According to legend, George C. Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge to newcomers, who then tried to set up toll booths on it until police stopped them, per NYC Walks.
Parker was born in New York City on March 16, 1860, to Irish immigrant parents, and he was one of eight children, according to IrishCentral. New York in the 1880s was a melting pot of immigrants, which set the stage for his later schemes, Mentalitch said.
His charm and dapper appearance were key assets, Mentalitch said. Parker preyed on immigrants arriving in America, and he reportedly paid stewards on ships coming into Ellis Island to point out potential “customers,” per Racing Nellie Bly. He also reportedly opened real estate offices.
IrishCentral reported that he negotiated prices from $75 to $50,000 for the Brooklyn Bridge. He also reportedly “sold” Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty and Ulysses S. Grant’s tomb with fake deeds, NYC Walks said. For the tomb, he posed as Grant’s grandson.
Two 1928 New York Times stories said Parker was alleged to have sold the bridge at an unspecified time, according to The Straight Dope. A columnist for the site wrote that “too little detail is provided about the claimed sale by George C. Parker to warrant giving that tale much credence.” Author Richard Haw calls the bridge-selling story a myth in The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History, the site said.
While the legitimacy of the bridge’s sale was in question, Parker’s trouble with the law was definitely real. About 20 years before his life sentence, he escaped from Raymond Street Jail on New Year’s Day. He was working as a trusty at the time, and he put on the incoming sheriff’s overcoat and hat and walked out past the guards, according to a 1928 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article reproduced by Racing Nellie Bly.
The Eagle headline read, “Brooklyn Bridge’s ‘Seller’ Sent To Sing Sing For Life.” Parker, then 68, had pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny for cashing a worthless $150 check, the article said. It called him “a meek lamb” before the judge and noted a “record of crime and prison sentences.”
He lived his last days behind bars for under a decade, although reports differ on when exactly he died. IrishCentral, Mentalitch, NYC Walks, and The Quota report 1936, while Racing Nellie Bly reports 1937.
Parker was not the only con man to “sell” a famous landmark. In 1925, Victor Lustig “sold” the Eiffel Tower for scrap, and his first victim was too embarrassed to go to the police.
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