Money in the Handkerchief Trick

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Money in the Handkerchief Trick

Trick information
Series: The Sting
Trickster: Johnny Hooker, Luther Coleman, Joe Erie
Target: Mottola
When: The Sting

The Money in the Handkerchief Trick is a Trick in the film The Sting manga series. It is played in the beginning of the movie by Johnny Hooker and his accomplices Luther Coleman and Joe Erie on Mottola, one of Doyle Lonnegan's couriers.

Summary

As Mottola is passing by, the con men act out a mugging, with Joe Erie playing the mugger, Luther Coleman the victim, and Johnny Hooker a bystander. Hooker stops Erie, making him drop Luther's wallet and kicking it to Mottola. As Erie flees, Hooker and Mottola run to return the wallet to Luther, who seems to have been stabbed in the leg and not able to stand. Luther flashes his wallet, showing that he has 5000 dollars in it, and tells them that he is late to deliver a payoff to a local mob, offering them 100 dollars if they will deliver the money for him. Hooker says that he is not willing to risk his neck, but Mottola accepts, seeing an opportunity to keep the money for himself.

Hooker then advises Mottola to put the money in a handkerchief and stuff it down his pants in case the muggers decide to stop and search him, suggesting that he put his own money in there as well for safety. Hooker demonstrates it to Mottola by sticking the bundle into his own pants. However, without Mottola noticing, Hooker pulls out and hands him an identical, fake bundle that he had prepared beforehand. Mottola runs off and jumps into a cab to leave with the money, only noticing later that the handkerchief is stuffed with worthless paper. Meanwhile, Hooker and Luther run away with the actual bundle of money.

Notes

  • This Trick is an instance of the "pigeon drop", a classic con with multiple variations. It commonly involves engineering a situation where the mark is entrusted with a large sum of money (such as a wallet found on the ground) or another valuable, but needs to put their own money together with it. The con artist then uses misdirection and sleight of hand to switch the package with a worthless decoy, disappearing before the victim realizes what happened.