Spectres of Marks, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 1867

2007 - 2009

One of five books included in the first edition of Fair Use (notes from spam)

Spectres of Marks begins by the gravestone of Benjamin Marks, a small-time grifter amongst the 'Hell on wheels" caravan of thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and muggers who accompanied the expansion of the Union Pacific railroad as it moved westwards. Marks was the pioneer of the phenomena of "The Big Store" - spectral shop fronts capable of being quickly reconfigured as numbers rooms, gentlemens' clubs, Western Union offices etc., for the purposes of cons practiced on travellers. Spectres of Marks links these phenomena, as described in David Maurer's The Big Con, with earlier linguistic developments in criminal argot and later delinquent exploitations of networks such as the first spam e-mails (including the infamous 1978 DEC spam) and phishing scams.

spectres cover spread

spectres first pagespectres burgin luther
spectres temple barspectres marks grave
spectres poststallspectres blocked railway chicagospectres wires montage

Thumbnails are detals of pages from Spectres of Marks (2009)

 

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