From Paris to Alcatraz

Victor Lustig took his new-born daughter in his arms, pressed a wisp of a kiss on her forehead and laid her gently in the pink-ribboned crib. All had happened as he had planned. With Tony and Grace, he had arrived in time for Christmas and did not leave until the girl he had ordered, was born February 13, 1922. For fear of blackmail or kidnapping, Lustig rarely revealed he had a wife and daughter, but he loved them dearly and spent as much time with them as he could. The red headed girl that writers had him fleeing across country with was his wife. Wherever he went, they went along, shipping the furniture which, Roberta always insisted, helped to make the home she longed for. This daughter was her fathers darling. Most men want a son to hand down their name as well as their profession. Not so with Victor Lustig. He would not hand down his profession to anyone, but he would love a little daughter. So it must be a girl, he told his wife as he bade her goodbye on her way to California. And after she came according to order, he loved her, was always proud of her. When he did not always acknowledge his wife and daughter publicly, it was not that he was ashamed of them, it was to protect them. He gave his little daughter a long list of lovely names and had them all registered in Germany, but his favorite name for her was Skeezix, after the comic book character. I believe that was why I was always so close to my father, his daughter said in later years. It was because he wanted me. I loved my father and my mother both. They told me that I never cried when they held me. But I felt most loved when my father said, My little Skeezix. He was a tender man in many ways. Betty Jean was taught from an early age never to talk about her father. If someone asked where he was, she was always to say, I dont know. And she usually didnt know. Because their lives were always in danger, Roberta and little Skeezix always had a body guard with them, either Tony or Grace.