttish blue oculus glinting . “ The last is the most important . I never tell a goddamn Trygve Lie . ” His rough work ethic and his power to turn manual labor into a small fortune rightly gave him confidence - firmly - pull in , time - tested confidence in his own discernment - which in turn allowed him to bestow his trust on others . He prized honesty and square dealings above all else . His word was his bond , and he planned to seal off the Slaughter deal with a handshake , because a man wore his integrity as visibly as he wore his moustache .
But to anyone watching , J. Frank Norfleet attend on the nose like a sucker . At five feet five in his cowboy boots , he predominate above exactly no one , and with his leg bowed from eld in the bicycle seat and his cause bloomers shoved into his boot , he was conspicuous as someone out of his league in the big metropolis . And there were in fact two citizenry watching him make his entrance , two members of the mold who were already at their stations , in costume and with their line at the ready . Reno Hamlin sat in the hotel lobby , while one of his colleagues hovered just outside the construction , peering inside for Hamlin ’s signal . Hamlin had dressed to match Norfleet , and with his square fountainhead , buddy-buddy neck , and stocky human body he made a convincing Texas countryman .
Hamlin could see from yard off the tangible moderation in the cowherd ’s eyes when he discern one of his own kind among the urbanites , and the two men presently diminish to talking . Hamlin introduce himself as Miller , a mule buyer from Hill County , Texas . He had also just get in in Dallas , but his mind was on where he ’d come from . “ I saw the best carload of mule discharge at Dublin the other daytime I ever saw in this country , ” he told Norfleet . “ I want to buy a carload just like them . ” Norfleet ’s eyes lit up . for sure enough , Hamlin had inadvertently been admiring Norfleet ’s scuff , and within minutes they had given each other their word that Hamlin would corrupt a shipment of them , as well as two freightage cable car of kafir maize and maize .
After the initial onrush of good feeling , Norfleet explained to his new friend that he could n’t deport his commodity flop away because he was stuck in the city , searching for a buyer for his farm and hold off for Captain Slaughter to come back to Dallas so they could fold the land deal . “ Norfleet , I may help you out , ” articulate Hamlin . He had a friend who was a purchasing agent with the Green Immigration Land Company in Minneapolis - a businessman scouting land in Texas . Perhaps he might be concerned in Norfleet ’s farming ? Hamlin gave the hole-and-corner sign to his band together out on the sidewalk .
Into the hotel lobby strode W. B. Spencer , and amid exclamation of surprise over the coincidence Hamlin introduce him to Norfleet as Charles Harris . Spencer ’s costume contrasted starkly with Hamlin ’s . He was a young man with finely etched features , his curly hairsbreadth swept back off his brow as if he were facing the lead of the time to come . He wear a crispy suit , the embodiment of the successful businessman . Hamlin lead off excitedly talking up Norfleet ’s farm , its legato , stage dry land , the particulars of its finish , the schoolhouse and church on its ground . Spencer smile noncommittally at Hamlin ’s overeager monologue . He patiently explained that he was currently negotiate land in Williamson County and was n’t gratis to embark on a Modern deal . He would n’t want Norfleet to get his promise up .
But when the three men met the next Clarence Day , Spencer was far more effusive . He told Norfleet that the owners of the Williamson County land had decide not to sell because of the late oil gravy and , though he had never buy land as far west as Hale County , he was now rather heroic and therefore unforced to consider Norfleet ’s property . He took down the description from Norfleet and telegrammed it to his superiors . In the meantime , he invited Norfleet to check out of the St. George and apportion his double room at the Jefferson Hotel . He cotton on over himself with keenness in his invitation , explain that he wanted to show Norfleet his credentials , which were back at the elbow room , and anyway he could save Norfleet a sheaf in hotel card . Norfleet accepted , charmed by the man ’s youthful friendliness . Spencer ’s party boss , Garrett Thompson , soon telegrammed to say he was passing through Dallas and would love the chance to fulfil Norfleet . Would Norfleet agree to meet him at the Adolphus Hotel the next day ?
woo by three successful businessmen , gain and dined at the metropolis ’s best hotels , his down payment on the Slaughter land growing plumper by the 60 minutes , Norfleet must have felt as if something keen were just beginning . In fact , something bully was already well under way . Just twenty - four hour had go by and already he was abstruse into the self-aggrandizing convict .
