I looked at it and decided it was not a check I would cash were I a teller and someone presented the check for payment. But a thrift shop dress is usually taken for high fashion when it’s revealed under a mink coat.

The third factor is research, the big difference between the hard-nosed criminal and the super con man.

THERE IS ENCHANTMENT in a uniform, especially one that marks the wearer as a person of rare skills, courage or achievement. A.

I learned early that class is universally admired. Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there’s a touch of class involved.

It’s not what a man has but what a man is that’s important. This car is fine for me. It gets me around. I know who I am and what I am, and that’s what counts, not what other people might think of me.

My one sensuous fault was women. I had a Cyprian lust for them.

The fox who keeps to one den is the easiest caught by the terriers, and I felt I had nested too long in one place.

Dad just smiled wryly. “You’ll learn, Frank, that when you’re up there’re hundreds of people who’ll claim you as a friend. When you’re down, you’re lucky if one of them will buy you a cup of coffee. If I had it to do over again, I’d select my friends more carefully. I do have a couple of good friends. They’re not wealthy, but one of them got me my job in the post office.

A con artist’s only weapon is his brain.

What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology breeds crime.