 Shot 14 of The Right Way to Do Wrong, An Exposé of Successful Criminals. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The Right Way to Do Wrong, An Exposé of Successful Criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 14, Famous Swindles. For years, it has been a constant wonder to me how bare-faced swindling operations are carried on in almost open defiance of the laws of the land. There are a thousand and one get-rich-quick schemes that each find their victims. It is needless to say that they bring wealth only to the promoter. There are more ways of swindling than with loaded dice and gold bricks. Stock is sold in mining property where neither gold or silver ever existed, and the only metal about the proposition is the brazen cheek of the organizer of the company. Great promises of dividends are made which are sometimes even paid out of the money received from the sale of the stock. Oil wells, gold mines, silver mines, and copper mines are exploited in this way to the great prophet of the exploiter. A species of swindle that has perpetrated times without number all over this country is the old gold brick game. It does seem as though this had been exposed so frequently that the most ignorant countrymen would know enough to keep away from anyone who offers to sell an ingot or brick of pure gold at a sacrifice. But still there are pigeons to be plucked. The usual method is to meet a likely person and with great show of secrecy unfold the story of the poor Mexican miner who has a lump of pure gold valued at $5,000 which he will sell for $500 down. The pigeon comes fluttering, drawn by the tempting bait, meets the miner, sees the glittering brick, handles it, even tests it with acid, and finally is induced to put down his good money. With great show of secrecy and caution the brick is handed over and the victim departs only to learn later that all is not gold that glitters and that he is out his $500. Much ingenuity is exercised in fixing up the brick so it will stand inspection. Sometimes even wedges of good gold are inserted in the cheap metal and the operator saws or files into this wedge to take out gold for the victim to test. And these enlightened days I do not need to tell you that all such stories, no matter how plausible, should be questioned and rejected at once. The green goods swindle is an elaborate game which begins with some very adroit correspondence in which the rider claims to be in possession of some old and discarded steel plates used in printing United States money. And for that reason he is able to produce actual greenbacks which will pass anywhere. The letter usually begins something like this. Dear sir, I am in possession of a good thing and with your confidential and friendly cooperation I can make you independently rich and at the same time better my own condition. You will see that my goods are not what the law can class as real counterfeits in as much as they are printed from genuine plates and can easily be passed in your section of the country. The letter goes on to explain the necessity of a personal interview, offers to guarantee traveling expenses and quotes prices usually as follows. $300 real money buys $3,000, $1,000 buys $30,000, etc. The pigeon is given a password and number with which he must sign all telegrams. Finally, not to go into too many details, the green goods operator and the victim meet with great secrecy. A package of real money is produced for inspection, the purchase money is paid over, and the package which has been deftly exchanged for another package containing worthless paper is given to the purchaser who departs to learn his loss as soon as he opens his bundle. Of course there is no redress possible. The whole game is a swindle. Never but once to the best of my knowledge have actual original plates been stolen from the government, and that was when Langdon W. Moore was able to use his influence with a gang of counterfeiters and secure the return of the 5-20 bond plate in the early 80s as described in Chapter 15 of his autobiography. Even if the plates were stolen as the green goods man pretends, the bills printed from them by unauthorized persons would be counterfeit in the eyes of the law. Keep just as far away from any such scheme as you can. End of shot 14. Recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 15. Of the right way to do wrong. An expose of successful criminals. