The Confidence Men by Margalit Fox
It all started with a homemade Ouija board.
In an isolated WW I prisoner-of-war camp in Yozgad, Central Anatolia, British prisoner Harry Jones, a lawyer by training, alleviated the tedium of captivity by experimenting with a Ouija board. This exercise in spiritualism ultimately led to a deception that allowed him and a fellow prisoner to walk out of the camp with the cooperation of his Turkish captors.
With his rudimentary board, Jones’ seances or “spook nights” were an instant hit with his fellow prisoners. There were a few sceptics in the population, but Jones’ quick wit and superb visual memory enabled him to maintain the charade.
Soon Jones’ skill as a medium reached the ears of his captors. The camp interpreter, Moїse Eskenazi, a/k/a the Pimple, approached Jones with a series of questions to put to the board (mostly related to his love life.) Jones saw an opportunity to use his captors’ gullibility[E1] to aid his escape.
After establishing the creditability of the lead “Spook,” Jones waited for the right lure, which again was supplied by the Pimple, who asked Jones if the spirit could find a buried treasure. Everyone in camp had heard the rumor that a wealthy Armenian, anticipating the coming genocide, buried his riches in Yozgad. The hook was in, but Jones needed a partner to implement his elaborate hoax.
Cedric Hill, a member of the Royal Flying Corp, was an Australian engineer, a skilled amateur magician, and tinkerer. He built a camera while in captivity, and he had already tried to escape once. His attitude and skills perfectly complimented those of Jones.
Jones and Hill deployed what in the confidence game is called the “long con,” which is a ruse with a specific, tightly executed script with multiple roles. (e.g. The Sting) That most of these roles would be held by imaginary ghosts was just one of the many challenges.
The first step was to convince the Turks that buried treasure indisputably existed in Yozgad, and that the only way for the Turks to find it was with the help of Jones, Hill, and the Spook. The Pimple was an easy convert, but the camp commander, Kiazim, was more of a challenge.
After months of elaborate and laborious preparation, the con launched. Initially, everything went according to plan, but an unforeseen development prompted the partners to pivot to the riskier Plan B.
Why did this bizarre, bordering on farcical, plan succeed? In executing their fraud, Jones and Hill leaned heavily on the psychology of deception, which magicians have employed for centuries. The popularity of spiritualism and advances in science contributed to the success of the ruse as well.
Public seances, for example, were highly profitable, fashionable entertainment. Even men of science believed one could talk to the dead. In his 1915 book, Raymond, renowned English physicist Sir Oliver Lodge chronicled his successful attempts to reach his late son through a medium. (Jones had a copy of the book sent to Kiazim, which the Pimple obligingly translated.)
This was also an era of rapid scientific change. Magical scientific discoveries such as the radio, the phonograph, and x-rays paradoxically added credence to a medium’s claims. If these inventions could mysteriously transcend space, time, and the body, then communicating with the dead sounded perfectly plausible too.
Jones and Hill eventually reached England, but via a much longer and harder route, which included a six month stay in a Turkish insane asylum.
During his lifetime, Jones wrote a memoir entitled The Road to En-dor about his experiences in Yozgad. He died in 1942. Hill’s memoir, entitled The Spook and the Commandant, was published shortly after his death in 1975.
A fascinating and unbelievable tale!
WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS SAY
Lynne Olson, author of Madam Fourcade’s Secret War, Citizens of London, and Angry Young Men : “The Confidence Men couldn’t have come along at a better time. This story of two unlikely con artists–young British officers who use a Ouija board to escape from a Turkish prisoner-of-war camp–is a true delight, guaranteed to lift the spirits of anyone eager to forget today’s realities and lose oneself in a beautifully written tale of an exciting and deeply moving real-life caper.”
WHO WROTE IT
Margalit Fox is the winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for writing and the author of three previous books, Conan Doyle for the Defense, The Riddle of the Labyrinth, and Talking Hands. She trained as a linguist and is a former senior obituary writer for The New York Times obituary department.