Sam Geezil was from Chicago and he was a wealthy man, living in retirement. Joseph Weil was a conman, nicknamed “The Yellow Kid.” In 1910, Weil talked Geezil into helping him con some wealthy financiers who had a hunting lodge in Michigan to sell. The con involved Geezil buying the property for $35,000 (the financiers were so wealthy they did not care what it sold for) and then selling it for $155,000. Those involved would split the income. Geezil was interested.
Weil set up a meeting in Galesburg, IL where Geezil would meet the financiers. On the train, Weil had a friend of his join him who pretended to be a boxer. Geezil did not think anything about the man who was obviously physically unfit to be a boxer! Weil, Geezil, and the financiers met and agreed to sell the hunting lodge for $35,000. They then sat around, talking “finance talk,” even dropping the name of men like J. P. Morgan.
Then the talk turned to boxing and one of the financiers said he had a boxer who would be glad to fight Weil’s boxer. So, they all bet on the fight. When the financiers left, Weil confessed to Geezil that he did not have the money to put up for the fight. But, he assured Geezil that he could convince the other boxer to fix the fight and they would all win big! Geezil offered to use his $35,000, which he had already wired to the local bank, and he could wire for more money and would still make big on the sale of the hunting lodge. In all, they “bet” $50,000 on the fight.
When the fight happened, Weil’s boxer got hit and fell to the floor hard, with blood spurting from his mouth. He lay still. One financier claimed to be a doctor and pronounced the man dead! They all had to leave quickly or they would be implicated in the murder! Geezil left for Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000. He did not want to see Weil ever again. Weil, his boxer, and the other “financiers” made a tidy little profit.
The sale of the hunting lodge was a smoke screen to get $35,000 out of the hands of a wealthy man. He never observed that the boxer was not in shape to box at all. He never saw the scam coming.
In Romans 16:17-18, Paul warned Christians: “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.” I particularly want to draw attention to the statement that men can deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting through “smooth and flattering speech.”
Satan speaks through “smooth and flattering speech” in order to throw a smoke screen around the lie, to entice the unsuspecting to believe it.
For example, in the famous scene involving a false prophet in 1 Kings 22, the false prophet named Zedekiah dropped the name of “Jehovah” in his lie, to entice the unsuspecting to believe his message (22:11-12).
Christians need to be extremely cautious over trusting what man has to say about what the Bible says. Nothing clarifies the truth more than reading the truth ourselves!
Paul Holland