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The right way to do wrong. An expose of successful criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 15. The Fair Criminal. There have arisen in every country and in every age celebrated women criminals whose daring deeds have become part of history. From Lucretia Borgia of the 15th century to Cassie Chadwick of the present day, the list is a long one. And yet police officials and prosecuting officers will no doubt agree with me when I say that there are vastly fewer women criminals than men who lead dishonest lives. The truth seems to be that when lovely woman stoops to crime, she usually goes to the greatest lengths of iniquity and the comparatively few women who have perpetrated great crimes are made more conspicuous and more talked about by reason of their sex. In the United States, authorities claim that only one-tenth of persons accused of crimes are women. While in France, statistician Tarte declares that one-sixth is the usual proportion. Women criminals are certain to end their careers in wretchedness if not in prison. Mothers of wayward girls are often much to blame for the beginnings of careers of vice. A good home is the best protection, and upon every fair reader I urged the wisdom not only of choosing for herself the better way, but of safeguarding her sisters everywhere. Sophie Lyons may be taken as a typical case of a born woman criminal. She came of a race of criminals. Her grandfather was a noted burglar in England. Her father and mother, who came to America before she was born, both had a criminal record. She was taught to steal as soon as she could walk, and at twelve was arrested for shoplifting. At sixteen she was married to Marie Harris, a pickpocket, but her husband was sentenced to two years in state prison before the honeymoon was over. Later she married Ned Lyons, the noted burglar, and became one of the most expert female pickpockets in the country. Sophie Lyons was a beautiful girl with brilliant dark eyes, abundant auburn hair, and a fascinating manner. At the county fairs she would make the acquaintance of men of wealth and definitely relieve them of their watch or role of banknotes while they were fascinated with her blandishments. If caught she was a consummate actress and could counterfeit every shade of emotion. Real tears of injured innocence would flow from her beautiful eyes. Lyons pulled off a big coup about two years after their marriage, bought a villa on Long Island with the proceeds, and, though a professional burglar himself, tried to keep his wife from stealing. The taint was too strong, however, she picked pockets for the love of it. Eventually both husband and wife were sentenced to sing-sing prison from which they make a sensational escape and got away to Paris. In France, under the name of Madame Devarni, she continued her brilliant career of crime. Sophie Lyons is supposed to be at large at the present time, somewhere in America. She has one son serving a German state prison and two daughters who are being carefully educated in Germany, kept as far as possible in ignorance of their mother's actual character. The career of Cassie Chadwick, the Duchess of Diamonds, is of more recent date. She is a woman of about fifty years of age and has neither great physical beauty or great personal charm, yet she must have had wonderful powers of persuasion, for she victimized such men as Andrew Carnegie and made banker Ira Reynolds believe she was an illegitimate child of the Scotch millionaire. With him, she deposited a bundle of securities alleged to be worth five million dollars and a note for half a million dollars bearing Carnegie's signature. Assigned paper from Reynolds attesting the fact that he held five million dollars worth of securities and trust for her became her stock in trade, and she fleeced bankers and businessmen to the tune of one million dollars in money and one hundred fifty thousand dollars worth of jewels in four years. In March 1905, she was convicted and is now serving a ten-year sentence in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Thanksgiving 1905, during my engagement at Keith's Theater, I gave a performance for the prisoners in the county jail in Cleveland and Mrs. Chadwick was to be entertained in her cell. But fifteen minutes before I was to show her a few conjuring tricks, she changed her mood, gave the jailer an argument, and refused to allow anyone near her cell. Of the army of women shoplifters, petty thieves, stool pigeons for confidence men, etc., little need be said. Shoplifting seems to be the most common crime. Many women steal from mere wantonness, having no need of the articles or money. Summonia is a polite word for this offense, and doubtless there are cases of mental disorder and moral degeneracy which takes this form. The time-worn badger game, as it is called, is still frequently employed to fleece men. The confidence woman gets acquainted with some man of means, preferably a married man of family, and invites him to call at her apartments. She carries on her part of the flirtation to perfection, till suddenly the doorbell rings, and in apparent fright she exclaims, There comes my husband, he is furiously jealous and will kill you. The fictitious husband rushes in, a scene takes place, and the husband threatens to shoot or call on the police. Eventually the matter is settled by the victim giving up a large sum of money rather than face a scandal. This is only one form of blackmail resorted to, to extort money, as the victim is often threatened with public expose, etc. Pirates and petticoats frequently ply their trade on ocean and lake steamers. They are well-dressed and ingratiate themselves with the passengers of both sexes, watching their opportunity to steal jewelry or practice their threadbare confidence games. A woman named Grace Mordant cleared many thousands of dollars in New York by occasionally