The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-08-16
run ROMANCE oFAFoRGER.
milIi.m E. ersy.. RsmaIEable caleet.

freFs fascals have so romantic a career
!. william E. Gray, the forger, who ar
;roa at New York Wednesday, at the
~ of nearly nine years chase by the
s0ss expeet detectives OF the Urge cities
8 the world. his father, Rev. DR.. E.
! -Grav. formerly preached at Shell
,urne Falls, and was. for eight years
.bsplain ofthe United States senate, and
he SIN had every incentive to lead a
life. After leaving college
. was clerk in the treasury depart
nent at Washington until 1866, when
i voluntarily resigned. The ne=tyesf ne
rent tn New Work armed with letters of
recommendation from Gen. Butler, Sena-
tors Fessenden and Morrill, end other
iignitafles. lie was then twenty three,
fine Young fellow of correct habits,
who passed SIS model of virtue. Learn
inc the ecssts OF stock brokerage with /
A-W. Dimoek & Co., he was soon in |
business for himself, and at once began
his adroit villainies He dealt in stolen !
bonds, aud his fathers purse bad to re
Jesse him from Ludlow-street jail, family
influence covering up other swindies
from the public Lrcwisdge.
II November of 1869 Gray gave out
that he expected a legacy of $50 coo
from rich aunt, and, on the strength
OF this and $4,000 ready cash ne claimed
to have, ne launched out in grand style
as a heavy operator, at 4 Broad street,
aiterward occupied by Woodruff y Glaf-
lin. He sailed under the firm name of
w. f. Gray & Co., his partners being
unsuspectad rogues like himself, and
they made Quartz Hill mining stock
cover Tor their frauds. Tue gang got
hold of New York stolen state bounty
loan certificates, United States bonds
and some stocks, and, raising the certiti-
Gates, they borrowed money on them
and on the bonds, through reputable
broker, IF nearly every lender in the
city. At the very start Gray nearly end
ed his career by borrowing from Jay
Cooke q Co. on spurious government
bonds, but, as he replaced them with
genuine bonds and carried himself as an
innocent person imposed upon, they
laughed at the detectives suggestions to
arrest one so respectfully connected and
indorsed In December, however, a
suspicious cashier discovered that the
Lorrtv, Ioor oor+;Goo+os moo f1rrar;ae
though the president and cashier of the
Manhattan bank declared that they were
as good as gold. Cray was so cool and
told 50 plau7iblea story, when confront ed
with the facts, that he was not taken
into custody. Next day he disappeared,
leaving eight firms S2S0.O00 out, and,
after hiding in the city for week, he
left the country, and nothing was heard
of him for two years.
During that time he was lording it
magnifcently in England as James p.
Morgan, nephew of George Peabody, the
millionaire philanthrepist. With forged
letters of introduction from United
States senators and other men of distinc-
ton, he entered the highest circles of So
ciety, and lavished money right and left,
driving four black imported American
horses and dressing magnihcently. At
dinner given the niece of Baron R0ths-
child, the rich young American
made a speech on English finance
that astonished the moneyed mag
mates, and there was no art OF
fashionable society he was not an expert
in. He was intimate with the Duke oil
Edinburgh, and he might, apparently,
have imposed on the English nobility
indefinitely if his money had not Jailed
At that lime a London banker named
Chstteris got Morgan TO go into part
InershIp with his son. The boy was
soon short $4,000 Spurious United
States bonds carried the information to
New York officers that this was the old
offender Gray, and they crossed over to
arrest him. He WAS too sharp for them
however, and, after failing to sell a
mythical Colorado mine at the Hague
ne turned up at Paris as DR. Collesto
the oculist. Being recognized, DR.
COllesto sailed Tor this country to es,
cape extradition from France, and, alter
swindling for time at Galveston, Texas
he returned to London and got 500, OOC
on copper mine some one else owned.
1t was when the last fraud was dis
closed, in 1876, after Gray was arrested
that the English government refused t.
surrender him, with Winslow and Brent
the Louisville forger, because Secretary
Fish would not promise to try them only
on the charges made in the extraditio1
papers. When Gray could be had, be
had fled, to be recognized in Edinburgh
a month ago and arrested on his arrival
In London. He has been living, in the
meantime, with a woman who claims tC
be his vile, and says she is the daughter
of the composer Bdfe. Gray must now
stand trial for forging United States 3 q
and New York state bounty bonds, the
minimum penalty in each case being
$4,000 fine and five years in Jail, and the
maximum of $4,000 and ten years i'm