River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-10-11
Piper's Story Of ROguery.

Edward 5. Piper, a reformed forger,
died Il few days ago in Joliet, Illinois.
He was well known to the police of this
and other cities. Recently he gave TO
Detective Allan Pinkerton the history of
his life He was born in Cynthiana, KY,
in 1923. His father was a wealthy
planter, and his mother was New Or
leans creole. He received a thorough
academic education, aud learned to speak
several languages. When eighteen years
old he quarrelled with his father, and
quit his home never to return. He trav-
eled extensively, and at length settled in
Buffalo, in the employ of Rathburn &
Co, commission merchants. He was
liked for his intelligence, pleasing man.
ner. and quick penmanship, and after he
hadsbeen with the firm year he was
madeconfdetial clerk.
In 1854, Buffalo was startled by the
discovery of extensive forgeries of ware
house receipts, purporting TO be from
Rathburn, Pettis & Co. An inyestiga-
ton fastened suspicion on Piper as the
forger, he having disappeared from the
city a short time before. In his comics
sion to Pinkerton, nearly twenty-three
years after the fOrgeries, Piper says that
thew were committed by one of the firm,
and that he was innocent. His eXplana
ton was that. while acting as confidential
clerk, he found out that one of his en-
ployers was forging the warehouse re-
ceipts to cover up losses that he had suf
fered in business. His employer had q
beautiful daughter, to whom he had long
been paying his addresses until he had
become recognized as her accepted sutton.
When the young woman's father found
out that he knew the secret of the forge
ries. he desired to have him go away from
Buffalo. He told Piper that he was the
only person who knew the facts. He
feared that his irregularities would soon
be exposed, and he thought that if Piper
was out of the way he would be enabled
to screen himself and settle with his part
ners. The daughter joined her father in
persuading her lover clerk to quit that
city. He was informed that he would
get letter from her when the proper
time arrived for him to return to Buffalo.
After his departure he saw the news of
the forgeries in the newspapers, and that
he was accused by his guilty employer of
being the fOrger and of running away to
escape arrest. He wrote TO his sweet
heart for an explanation, which he never
received.
The false accusation, and the treachery
of the father and daughter, were what
drove Piper, as he assured Pinkerton, to
follow forgery as an occupation. He skill
led himself in penmanship, and could
easily counterfeit any handwriting. His
first crime was the forging of a check
for $4,000 on a Philadelphia bank. Sub
sequently he went to Europe, and in Liver
pool purchased four small bills of ex-
change, which he "raised" to large
amounts, and negotiated in Paris for $l2,
600. He visited all the Continental cities,
living like rich nobleman. In Florence
he swindled a banking house out of
$4,000 He then returned to the United
States, and went to Charleston, where he got
$4,000 by an adroit forgery. He plann-
ed TO defraud bankers in New Orleans
out of 5000, but an accomplice disclosed
the scheme, and he had to fly from the
CITY. He was in Cleveland, o., in 1861,
with about $4,000 in good money, and
soon afterward he married an estimable
young woman in Berlin, in that State.
He was honest for awhile after his mar
riage. but returned 10 his old WAYS. A
Western banker proved too sharp for him
in one of his swindles, but a long time
afterward he forged checks on the banker,
and ruined him. For a time he lived in
Sandusky. o., and there gained the con-
idence of an old Frenchman named Fall
quet, swindling him out of 100000 on forg-
ed bonds of the Pennsylvania Coal Com
pany.
Piper was tic first sraiser'' of checks in
the West. He invented the process by
which the writing in the body of checks
may be removed with acid, leaving the
| genuine signatures untouched. He also
/ devised a way for reglossing of the
checks in the parts where the acids had
been used. Ills plan was to get a good
check for small amount by q legitimate
/ operation, and, after erasing the name of
the payee and the amount, fill in large
/ figures. He was implicated in the bond
robbery of the Farmers Insurance Com
pany, in Medina, Ohio. The thieves
/ stole $4,000 in Government bonds, which
Piper altered and sold to two bankers
named Price, of Milwaukee, and Still
well of Anderson, Ind. In 1866 he went
TO Mexico, and planned to get 100000
in gold out of the Mexican treasury on
forged certificates. He spent $4,000 in
preparing the scheme. On the day that
he expected TO get the gold his negctia.
lions were broken off by the execution
of the Emperor Macmillan.
Piper served only one term of imprls-
onment in all his years of forging. He
was caught in 1869 in an attempt &c
swindls the banks in Rutland. Vt, and
was sentenced 10 the penitentiary for eight
wears. He was prisoner six years, and
was then released for good behavior
His imprisonment cared him of forgery
and his last two years he lived honestly
He dicdin Joliet lie made over 8, 000.0n0
/ but he died very poor. He explained &c
( detective Pinkerton the secret of his sue
cess in grading conviction In the Wpsf