advertising the following personal in the Herald. Young widow, financially embarrassed wishes loan of $100 on a diamond ring worth twice as much, a dress box blank. Miss Mordant was beautiful and fascinating. She would produce a genuine diamond ring and go with her victim to a jeweler to have it priced. At his office she would receive her money and ask him with tears not to wear or show her ring for a few days but lock it up in his safe. She then takes the ring, wraps it up in tissue paper, puts it in an envelope and hands it sealed to the victim and leaves, promising to repay the money with interest in a few days. She never returns and at length the victim opens the envelope to find a brass ring with a glass diamond worth about twenty-five cents. While in Austria some years ago I heard of a most remarkable adventurist who went under the name of Madame Clarice B. Blank. Her particular form of swindle was to get acquainted with young men of good family and wealth and entangle them in her meshes and get declarations of marriage from them. She would get all she could out of her poor dupe and then notify the family of the engagement. The young man's parents would then be forced to buy her off with a large sum of money when she would go to Pastors New. But Madame Clarice met her waterloo in Vienna. There she met an American student upon whom she worked her wiles even to the extent of going through a marriage ceremony with him. After a time she left him and went to Paris but the adventurist who had broken so many hearts found her own touched at last. She was actually in love with her student husband whose face haunted her dreams. After a few days she returned to Vienna, sought him out and confessed all but threw herself on his mercy and love. The denouncement, unusual in such cases, was that the couple were actually married and today are living happily on the continent. Many, many more incidents might be related of the clever work of the fascinating woman criminal but these should be sufficient to warn the unwary against trusting either their honor or their pocketbook to an unknown woman no matter how beautiful. Teacher, instructing prisoner class on manners. Now Willie Brown, for example, if you were sitting in an electric car every seat occupied and an old lady enters what would you do? Tommy, please sir, I would pretend I was sleeping. End of shot 15, recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 16, of the right way to do wrong, an expose of successful criminals. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The right way to do wrong, an expose of successful criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 16, The Brace Game. Of all classes of criminals, the professional gambler has probably played the most conspicuous part in fiction and melodrama. We all know the stage gambler, while the penny-dreadful novels and storybooks are too often filled with descriptions of this kind of crime. The gambler of the stage and in the novel is but an exaggerated portrait of this type. Gambling is the playing for money of games depending solely on chance like roulette or games of skill and chance like poker and other card games or billiards and the like. A gentleman may have the moral right to back his own opinion in a wager with money and with true sportsman instinct stand success or defeat. Even a small stake at cards is dangerous for it cultivates the habit of gambling which may soon become a passion. Gambling in itself is bad enough even when the game is square, but your professional gambler never plays the game that way. He is an expert with cards. His seemingly innocent shuffle of the pack gives him a full knowledge of where every card is located. He deals you a hand good enough to induce you to make dangerously high bets, but not high enough to win. He lures his victim by small winnings to destruction in the end. He uses cards so cleverly marked on the back that he can read the values of your hand as well as if he were looking over your shoulder and govern his play accordingly. In pharaoh and roulette he uses mechanical devices for controlling absolutely the winning numbers and so cheats his victim from beginning to end. When a gambler employs a fraudulent deck of cards or a cheating roulette wheel or pharaoh box it is called a brace game. No novice can go up against a brace game with any hope of winning. He must lose. Even if the game were on the square the victim will invariably lose in the long run for the percentage of chances against him. If the exposures which I feel at liberty to make in this chapter may warn the unwary and deter the youth of this land from the fascinations of the green cloth I shall feel that my efforts have not been in vain. Marked cards employed by gamblers are specially engraved packs of cards in which the usual decoration design of scrolls and flowers on the back instead of being exactly identical on the 52 cards is varied slightly for each of the high cards. This would not be noticed and cannot be detected without close examination but it renders the back of the cards as legible to the gambler as the face. The turn of a leaf in the scroll work may mean that that