Real story of alpha dog movie characters and real people

#Real story of alpha dog movie characters and real people windows#

Once those cases were completed, Weinberg agreed to continue to work for the FBI, leading them to uncover the political corruption that the Abscam operation became known for. Like what is shown in the movie, Weinberg agreed to work on four cases in order to keep himself and his mistress out of jail. Knowing that prison was Weinberg's only option, FBI agent John Good, who was in charge of the Abscam operation, made a deal with Weinberg in hopes that he could lead the FBI to more white collar prey.

Agent Amoroso didn't meet con man Mel Weinberg until after Weinberg agreed to a deal to help the FBI. Unlike what is seen in the movie, the real FBI agent behind Bradley Cooper's character Richie DiMaso, whose actual name is Anthony Amoroso, was not on hand for Mel and Evelyn's arrest. Arrested along with his mistress Evelyn Knight and conspirator Patrick Francis, he was indicted by a federal grand jury for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Weinberg's luck ran out in 1977 when a real estate man from Pittsburgh reported him to the FBI. Among the most notable of his victims was Las Vegas legend Wayne Newton (pictured right), who Weinberg, along with his mistress Evelyn Knight and accomplice Patrick Francis, bilked out of $800, offering to secure the singer a million dollar loan in return ( Uniontown Morning Herald).

Most never even realized that they had been scammed. When the loan never came through, he simply kept the advance fee and told his victims that the offshore bank had rejected their loan application. He charged them an advance fee for 'appraisal and processing', telling them that the loan would be secured from a supposed offshore bank. Weinberg had been targeting desperate businessmen who had been denied loans from conventional banks. Las Vegas singer Wayne Newton was just one of Mel Weinberg's numerous victims. His swindling days ended when the FBI nabbed him for operating a bogus international banking and investment firm, London Investors, out of a furnished leased office in Melville, Long Island. The real Irving Rosenfeld, Mel Weinberg, had been running get-rich-quick schemes that mainly included insurance fraud and various other investment scams. Why did confessed con man Mel Weinberg agree to help the FBI? His delinquency as a juvenile eventually evolved into large scale swindles as an adult.

#Real story of alpha dog movie characters and real people windows#

When his father's window-glass business was on the rocks, a helpful Mel drove around town in a Cadillac, shooting out windows with his slingshot. That was only a small indication of what lied ahead. It was then that he stole gold stars from his teacher's desk in order to show his mother what an excellent student he was. The real Irving Rosenfeld, Mel Weinberg, was in his mid-fifties at the time of the movie's events and his wife (portrayed by the much younger Jennifer Lawrence in the film) was approaching her late forties.ДЄs indicated in the American Hustle movie, prior to his capture by the FBI, Mel had been living a life of delinquency ever since he was a boy growing up in the Bronx. In addition, most of the characters were significantly older in real life than they are portrayed to be onscreen, short of Bradley Cooper's FBI Agent Richie DiMaso and Irving Rosenfeld's mistress Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams). A more serious story of political corruption has been re-imagined into a comedy where history replays itself as farce. While the majority of the movie characters can be linked to real people, the filmmakers chose to change their names and open the film with a title card that informs us, 'Some of this actually happened.' As we began our research into the American Hustle true story, it quickly became clear that characters had been altered (mostly to be more comedic) and the truth had been exaggerated for the film. Why did the filmmakers include the disclaimer, 'This is a work of fiction,' in the closing credits of the movie? Mel Weinberg, 60 Minutes, April 12, 1981

We put the big honey pot out there and all the flies came to us.