by Amy Reading
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Mark Inside
1 “told at Least 3 lies”: Norfleet to Van Cise, July 4, 1957, Van Cise Scrapbook, vol. 2.
2 Gregor portrayed Norfleet: Gregor, “Sucker Who Turned Tiger,” p. 88.
3 His four-year absence: Dallas Morning News, December 10, 1989.
4 The bank was about: Dallas Morning News, November 5, 1924.
5 “English literature has been”: Lubbock Morning Avalanche, April 6, 1924.
6 “our own indigenous detective”: Dallas Morning News, August 17, 1924.
7 “at a liberal weekly stipend”: Dallas Morning News, July 11, 1925.
8 The year after that: Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1926.
9 And the year after that: Dallas Morning News, June 28, 1927.
10 One of his partners: Dallas Morning News, March 2, 1986.
11 “For the benefit of doubters”: Norfleet, Norfleet (1927), p. vii.
12 In 1929, Norfleet began: San Antonio Light, November 2, 1929.
13 And in between telling: Galveston Daily News, April 22, 1927.
14 In 1928, he declared: San Antonio Light, May 16, 1928.
15 “I only put notches”: San Antonio Light, July 30, 1929.
16 In 1940, when he was: Brownsville Herald, January 25, 1940.
17 His name regularly cropped: See San Antonio Light, December 25, 1932, and January 5, 1933.
18 A swindler named J. R. Bing: Nevada State Journal, June 12, 1936; and Fresno Bee Republican, June 18, 1936.
19 As late as 1939: Dallas Morning News, March 3, 1939.
20 In 1958, when he was ninety-three: Hale Center American, January 10, 2003.
21 He boosted the price: Dallas Morning News, June 21, 1955, and March 2, 1986.
22 “gifted in intellect”: Quoted in Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, p. 42.
23 “had a pleasant address”: Quoted in ibid., p. 5.
24 “impelling personalities”: Marden, Masterful Personality, p. 11. See also Spears, “ ‘All Things to All Men.’ ”
25 “they have what is virtually”: Maxwell, “Take a Tip from the Con Man,” p. 20.
26 “citizenship, duty, democracy”: Susman, Culture as History, pp. 273–74.
27 The industrial age invented: Sandage, Born Losers, p. 63.
28 Contract theory: Macpherson, Political Theory of Possessive Individualism.
29 “to invent something”: Quoted in Sandage, Born Losers, p. 13.
30 The word “failure”: Ibid., pp. 2, 5.
31 “fascinating, stunning, attractive”: Susman, Culture as History, p. 277.
32 Now the material rewards: Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women, pp. 198–210.
33 This archetype was necessarily: Sandage, Born Losers, p. 88.
34 After turning state’s evidence: “Letter from Texas Is Voice from Past,” n.p., Van Cise Scrapbook, vol. 2.
35 “ask The writer”: Norfleet to Van Cise, February 21, 1960, Van Cise Scrapbook, vol. 2.
36 “I am not too Frisky”: Norfleet to Van Cise, July 4, 1957, Van Cise Scrapbook, vol. 2.
37 “I am still here”: Norfleet to Van Cise, April 8, 1960, Van Cise Scrapbook, vol. 2.
38 “I had to do it”: Big Spring Herald, April 1, 1960; and Dallas Morning News, February 23, 1960.
39 His grandniece: Sandi Clark, interview with author.
40 Even The Washington Post: Washington Post, October 17, 1967.
Bibliography
ARCHIVES
Arnett, D. N. (David Nathan). Papers, 1866–1939. Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.
Maiden, Robert R. Papers. Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.
Van Cise, Philip. Scrapbook, 2 vols. Private Collection, Denver.
White, Roy D. Oral History, February 10, 1968. Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.
NEWSPAPERS
Aspen Weekly Times
Atlanta Constitution
Big Spring Herald
Boulder Daily Camera
Brownsville Herald
Chicago Daily Tribune
Colorado Springs Gazette
Daily Nonpareil
Dallas Morning News
Danville Bee
Davenport Democrat and Leader
Denver Post
Denver Republican
Denver Times
Emporia Gazette
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fresno Bee Republican
Galveston Daily News
Hale Center American
Hartford Courant
Jefferson City Post-Tribune
Los Angeles Express
Los Angeles Times
Lubbock Avalanche
Lubbock Morning Avalanche
Mexia Evening News
Modesto Evening News
National Police Gazette
Nevada State Journal
New York Atlas
New York Herald
New York Mercury
New York Times
New-York Tribune
Oakland Tribune
Ogden Standard-Examiner
Oxnard Daily Courier
Plainview Daily Herald
Plainview Evening Herald
Plainveiw Reporter News
Portland Morning Oregonian
Reno Evening Gazette
Rocky Mountain News
San Antonio Light
San Francisco Call
San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose Mercury News
Syracuse Herald
Trenton Sunday Advertiser
Washington Post
Waterloo Evening Courier and Reporter
Wichita Daily Times
GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
Board of Trade of the City of Chicago v. Christie Grain and Stock Company, 198 U.S. 247, 249 (1905).
McCord v. People, 46 N.Y. 470 (1871).
People v. Livingstone, 47 App. Div. 283 (1900).
People v. Tompkins, 186 N.Y. 413 (1906).
People v. Walter Lips (Crim. No. 826), Cal. Ct. App., 2nd Dist., Div. 2, 59 Cal. App. 381; 211 P. 22; 1922 Cal. App. Lexis 218. Decided October 20, 1922.
People v. W. J. Anderson (Crim. No. 907), Cal. Ct. App., 2nd Dist., Div. 2, 62 Cal. App. 22; 216 P. 401; 1923 Cal. App. Lexis 475. Decided May 16, 1923.
State of Texas v. John Gerber, Crim. Dist. Ct. Tarrant County, Tex. Defendant’s Bill of Exception No. 19. May 10, 1920.
Texas. Proclamation by the Governor of the State of Texas, No. 20496. “Full Pardon,” January 13, 1927.
U.S. Census Bureau 1850.
U.S. Census Bureau 1860.
U.S. Census Bureau 1900.
U.S. Census Bureau 1910.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Claims. Hearing on the Relief of J. Frank Norfleet. 68th Cong., 1st sess., 1924.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. Postal Telegraphs: Statements of Norvin Green, President Western Union. 51st Cong., 1890.
U.S. Congress. House. Contested Election Case of Robert W. Bonynge v. John F. Shafroth from the First Congressional District of Colorado. 58th Cong., 1903.
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