card is the ace of diamonds while a slightly different turn may mean the ace of hearts and so on. With such a pack of cards the gambler has the poor dupet as mercy. Long cards and strippers as they are called are special packs in which the high cards are slightly different in shape and width enabling the gambler for instance with a single motion to take three of the aces out of a pack. The holdout as it is called is a mechanical contrivance used for holding a card fraudulently withdrawn from the pack until it is wanted. The holdout illustrated in this chapter I purchased from a notorious gambler who has now retired and perfected it for use in certain card tricks. I have found however that certain professional gamblers have got hold of it and I shall therefore expose its operations so that the unwary may be worn. The machine is adjusted to the arm inside the coat sleeve. The mechanism is worked by a band passing around the chest. By taking a long breath the machine is made to move and pushes its mechanical fingers down inside the sleeve to the hand. As the breath is exhaled the fingers go back in the sleeve taking with them the card or cards the gambler wishes to hold out. The same operation causes the card to be returned to the hand. It is as though the gambler were gifted with a third and invisible arm and hand. It cannot be detected in operation. Other holdouts are attached under the table. One called the goose neck is brazenly advertised in a certain catalog I have on my desk as I write and the price is $15. This, I quote from the catalog, is worked by the knee or foot making the cards come up over the edges of the table into the hand. A vest holdout is made and sold vest and all for $30 and a new cold deck holdout for substituting an entirely different pack of cards which has been previously stacked for $35. Concerning this latter contrivance the manufacturer says, made to hold a full deck cards can be arranged to suit you and when opportunity presents itself make the switch and you can clean up everything in sight. A mere list of the fraudulent contrivances for cheating at gambling should be sufficient to prevent any honest man from ever going up against a gambler's game. The Lucas spindle as it is called is apparently a very simple contrivance which the novice thinks must certainly be on the square. As a matter of fact it is fraudulent and made with that intention. Its makers claim that it can actually be handed to an officer for examination without detection. The old simplicity squeeze spindle works on a different principle but is just as effective. It is under control of the gambler and can be stopped on whatever figure will win him the most money. The high man wins arrow is for use in bar rooms and is a brace game, the house being a large winner. One of the most malicious little devices I have ever run across is sometimes called a vest pocket roulette wheel. It would seem that this must be square and that the player would have even a greater chance to win than on an ordinary wheel because there is only one zero. As a matter of fact however it is a fraud pure and simple as the mechanism is so arranged that the pointer will stop on zero three times when it will stop on any other number once. So beware of the man with a little Monte Carlo in his pocket. Among other things used by professional gamblers to cheat with are loaded dice which may be bought or made to order, adhesive palming cloth for palming cards, chips, dice, etc., adhesive dice which almost defy detection, shaped dice which are not exact cubes, brace dice boxes, magnifying mirrors set in rings, shading boxes made to sew on inside of coat and used to shade or mark cards while the game is in progress, marked decks of cards, ring holdouts, bouncers for roulette wheels, cement for plugging dice, silver amalgam for loading dice, brace ferro boxes, etc., etc. With such an equipment united with years of experience and skill what chance has any law-abiding citizen against a professional gambler? The reader does not need my secret of escaping from handcuffs to shake off the shackles of this alluring siren gambling. End of shot 16, Recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 17 of The Right Way to Do Wrong, An Exposé of Successful Criminals. This is a LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The Right Way to Do Wrong, An Exposé of Successful Criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 17, Cheating Uncle Sam. Under this heading I shall group such crimes as counterfeiting and the kindred crimes of forgery and raising notes as well as smuggling. It is a serious matter to get into trouble with the federal government. The criminal is pursued relentlessly and the sentence when conviction follows the almost certain arrest is always a heavy one. For these reasons such crimes are usually attempted only by the boldest and most skillful criminals, or by those whose positions of trust and government employ afford them special opportunities. The three great crimes against any government, aside of course from actual treason, are counterfeiting its money, either gold, silver or bills, evading its custom laws or