In the season four episode “The Boiler Room Job” of the television drama Leverage, the cast find themselves up against the fictitious grandson of real life con artist Joseph “The Yellow Kid” Weil. “Quite possibly the greatest grifter of all time,” Sophie Devereaux explains in the installment, while Greg Sherman – the supposed descendent of the Yellow Kid – remarks, “My family invented most every con that you’ve ever heard of.”
Born in 1875, Joseph Weil was indeed the preeminent conman of the early part of the twentieth century. It was during this time period that these imaginative swindlers flourished, creating elaborate ruses that began with the simple Three Card Monte and evolved into the famed “wire” that served as the centerpiece of the 1975 Paul Newman/Robert Redford film The Sting. Throughout his career, Weil was at the forefront of the craft and his adventures serve as a history of the era as a result.
“During these years I discovered many things, but most important I learned about people, their strong points and their weaknesses,” Joseph Weil explains in Autobiography of America’s Master Swindler, co-written with W.T. Brannon in 1948. “Especially their weaknesses. All the people I swindled had one thing in common – greed, the desire to acquire money. But that was not always enough. In numerous cases there was some other factor, some small desire that helped me to clinch a deal…. Trivial matters often meant the difference between success and failure for me.”
The main characters on Leverage are all former criminals – grifter, hitter, hacker, thief – who now operate outside the law to bring justice against corporate big-wigs who have harmed every day Americans. The United States and the rest of the world was in the midst of a financial crisis when Leverage premiered in 2008, and bank failures, Ponzi schemes, corporate cover-ups, and even crooked politicians all make their way from real-life headlines into the narratives of the series.
“The rich and powerful, they take what they want,” Nathan Ford, the “mastermind” of the group, explains in the opening credits of Leverage. “We steal it back for you.” Leverage is about more than just “stealing” what was illegally taken, however, as the crew led by Ford utilize elaborate cons designed to either publicly discredit their targets or ensure that they are captured by law enforcement.
According to Joseph Weil, the most important element of any con is the initial set-up. By first convincing the intended victim of the conman’s fictitious credentials and gaining their trust, it makes it easier to respond to any potential problems that later arise. The team on Leverage likewise take steps to ensure the legitimacy of their personas, even going so far as to “borrow” the office or workplace of someone else for their own use.
In “The Boiler Room Job,” Nathan Ford briefly poses as an IRS agent assisting a British counterpart – Sophie Devereaux – conduct a “spot audit” on a recent financial transaction. “The IRS has your back on this one,” Ford tells Edward Travers. “Why don’t you take an early lunch, and it will be like three or four hours and we should be okay.” Although Travers isn’t the target of the con, his resulting absence allows the offices of Travers Global to be transformed into Royal Commodities for when the actual mark arrives.
Weil often utilized the same strategy. In an attempt to fleece a potential mark named Mr. Kahn in a horse racing scam, for instance, the Yellow Kid pretended to assist Kahn in acquiring the rights to a concession stand at the track.
“I led him into the office of Sheridan Clark, who was secretary of the Association that operated the track,” Weil explains. “Clark, of course, did have charge of the concessions. But there was one thing about his office that Kahn did not know. It was always open. Jockeys, trainers, and owners were constantly going in and out on routine matters. And I happened to know that, at that particular time, Clark was not in the office. When we walked in, a man was seated behind Clark’s desk. It was Bob Collins, my confederate. ‘Mr. Clark,’ I called, ‘this is Mr. Kahn. I’d like you to see what you can do about getting the red-hot concession for him.’ Collins stood up and shook hands. ‘Glad to know you, Mr. Kahn,’ he said. ‘Any friend of Joe’s is a friend of mine.’ He walked out from behind the desk. ‘Let’s go have a glass of beer and discuss this further.’ That was a pretext to get us out of the office. We didn’t know when Sheridan Clark might return.”
On Leverage, Nathan Ford is a former insurance fraud investigator whose son died from a rare disease after the company he worked for refused to pay for an experimental procedure that could have saved his life. During the pilot episode, Ford is approached by the CEO of another company to oversee a group of criminals hired to steal back stolen documents from Ford’s former employer. After being double-crossed, Nathan Ford and his criminal cohorts inevitably turn the tables on the CEO, while likewise making a small fortune by short-selling his company’s stock. Afterwards, they decide to continue working together to help ordinary people who have likewise fallen victim to various forms of corporate scheming and wrong-doing.
Although Joseph Weil conducted his own cons strictly for profit, he was as equally selective in choosing his “targets” as those on Leverage. “I have never taken a dime from honest, hard-working people who could not afford to lose,” he states. “The men I swindled were… motivated by a desire to acquire money, and they didn’t care at whose expense they got it. They were seldom concerned with human nature. They knew little – and cared less – about their fellow men. If they had been keener students of human nature, if they had given more time to companionship with their fellows and less to the chase of the almighty dollar, they wouldn’t have been such easy marks.”
“Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys,” Nathan Ford explains at the beginning of each episode of Leverage. While Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil was hardly a “good guy” in the traditional sense, he shares the same DNA with the fictitious team of grifter, hitter, hacker, thief of the twenty first century nonetheless.
Greg Sherman was wrong when he claimed to be the grandson of the Yellow Kid during season four of Leverage, for in reality it is the other characters on the show who are the true descendants of America’s Master Swindler.
Anthony Letizia