Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a confidence trickster, a fraud.

1905		Little Devil (US) 1:1 23: Kubelik holds his by the deft work of a very skillful con artist. To that artist here’s my hat.
1915		Cosmopolitan 60 778: He’s the best con artist I ever met. He makes a specialty of crooks, he says. It's such easy graft.
1937		D. Runyon in More Guys and Dolls (1951) 251: He was a natural-born con artist.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 229: Nevertheless she is reckless and a spendthrift and doesn’t keep the house clean and is a con artist and exploits me.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 192: This man is no more a messenger of God than your garbage man. He’s a con artist from Chicago.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 121: Every friendly new face is suspected of being a con artist, informer, or a ‘po-lice’.
1982		P. Bailey Eng. Madam 83: They must have thought me a right bloody cow, a real con artist.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 202: [He] hoped the pesky con artist was watching.
2000		Eminem ‘Under the Influence’ 🎵 I’ve been a con artist since I was swimmin’ in water.
2006		C. Carr Our Town 257: It seemed that the Wizard was something of a con artist.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 238: Guys like Louis, con artists at heart, sometimes they smell a sting.