smuggling. Counterfeiting, which offers enormous rewards of successful, is frequently attempted. Indeed, scarcely a month passes that does not see the appearance of some new and dangerous counterfeit of some United States bill. Notice is it once sent to all the banks by the authorities and often published in the newspapers, so that the public at large may be warned against the spurious bill in circulation. Many years ago, when the art of engraving and plate making was in its infancy, the paper money in circulation was much more crude than today. Then it was comparatively easy for the counterfeiter to engrave just as good a bill as the government could produce. But now the matter is much more difficult, owing to the delicate and intricate work of the lathe and tool work and the special fiber paper upon which it is printed. The conditions of caution surrounding the government printing works make it almost impossible for an original plate to be stolen. The paper is made especially for this purpose and under strictest government supervision. In designing, lettering, and engraving the bills, only artists of the foremost professional standing are employed. Every banknote or greenback is truly a work of art, so that an exact counterfeit, one that will deceive even an ordinary businessman accustomed to handle money, is each year more and more difficult to produce. The counterfeits of silver and gold coins are mostly of two kinds, either molded or stamped with a die. The die-made counterfeits are usually much more difficult to detect if the metal employed has anywhere near the right weight, ring, and color. Electroplating is employed by counterfeiters with some success. One dangerous counterfeit now in circulation is a compound of antimony and lead heavily electroplated with silver. In this way, the gold ten dollar piece of 1858 and the gold five dollar pieces of 1847, 1848, 1862, and 1869 have been counterfeited with a platinum coin heavily gold-plated. The most successful and therefore the most dangerous of all counterfeits are those composed of actual gold and silver, but with a mixture of metal. The actual value of the gold in the counterfeit five dollar gold pieces dated 1881 and 1882 has been determined by assay to be four dollars forty three cents. Genuine gold and silver coins are often tampered with. These schemes are known as sweating, plugging, and filling. For instance, a hundred gold ten dollar pieces subject to an acid bath would lose perhaps thirty five dollars or forty dollars worth of their gold and remain unchanged in appearance. The coins are put in circulation again and the gold which has been sweated off of them is easily extracted from the acid bath and sold. Coins are also robbed of precious metal by drilling a hole, the cavity being filled with an alloy, and the filling covered with a light gold wash. Filling a coin is sawing it through the edge in two parts, scraping out the gold and putting the two parts together again filled with some base or metal. Thomas Ballard was the first counterfeiter to successfully reproduce government fiber paper, which he did in 1870. The next year he and his gang were captured, but escaped from jail and found a hiding place from which they continued to issue dangerous counterfeits. In 1873 his counterfeit five hundred dollar treasury note alarmed banks and government officials. Ballard was finally captured in his lair and buffalo just as he was about to produce a counterfeit five dollar bill of a Canadian bank. This bill he boasted was to have corrupted all Canada. John Peter McCartney was the counterfeiter who successfully removed all the ink from genuine one dollar bills so that he could secure government paper on which to print counterfeit bills of much higher denomination. He made a fortune, so it is said, but was brought to book at last. To a counterfeiter named One-Eyed Thompson is given the credit of being the first to transform bills of small denomination to larger by cutting and pasting. He also had an ingenious trick of cutting up ten dollar or one hundred dollar bills into strips and making eleven counterfeit bills of the same denomination. A German by the name of Charles Ulrich won the distinction of having produced the most dangerous bank of England notes ever made. Langdon W. Moore, one-time expert, bank robber, forger and counterfeiter, who is now reformed in his leading and honest life, has written an interesting autobiography in which he tells of his own experience in raising notes, counterfeiting, and getting the counterfeits in circulation. At one time another gang of counterfeiters declared war on him. He sent the spy into the enemy's camp, learned where they were going to put out their next batch of queer, and then proceeded to carry out a plan for outwitting them. Postage stamp counterfeits are common enough but mostly practiced to impose on the collectors of rare stamps. For instance, a certain issue of Hawaiian stamps are very valuable as they are not supposed to be more than a half a dozen or so in existence and when one is found it sells for thousands of dollars. One of the most daring stamp counterfeiters planted about twenty forgeries of this