DOWNFALL OF AN OLD SMOOTHIE

"You thing you; you beast . . .!" screamed redheaded Mrs. Reseda Corrigan as she put the finger on suave, unrumpled Sigmund Engel, 73, in a Chicago police station. Engel, she charged, had charmed her out of $8,700. That, Engel modestly admitted, was nothing. In 50 years of polished wooing, he figured he had extracted "millions--maybe $5 or $6 million" from gullible women. Police couldn't begin to list all the women he had taken to wife, but back in 1927, the dossier showed more than 40 marriages. Finally caught up, Confidence Man Engel was willing to reveal a few professional secrets of the widow racket. Among them: always be a gentleman--subordinate sex; send red roses, not orchids; always give the impression you have lots of money. "I'm a parlay player," said Engel. "I always made it a practice to spend on Mabel what I got from Jane . . . Don't forget that all these women were trying to take me, too."

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