Clearly the inspiration for the con men of The Sting, with the big con. When you're different in a society, you're funny. It was fun to read about the exploits of the "Yellow Kid." I had never affected such wearing apparel and I had no beard.” Each chapter detailing a different scam, the book does get a bit repetitive, but it's still highly entertaining. In this con, the women actually bought land from Weil which he misrepresented as being valuable. Weil's scams are so elaborate and creative you just have to shake your head in wonder. Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a yellow spot into the sun. When he describes the Texas oilfield scam (Man with the Beard), you literally feel like you've been taken back a 100 years to the south, to one of those stately mansions. February 22nd 2011 Partially lurid and partially a portrait of another era. It wasn't Superman. Emphasis on the artistry. Refresh and try again. I'm not a smart kid. For instance, there's the early scams where people just wanted to bet on horses at the race track. The special effects and everything else would help fill in the blanks and that's how I've tried to attack this material, even now. Such complex con artistry. I also suspect that today's bankers aren't as foolish (hopefully) as they were back in the day. Welcome back. Weil spends so much time convincing them to go along with the scheme that you really feel sorry for them for falling for it. Again, unlike with Black's book, the vignettes here don't coalesce into a larger whole, and end up being redundant and a tad boring. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published It was horrible to read through. But dont get it confused when I rap these mellow flows, cause all my Titos got bricks like a yellow road. If AK Press reprinted the phone book, I would most likely give it 5 stars, but this one is definitely one of their best. Each chapter detailing a different scam, the book does get a bit repe. I'm not a preppy kid. A really fun and interesting read, if a little repetitive. Found this book from 48 Laws of Power, which used several of Yellow Kid Weil's stories to illustrate aspects of Power. Start by marking “"Yellow Kid" Weil: The Autobiography of America's Master Swindler” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Too bad Walter Scott had already written his masterpieces, or Weil might have given us Ivanhoe and The Talisman. Yellow model chick. Joseph R. "Yellow Kid" Weil was a con man in Chicago during the early 20th century. I read another book from a similar time, put out by AK Press, called "You Can't Win," a few years ago, and it always stuck with me. Be the first to ask a question about "Yellow Kid" Weil. And while many of the victims the author mentions are pretty unsavory characters who have no concerns about breaking the law, there were some dupes that are not so easily pegged as dishonest as the author claims. The schemes of the con artist in question are quite repetitive, and where Jack Black (author of "You Can't Win") had a knack for characterization and description, Weil's marks/victims are somehow blander, more indistinguishable from one-another. I burn big everyday, nothing but the BOMB, I dont cuddle, as soon as I get the nut I'm gone, Im in a class all by myself, I'll whoop ya ass all by myself, I got white gold, rose gold, yellow gold, platinum, Young hoes, old hoes, yellow ones and black ones. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. But it takes ten times as much wit to keep it. It's hard to read scheme after scheme where someone was tricked out of hard-earned cash. Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun. I'm not an emo kid. I believe it. The old-timey language, the rogues' gallery of grifters and drifters...it was a really neat excursion into another time and place. I had to do it just like a normal kid. Humor has historically been tied to the mores of the day. There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun. Well, I was all three. Found myself at times laughing alongside the yellow kid at the misfortune of some of the 'suckers'. In those days clever and unscrupulous people could use the vast information gaps, and the naivete of their fellows to make a dishonest living. Cause everything goes, every chain gold. Although not quite a bedside shot at redemption, these recollections of Joe 'The Sting' Weil should still be considered 'too much of a good thing'. Weil wrote this with a biographer in the 1940s, about his time as a con man in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and it's fascinating to learn about what he could do because of the way information traveled during those times. I always thought the big scam at the end of The Sting was pure Hollywood, but it doesn't come close to what Weil pulled.