rare stamp into collections of wealthy philatelists and realized many thousands of dollars. Another daring gang introduced a beautifully engraved stamp into Paris by posing as the King of Sodang and Suite, Sodang being an island that existed solely in the imagination of the clever swindler. A stamp dealer was the principal victim and paid the king a large sum of money for a number of the stamps of this fictitious kingdom. Speaking of stamps recalls a method of secret writing which defied detection. The plan was to put a fake letter inside the envelope but to write the real message in microscopic characters in the upper right hand corner and over this paste the stamp. The correspondent who was of course in the secret would simply soak off the stamp. This trick is often made use of by convicts who wish to send a secret message to their friends on the outside. Cancelled postage stamps are frequently washed and sold or used again. I have in my possession a receipt given me by a Russian convict which will do this perfectly removing every trace of the cancellation mark but leaving the stamp perfect. Such a secret is too dangerous however for general publication. On the continent I have known of a clever dodge being practiced which reaches the same result. Before the letter is mailed the stamp is covered with a transparent paste. When the letter is received the correspondent can simply wash off the stamp with water and of course the cancellation marks with it. The penalty for this crime is so severe and the reward so small that not even hardened criminals are willing to risk the attempt. A clever gang of smugglers adopted this ruse in order to get their trunks through the custom house free. They had counterfeit labels made such as an inspector places upon a trunk. Passing among the trunks where the inspectors were at work they would slightly poke the inspected label on all their own trunks. Each official seeing the labels would suppose some other official had actually inspected the trunks and so would pass on to others. Instances might be multiplied but all goes to show that dishonesty whether to your fellow men or to the government is the worst of all policies in the end. End of shot 17 recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 18 of the right way to do wrong an expose of successful criminals. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The right way to do wrong an expose of successful criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 18. Humbugs. A humbug or a hoax is often comparatively harmless in its nature more in the way of a high practical joke upon the public. Long ago P.T. Barnum the great American showman declared the American people want to be humbugged. I believe he was right and certainly his great success in the show business would seem to point to the same conclusion. In my own particular work I find there is so much that is marvelous and wonderful that can be accomplished by perfectly natural means that I have no need to find recourse to humbugging the public. In my case at least truth is stranger than fiction. At the present day a firm in New York makes a business of manufacturing fakes like double-bodied babies, mermaids and fake mummies. Dr. L.D. Weiss of New York discovered that he could detect a fake mummy from an original by placing it under his X-ray machine. Another clever hoax which created much amusement at the time was contrived by some English students years ago and perpetrated at a county fair. On a vacant lot near the fair a large tent was erected and a huge placard announced that the Great Wusser was on exhibition within, admission free. It was supposed that some payment or purchase would be required inside but it was not so. The crowd, eager for free amusement, was formed into a long queue and the people, admitted only one at a time, were escorted through a maze of hurdles into a darkened compartment of the tent before a curtain. There they were entreated not to irritate or disturb the animal in any way and the curtain went up disclosing a sorry and spavent looking donkey. This is the Great Wusser explained the showman and when the bewildered spectator asked what it meant he was told that though you may have seen as bad a donkey you certainly never saw a wusser. Then when the victim of the hoax became indignant he was besought to keep it quiet and take his revenge by allowing the remainder of the crowd to be hoaxed. This request showed a deep knowledge of human nature. For the victim always complied and many went among the crowd and spread the most astonishing accounts of the Great Wusser and waited to see their comrades taken in. Eventually however rioting arose and the gestures being arrested for creating a disturbance had to pay over $100 in fines and damages. But humbugs are not also harmless. An adroit rascal was caught not long ago in London who was posing as an American bishop. He was certainly a great humbug for he looked the part of the bishop to perfection. It seems that he called in his carriage mind you at a well-known jeweler's and asked to see some bracelets, mentioning that he was returning to America and wished to take a present to