The way William Elmer Mead forecast it , no man would be stupid enough to conceive he could corrupt a major league baseball park .
But a few might think they could engage one .
In 1910 , Mead came up with a fail - proof , scorcher of a con , using the death of the cosmos as his come-on . That class , the fag end of Halley ’s comet was expected to traverse over Earth . Somepredictedit would be a ruinous issue ; others just wanted to say they were expect at the sky for an galactic milestone . Either room , it was all anyone was talking about .
In Cleveland , posingas a high - roll upperclassman , Mead get together up with a contractor to discourse program for build up property in the region . As the two sat down , the contractor found a wallet gourmandize with bill , money , and paperwork , all of it betoken its owner was some kind of big - deal developer for baseball stadiums .
The possessor — in reality , Mead ’s accomplice — presently materialized , thankful the contractile organ had place his wallet . He talk about the comet , and how well-situated it would be to fill the stadiums he had originate with rubber - necked gawkers . It was n’t baseball season , and the keister were just going to go unused . Why did n’t the contractor charter the park so he could sell ticket to the doomsday case ? It was the least the developer could do for the world for finding his wallet , and with all the money to be made , it would be ridiculous not to .
By the time the score got escorted from the baseball field by security , Mead and his partner would be long pass — and $ 10,000 richer .
The names , places , and method acting change , but the finish was always the same : to separate people from as much of their money as possible . Over a 40 - year career of more and more flakey scheme , Mead swindled as much as two million dollars . Most of it was squirreled off in safety machine - deposition boxes and real estate of the realm .
Some of it , though , had to go to the church service . William Mead may have been a liar , darnel , and thief , but no one could say his parent had n’t raise him right .
LaughingMatters
Mead was born in 1875 and an orphan by the geezerhood of two . take in by a farming family in Iowa , Mead was translate the Bible every dark until he was old enough to read it on his own . mature up in a fundamentalistic house had made him dismissive of drinking , smoking , or profanity , lending him a pious nature that fuse anxiously with his ambitions : Mead wanted out of the husbandry life .
At the eld of 15 , Meadran awayfrom home base , drifting in and out of saloons and instruct his mode around a deck of add-in . Civilians — those who could n’t spot the dexterity of hand in street games — were another strain . Mead hoard tricks to make money release from their air hole and he got a real rush using his marbles to make a dishonest living . The new scam he invented became fabled .
One of Mead ’s earliest bustle involved bet on substructure race , which was a pop unlawful action at the turn of the one C . Mead wouldstrike up a conversationwith a mark he ’d already profiled as a high - roller as the two eyeballed a small group of runners . He ’d tell him the favorite was a sure thing and that other better ( Mead ’s buddy ) were looking at losing $ 50,000 sum . A gambler ’s fever would take over , with the man believing a $ 10,000 wager for a payout deserving five time as much was worth the danger .
When the subspecies proceed off , the favorite would take a comfortable lead before stumbling , wheezing , and keeling over in convulsions right before the polish line . At that mo , lawmen would invade the premises and break up the group , go out Mead and his dunderhead to guide for the power train post . But it was Mead who had paid off the cops to allow for the raceway in the first piazza ; he had also pay them to descend and jeopardize everyone with arrest . With law enforcement on their backside , the victim would be more worried about fleeing the constabulary and not being implicated in the scandal than pay back his money back . To link up loose ends , Mead would telegraph the mark in the next township permit him know that the blue runner had passed away : " All is fall behind . Keep on going . " In most case , the gull did .
But in spite of his choose profession , Mead cover to maintain a sealed type of religion . Throughout his career , Mead donate to religious establishment — enough to become a life-time member to at least one . But being that devout did n’t buy him mercy : In 1897 , he was arrested for wonderful thievery and spend three year in San Quentin . The experience act as a deterrent for a little while , but by 1903 , he was at it again — this time make believe use of a unexampled dodge : “ the magic wallet . ”
The wallet was a Mead trademark , brim with grounds that the man his Deutsche Mark was about to suffer was trustworthy . In one variation , he presented his accomplice as a contractor for viaducts or bridges in an area . Mead was n’t sheer enough to try and trade a bridge to someone , but he didconvince severalthat they could buy an interest in one and charge toll to drivers . By the meter constabulary intervened , Mead was long gone . In another , heconvinced victimshe was an honored prof and trusted admirer of the President who had been tax with sell freshly minted money at a discount to help the government give its debt . One widow handed over $ 35,000 , thinking she ’d gotten a snappy $ 100,000 in return . She did not .
IStock
In 1922 , Mead pushed his destiny too far . Knowing he was headed for prison over a caudex market scam , he blot out out for several age in England before being extradited . When he landed in a Jacksonville , Florida courthouse to answer to the charges in 1933 , he jumped bond .
Even with mail fraud hang over him , Mead had no desire to go direct . After he swindled a contractile organ named Martin Wunderlich out of $ 50,000 in 1932 , he learned that Wunderlich ’s friend , a banker Ed Bremer , had been snatch and the FBI was size up every contingent . Fearing he ’d be implicated in the kidnapping , Mead had a back - alley surgeon nominate Wilhelm Loesermutilatehis fingerprints . ( The doctor had done the same for John Dillinger . )
Mead and his butchered fingertips were captured in July 1936 whileholed upin an Omaha , Nebraska hotel . After serve well two years for ring armour fraud , he was right away shuttled to Federal court for his tax troubles . A tired 63 , Mead did n’t have the $ 20,000 adhesiveness to post , wasput on trial , and spend the rest of his liveliness in Leavenworth . The con homo known as the “ Christian Kid ” who had used over 50 different aliases in his vicious life history would now be known only as a identification number .
