[1][2] Over a period of 30 years, Lewis amassed a huge personal fortune almost solely through targeting wealthy bankers, merchants and other prominent figures.

Among his more well-known victims were General John A. Logan, Judge Noah Davis, Charles Francis Adams, and most notably Irish author Oscar Wilde.

He similarly befriended Charles Francis Adams and lured the elderly man into a Boston Common bunco game where he and his friends swindled him out of several thousand dollars.

He was apparently so convincing that, when the actual son of Drexel called on the house by chance, Ramsden believed the young man was the impostor and threw him out of his home.

He and another noted bunco man called Western Sam spent an entire summer in Long Branch, New Jersey where they conned over $100,000 from residents.

[1][2] Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes, then head of the NYPD Detective's Bureau, later commented that when Wilde had "reaped a harvest of American dollars with his curls, sun flowers and knee-britches" he was no less a swindler than Lewis "only not quite so sharp".

[6] Lewis became so infamous in New York City, his base of operations for many years, that he was once thrown out of the Twenty-Ninth Precinct by Captain Alexander "Clubber" Williams having recognized him as the man who attempted to con his brother while on the Pavona Ferry in 1884.

[7] Lewis was arrested with a young protégé named Oliver Wilson while attempting to draw in victims for a local bunco game in Broadway on April 21, 1885.

Police had received reports that there had been bunco men operating in the district as county merchants were arriving in the city to make their annual spring purchases.

Lewis explained away the charges by pointing out that he did not collect a crowd, obstruct the sidewalk, use profane or improper language, or any other cause which legally defined "disorderly conduct".

[8] A month later, Lewis attempted to swindle vacationing wealthy British manufacturer Joseph Ramsden who was in New York for health reasons.

When Ransden expressed his astonishment at having been recognized by, in his view, a total stranger, Lewis introduced himself as the nephew of the captain of the Gallia and who had "spoke very kindly of him".

This was the first charge of robbery brought against Lewis, and the case against him was so great that Inspector Byrnes ordered an extensive citywide "arrest-on-sight" search.

Lewis was identified eight months later in the NYPD's "Rogue's Gallery" by William J. Bansemer, a wealthy and retired Baltimore merchant, who lost $5,000 to him in a bunco game.

[9] On December 20, 1888, Lewis was convicted of having "bunkoed" Bansemer out and sentenced to nine years in the Maryland State Penitentiary, but his term was reduced for good behavior, and he was released on June 20, 1896.

Lewis's health and appearance had reportedly been significantly affected during imprisonment, the New York Times noting "his powerful frame does not indicate the sprightliness and vigor of seven years ago.

[10] Lewis visited NYPD Police Headquarters upon his arrival in New York two days later and informed Captain Stephen O'Brien, who had succeeded Byrnes as chief of detectives, of his intentions.

[citation needed] Owen Davis mentions him in his 1906 collection of New York Tenderloin stories Sketches of Gotham (written under the name of ‘Ike Swift’).