his wife. Nothing very expensive he said I could not afford that but something about 70 or 80 pounds. Eventually he agreed to take a bracelet that cost 100 pounds. He said he would pay for it with a 100 pound note which he had with him. It was the only money he had with him at the moment but he would wait while they sent it to the bank to ascertain that it was all right. He should really prefer doing this. They sent it to the bank and received answer that it was perfectly correct. Having paid for his bracelet the bishop took it and was just about to step into his carriage when a policeman tapped him on the shoulder and said, Hello Jim, you're up to your old tricks again are you? You just come along with me and he took him back into the shop. The jeweler said there was some mistake that the gentleman was an American bishop that he had bought a bracelet and paid for it with an excellent note. Just let me look at the note will you? said the policeman. He looked at it and said, Yes, it's just as I thought. This note is one of a particularly clever batch of forgeries which are very difficult to detect and the man is no more a bishop than you are. We will go off to the police station at once. I will take the note and go on with the prisoner in advance and you must send your salesman to me and meet us and bear witness. So the policeman took the bishop and the bracelet and the note. But when the jeweler's man reached the police station they had not arrived and they have never been heard of since. Warden to new arrival who happens to be enjoying the name of Moses Ikenstein. Well, Mr. Ikenstein as this is your first visit it is our rule to always allow prisoners to select their own workshop. And if you will tell me what your trade or profession is we'll put you in that branch of employment. Ikenstein, is that so? Well, I am a traveling salesman. End of shot 18 recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 19 of the right way to do wrong an expose of successful criminals. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The right way to do wrong an expose of successful criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 19 Houdini. How does he do it? That is the usual question I hear asked about my work in the theater. No dear reader, it is not my purpose to tell you how I open locks. How I escape from a prison cell into which I've been locked. Having previously been stripped naked and manicled with heavy irons. I do not intend to tell you in this book how I escape from the trunk or the tightly corded and nailed up box in which I've been confined. Or how I unlock any regulation handcuff that can be produced. Not yet. Someday I may tell all this and then you will know. At present I prefer that all who see me should draw their own conclusions. But exactly how I accomplish these things I shall still leave you to guess, gentle reader. I should not want you to go into the show business. It's a hard life, so they say. Have you ever been stuck at it? I think I hear you ask. Not yet. I've had some pretty close calls but have always pulled through somehow. The first I ever came to giving in was during my engagement at Blackbourne, England. There I offered a prize to the man who could fasten me in such a way that I could not escape. One man accepted my challenge. He was an instructor in athletics and was out for blood. He evidently looked upon my challenge as a personal affront to him. At any rate, he started an end to shackle me. He first handcuffed my hands in front, then locked elbow irons, the chain of which went behind my back. Then he handcuffed my legs and after this bent me backward and changed my back and feet together. I had to kneel down. Every chain and handcuff was fitted to the limit. I started in but at the end of an hour I suffered so under the strain that I asked to be let out. My back was aching, my circulation was stopped and my wrists and my arms became paralyzed. My opponents only reply was, this is a bet, cry quits or keep on. The music hall where I was playing was packed and while watching me became fairly wild. I kept on but I was only about half conscious. Every joint in my body was aching and I had but little use of my arms. I asked as a favor that he free my hands long enough for the circulation to start again, but he only laughed and exclaimed, this is no love affair, this is a contest. Say you're defeated and I'll release you. I gritted my teeth and went at it once more. For two hours and a half I exerted myself fighting for my professional good name. In the meanwhile the audience was cheering itself hoarse. Some cried give it up and others keep on you'll do it. I don't believe any such scene was ever acted in a theater. The house was crazy with excitement and I was covered with blood brought on by my exertion to release myself and chafing irons. But I did it. I got free of every chain and handcuff. Then they had to carry me off the stage and I suffered from the effects for months afterwards. As for the prison cell I have never been locked in one I could not open. I have had the honor of making my escape from securely locked cells in jails, prisons and police stations in almost