When Norfleet step into the St. George Hotel , he enter a tightly script drama with nine deed , each with its own distinct function in conveying the Deutschmark toward the climax when his money will be whisked away . Even the mark has his line , and just because he does n’t know them does not entail he wo n’t say them at precisely the right present moment . He will , because the dialogue is project so that his responses are the most predictable thing he would say in such a situation . The play hinges on three psychological moments , when the Deutsche Mark must make a decision that will propel him further inside . Any objections he might muster have already been take into account and return to them devised . Norfleet ’s role call off for him to play himself , a part at which he excel , but in a setting designed so that his own earnest Book would betray him . trust man pack undue pride in the integrated nature of their professing . Instead of the violence and mayhem of other form of theft , they rely solely on a perfectly constructed piece of theater .
Con prowess may seem , at time , like the art of control a bull’s eye ’s mind , but Norfleet made the decisions he did only because his swindlers so wholly engineer his rendering of events . He perceived his initial encounters with the two men as organic happenstance . In fact the defrauder had framed his experience so that even the backdrop of urban life - the hotel entrance hall , the street , the government agency buildings - became props in their dramatic play , the stranger around them became unwitting extras . The big con works because it makes economic consumption of a time - honored technique from stage magic , the one- ahead , in which the trick begins before the performing artist formally introduce it to the audience ; it is the most detailed form of misdirection because it head the fall guy to misperceive the nature of the entire situation . In the expression of the one - ahead , Norfleet ’s defenselessness was downright - who , in his boots , would possibly guess that such an luxuriant performance has been invent just for him ?
The first of the nine acts began before Norfleet even walk into the St. George , when Reno Hamlin had put the mark up for soak . Hamlin had trawled the lines at the train station and the hotel , eavesdropping on conversation and peering over counters at registers and revenue , until he had identified someone promising . Norfleet was no cracker blusterer , no wide - eyed naïf , no freewheeling risk taker , no shyster on the make . What about him interested Hamlin ? Hamlin had sieve the crowd with a particular curing of measure . His next scar would have to be , first and first , an out - of - towner so that he would n’t be able to work to his local banker for advice during the swindle or encounter the con men after his money vanished . He would be from a second- or third - level American city , traveling alone in a heavy city for business purpose . It goes without saying that his mark would be virile , for women seldom had the luck , autonomy , and wherewithal to make investment decisions with the decisiveness that the con required . He would be a prosperous , hearty citizen in his community . More than that , he would be a ego - made human , accustomed to both hard work and impound the primary chance . He must be able to promote $ 20,000 , $ 30,000 , $ 40,000 , even $ 50,000 in a day or two , but he must not have so much money that he would touch a deal to his banker and accountants . He would n’t be excessively familiar with the fiscal industry . Norfleet fit that role in almost every specific .
The second act was to play the con for him : realise his confidence and bait him with thoughts of remunerative business enterprise deals . Hamlin and Spencer , the decoy , calibrated their offers to seem eminently plausible , not wanting to arouse Norfleet ’s misgiving . By the 2nd day , they had come after in imaginatively increase his riches . At first glance , their two - step approach - first Hamlin ’s mules and then Spencer ’s land - might seem unnecessarily elaborate . Why not fleece Norfleet simply by providing him with what he sought in Dallas , a buyer for his land ? Norfleet and Hamlin would never again talk about that carload of mule . In fact , Hamlin exited the leg of Norfleet ’s drama after the 2nd day , his work complete . He had efficaciously recast the skeletal frame of meaning around Norfleet ’s activeness in Dallas , and the nested business deals had drawn Norfleet deep into the affection of the con .
Norfleet was now firmly under Spencer ’s sway . In the third act , roping the mark , the steerer transfers the gull ’s loyalties to the insideman , also called the spieler . It was time for the wallet fall . The next daylight , Spencer and Norfleet went to the Adolphus Hotel , and Spencer ask Norfleet to waitress in the third house while he inquired at the front desk after his boss at Green Immigration Land , Garrett Thompson . Spencer allow him sit around for a few minutes , contemplating the Flemish tapestries , the Circassian walnut , and the gilt folio of Dallas ’s finest hotel . Then he pace up behind him to say that Thompson had n’t yet checked in . One of his hands invisibly slip into the seat cushion .
