Pete was known as a pick-pocket, but he made his living in the Bronx as a window washer. Pete would say he was a good pick-pocket, but a better window washer. What he didn’t say was after the sun went down he was the Amazing Adamsky, He was an illusionist who could amaze and hypnotize any audience. He could make them fill his top hat with money, and then make them forget they did that. He didn’t actually need to be dressed up in costume to make most of his tricks work. He could stop anyone on the street and have them tell him secrets without their being wise to him. In 1911, he offered his skills to the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division. It was easy to show he could be useful, but was harder to prove they could trust him. They sent him to Budapest where he gathered intelligence from the Evidenzbureau. He picked pockets to stay in practice, and learned Hungarian well enough to pass as a native. He was in Sarajevo when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. He had warned people about Gavrilo Princip, but nobody could do anything about it. After the war started, Pete returned to the Bronx and resumed washing windows.
Tales