every large city in the world and under the most rigid conditions. The chiefs of police, the wardens, the jailers, the detectives and the citizens who have been present at these tests know that they are real and actual. Perhaps the most historic American feat that gained for me the most notoriety was my escape, January 1906, from cell two, Murderer's Row in the United States jail at Washington DC. From the very cell in which Kattu, the assassin of President Garfield, was confined until he was led forth to be hanged. Since my return from abroad, October 1905, I have escaped after being locked up in a nude state from cells in New York City, Brooklyn, Detroit, Rochester, Buffalo, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Providence and city tombs in Boston and Lowell. In all cases I submitted to a close search being stark naked and heavily manacled into the cell, which was also thoroughly searched. I am an American by birth, born in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA on April 6, 1873. To my lot has fallen more experiences, more strange adventures, more ups and downs in my 33 years of life than to most men. When about nine years of age, my mother, to whom I am greatly attached, apprenticed me to a mechanic to learn that trade. But, after an uneventful term with the tools of the trade, I resolved to see the world with my own eager eyes, so I ran away from home and in this way made an early acquaintance with the corrugated side of life. I joined a small circus and soon learned to conduct the Punch and Judy show, to do a ventriloquial act and to play challenge clown on the bars, gall darn it. I also doubled in brass, that is, I beat the cymbals. I hear gain the experiences that possibly ripened me into the world's handcuff king and prison breaker, a title which I have justly earned. But there was a time when I was not recognized as I am now. Those were the days of small things. That was in the Middle West. After that, London and an engagement at the Alhambra. After that, everywhere on the continent and all over America. I have not yet been to Australia. I do not wish to be so far away from my mother. While touring Germany, I brought suit against the police in a newspaper because they said my act was not genuine. I won the case. To have lost it would have meant ruin. Again in Russia, I was bound by the officials of the spy police and locked in a Siberian transport cell. Had I failed to escape, I would have been compelled to journey to Siberia as the key that locks these cells does not open them. The Governor General in Siberia has the only key to open them. I was out in 20 minutes. If there were more room in this book, I would like to tell you of the many places in which I have played, both in America and Europe. I have many certificates from police officials. I was almost too busy to write this book, although I have been collecting the material for a long time. But now I am pleased it is written and trust it may please you. I believe that the reading of this book will so familiarize the public with the methods of the criminal classes that it will enable law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from the snares of the evil doer. I hope it will warn you away from crime and all evil doing. It may tell the right way to do wrong, but as I said in the beginning, all I have to say is don't. Metal Illustrated is the result of my winning the contest from the H. Segal company, Expert Packers. And Mr. B. F. Keith, by the way, also presented me with the most magnificent and costly Tiffany timepiece during my engagement in Boston. Sincerely yours, Harry Houdini. End of shot 19, recording by Leanne Howlett. Shot 20, of the right way to do wrong, an expose of successful criminals. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Leanne Howlett. The right way to do wrong, an expose of successful criminals by Harry Houdini. Shot 20, conclusion. A certain fascination without doubt lingers about crime and the methods of criminals. Much of this fascination and consequently much of the temptation to do wrong arises from ignorance of the subject. Ignorance of the mean, sordid life, and the disgrace and punishment which are the certain result of a career of crime. The way word youth sees only the advantage to be gained by unlawful acts. He does not see the years of ignominy, the furtive hiding from the law, the shame of not being able to look as fellow man in the face. No, nor the inevitable arrest, conviction and punishment, which ends it all in 99 cases out of every 100. In this book I have told of the methods of criminals and held them up to your gaze, not as heroes, but as malefactors, not as examples to be emulated, but as corruptions to be shunned as you would shun a plague. To the best of my belief, this book, if you read it rightly, is a sermon more powerful against wrongdoing than many that are preached from the pulpit. It is my hope and wish that it may carry this warning into the hearts of thousands of young men. Then shall my labor not have been lost. End of shot 20. End of the Right Way to Do Wrong, an Exposé of Successful Criminals by Harry Houdini. Recording by Leanne Howlett.