Just then , Norfleet felt something pressing into his thigh from the back of the chair . He reached down and discover a bulging billfold . Flipping through it to uncover its proprietor ’s identity , he found $ 240 in immediate payment , a Masonic card , a transcript of a bail payable to McLean & Company for $ 100,000 , a cipher codification visiting card , a United Brokers ’ fellow member posting , and various other documents , all made out to J. B. Stetson . “ What shall we do with it ? ” Spencer incite . Norfleet render the correct result : they should immediately return the wallet to its lawful owner . At the front desk , they take that Stetson was staying at the hotel , then they pass upstairs and knock on his door .
The door open a crack . Norfleet ask if he was address to Mr. Stetson . The font behind the room access said that was he . Norfleet asked if he had recede anything . The man answered no and slammed the doorway in Norfleet ’s boldness .
Norfleet had just met Big Joe Furey , whom the newspapers called “ the cleverest bunco man in the land . ”
The two serviceman gave each other baffled looks , but they could do nothing more than generate to the elevator . bit later , the hotel room door open again , and Furey came burst through , shouting , “ Gentlemen ! valet ! I have just discovered that I have lost a very , very valuable wallet . ” He ushered the two men into his way and stood before them , a marvellous man with intense dark-green blue eyes . One of the many reasons that Joe Furey was so dear at his job was his imposing presence , but he was nonplused to witness that he did not have the trust effect upon Norfleet , who made Furey describe the wallet in scrupulous point before he would hand it over . Furey melted into gratitude and pressed $ 100 on both men , telling them it would be a favour for him if they consent . Spencer pocketed his wages , then watched with mystification as Norfleet huffily waved his money away . Clearly the cowboy did not remember of himself as a valet de chambre on the observation tower for easy money .
It was Furey ’s job to introduce bit four , in which he would tell the mark the tale of how he could earn a fabulous sum of money . Furey start by apologizing for his initial primitivism . “ I thought you were newspaper reporters , ” he confided . Lately he ’d been hounded by journalist wanting interviews , and the more he refused , the harder they tried to get an hearing . But the very last thing he could afford was publicity . Spencer and Norfleet leaned in . Furey resolve their questioning gazes by accomplish into his wallet and pulling out a letter from his employer , United Brokers , which warned him against talking with newsman . He explained that his fellowship preferred to keep out of the limelight because it did not serve the average investor . It operated on behalf of a group of Wall Street firms that had mold a clandestine syndicate to assure the market place . His job was to take on the stock commutation according to encrypted telegram sent to him by his chief .
“ gentleman , without this notecase I would be helpless to do my company ’s business today . ” He pointed to his desk . “ Here are six message and without my computer code card in that leger I could not do my company ’s stage business . ” He explain that he was due on the exchange in a few minute , and with that he excused himself to decrypt his instructions . He wrinkle his brow , he flushed red , he perspired . He was the very picture of an important valet de chambre under a great mental stock . At last he finished , and turn over a bundle of newspaper articles and written document to the two men to keep them busy , he shoot out of the hotel elbow room .
Spencer and Norfleet were as gravel as if Furey had himself spoken in cipher . In the opulent suite , surrounded by two trunks overflowing with the finest men ’s garb that the cowpuncher had ever picture , Norfleet read through the man of affairs ’s report just as tight as Spencer fed them to him . The document were so clouded with unintelligible references they did little to enlighten him . He gathered , though , that United Brokers want to consolidate fiscal big businessman in New York and press out the smaller regional central . They check large enough engine block of bloodline that they could swing the full market with their buy and sell orders , and since Furey always make out their use in advance , he could range opportunist orders to take out money from the regional brokerage theatre . Spencer amplified the suggestive power of Furey ’s document by murmuring at repeated intervals , “ We are very fortunate in making the acquaintance of such a big man . ”
Excerpted from The Mark at heart by Amy Reading . Copyright © 2012 by Amy Reading . excerpt by permit of Knopf , a division of Random House , Inc. All right reserved . No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher .
The Mark Inside : A Perfect Swindle , a Cunning Revenge , and a Small story of the Big Con by Amy Reading is uncommitted fromAmazon
simulacrum : O’Brother Where Art Thou
Crime
Daily Newsletter
Get the ripe technical school , scientific discipline , and cultivation tidings in your inbox daily .
news show from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
