A smooth-talking bunco artist nearly separated Corrado Fantozzi, 25, an Italian railroad worker, from his life savings. An Italian man named Antonio Regis befriended Fantozzi by asking the way to the Catholic church.

While strolling through the Spokane streets, Regis told him that he had recently inherited $18,000 from an uncle who owned a gold mine. He told Fantozzi that he was instructed to distribute the $18,000 to Spokane’s poor, but he needed help in carrying out his dead uncle’s philanthropic desires. He needed someone who spoke English well.