The 1849 arrest that gave us the term confidence man
In short: The term con man originated from a specific 19th-century swindler whose simple, bold technique for stealing watches became a journalistic sensation. This video explores the history of William Thompson and the newspaper report that cemented his legacy in the English language.
In the mid-19th century, a man named William Thompson perfected a remarkably straightforward scam. By approaching strangers and engaging them with just 13 words, he would gain their trust and walk away with their watches. While he was certainly not the first person to employ such deceptive tactics, his audacity caught the attention of the press.
On June 8, 1849, the New York Herald published an article titled Arrest of the Confidence Man. This piece is the earliest known documentation of the term, which eventually shortened to the modern con man. The report highlighted how Thompson leveraged the victim's own confidence in him to facilitate the theft, forever linking his criminal method to the phrase.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Why Do We Call Scammers "Con Men"?
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