Table of Contents
OTHER BOOKS IN THE NABAT SERIES
CHAPTER 1 - EARLY ADVENTURES IN CHICANERY
CHAPTER 2 - CHICANERY IN CHICAGO
CHAPTER 3 - A TIP FOR MR. MACALLISTER
CHAPTER 4 - HOW TO BEAT THE HORSES
CHAPTER 5 - TWO UNWARY STRANGERS
CHAPTER 6 - FROM NAGS TO RICHES
CHAPTER 7 - GIVING AWAY REAL ESTATE
CHAPTER 8 - THE GET-RICH-QUICK BANK
CHAPTER 10 - MILLIONAIRES AND MURDER
CHAPTER 11 - I TRIED TO GO STRAIGHT
CHAPTER 12 - EASY MONEY ON RAINY DAYS
CHAPTER 13 - A DEAL WITH FATHER FLANAGAN
CHAPTER 14 - SOME CREDIT - AND LOTS OF CASH
CHAPTER 15 - THE MAN WITH A BEARD
CHAPTER 16 - THE FARO BANK PAY-OFF
CHAPTER 17 - MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
CHAPTER 18 - THE LAW CATCHES UP
CHAPTER 20 - THE HOTEL MARTINIQUE
CHAPTER 21 - THE LEAVENWORTH COUNTRY CLUB
CHAPTER 22 - THE COMTESSE AND THE KID
CHAPTER 23 - THE CASE OF THE REFUGEE
CHAPTER 24 - A PROPOSITION FOR A. HITLER
CHAPTER 25 - TRICKS OF THE TRADE
CHAPTER 26 - THE LITTLE THINGS COUNT
CHAPTER 27 - WHERE THE MONEY WENT
ABOUT NABAT BOOKS
NABAT BOOKS is a series dedicated to reprinting forgotten memoirs by various misfits, outsiders, and rebels. The underlying concept is based on a few simple propositions: That to be a success under the current definition is highly toxic - wealth, fame and power are a poison cocktail; that this era of triumphal capitalism glorifies the most dreary human traits like greed and self - interest as good and natural; that the “winners” version of reality and history is deeply lame and soul-rotting stuff. Given this, it follows that the truly interesting and meaningful lives and real adventures are only to be had on the margins of what Kenneth Rexroth called “the social lie.” It’s with the dropouts, misfits, dissidents, renegades, and revolutionaries, against the grain, between the cracks and amongst the enemies of the state that the good stuff can be found. Fortunately, there is a mighty subterranean river of testimony from the disaffected, a large cache of hidden history, of public secrets overlooked by the stale conventional wisdom that Nabat Books aims to tap into. A little something to set against the crushed hopes, mountains of corpses, and commodification of everything. Actually, we think, it’s the best thing western civilization has going for itself.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE NABAT SERIES
You Can’t Win - Jack Black
Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha - Ben Reitman
BAD: The Autobiogrophy of James Carr - James Carr
Memoirs of Vidocq: Master of Crime - François Eugène Vidocq
Beggars of Life - Jim Tully
Out of the Night - Jan Valtin
Five Years in the Warsaw Ghetto - Bernard Goldstein
PREFACE
BY BRUNO RUHLAND
Is the stoutly anarchist AK Press really reprinting an autobiography by a guy who celebrates a long life of lying, cheating, and stealing? Well, yes, but a little context is in order here. Happily, the trillions of dollars the US government has given to the largest financial institutions of late provides a nicely clarifying display of the principle that Yellow Kid Weil based his life of swindling on: You simply cannot be cynical enough about how the capitalist system really works.
Yes, the financial world, the commanding heights of capitalism, now resembles nothing so much as a rigged game, a giant con. Which is actually not all that surprising. It is helpful to recall that capitalism, when we are done celebrating what a protean, dynamic, wealth-creating engine it is, has a squalid history. There were