Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-11-11
A Remarkable Criminal.

palgns IN which he fought.
A Remarkable Criminal.
In the criminal history of the res.
ent day no man has attained a more
widespread reputation as an accom-
plished, daring and expert criminal
than William Ringgold Cooper, the
Anglo American criminal. Certainly
no man has ever sustained the dual
character of a gentleman and a forger
with equal success. Young, accom-
plished, of elegant personal appear
ance, and of the most fascinating ad.
dress, he might have adorned any DO
sition in society, and yet for years he
has, under various and almost unde-
tectable DISCUSSES, preyed upon his
best friends and the world at large,
until, in the fullness of his success, he
thought failure or detection impossi-
BILE. He was born in Smyrna, Del, of
respectable family, his father being
county judge for five years. Owing to
a scandal, with which a young lady of
Smyrna was connected, he resigned
the position he held as assistant book
keeper in the Smyrna National Bank.
and, being discarded by his family,
after various vicissitudes, became en-
ployed in a photograph gallery at Will
mington. The breaking out of the
war in 1861 found him an enlisted
member of the United States navy,
and after two years service he became
a great favorite among his superior Of
fcers, owing TO his gentlemanly con-
duct and fascinating manners, and his
power of making friends resulted in
his being appointed assistant paymas-
master. While in Washington he
formed the acquaintance of a number
Of gamblers and accomplished forgers.
who indicted him into methods of
a%ristoeratic crime; and, as a conse-
quence, he forged a warrant for $l75.-
900, p%urporting to have been signed
BY United States Paymaster Spauld-
ing.
AT this time he was engaged to be
married to a beautiful and accom
plished girl, the daughter Of Mr.. De-
frees, the government printer, and the
forgery Of the paymaster's warrant
was not discovered until the day af-
ter the nuptials, when Cooper was
arrested and sentenced to FIVE years in
the Eastern penitentiary of Pennsyl-
vania, which term he served. 1t was
supposed by many that he died in
prison, but on his release he went to
New Orleans, where he perpetrated
another successful forgery of forty
thousand dollars, and then fled to San
Francisco, where he became a mining
stock and gold broker. While in San
Francisco, his own wife having mar
ried again. suppOsing him to BE- dead.
he formed the acquaintance of a hand
some aud clever woman, who has since
been known as Mrs. Kate Cooper,
the person who, since his arrest in
England, has so steadfastly adhered
to his fallen fortunes. Though for a
brief time he bore an enviable reputa-
ton on the San Francisco Exchange.
the crash soon came, and he abscond-
ed, having forged a check for sixty
thousand dollars on his business part
ner. In this, singular to say, as vel
as in all his criminal efforts, he en-.
ployed the services Of a boy to cash
the forged check and hand him tn,
proceeds. Chief of Detectives, j. w.
Lees, of San Francisco, scattered de.
seriptions of Cooper, his wife Kate,
and tho boy. Fred Caul, broadcast
through THO country, but to no avail
They disappeared as mysteriously a,
if the ground had swallowed them up
and nothing further was heard O
Cooper until his arrest in London, un.
der the name of Neville Hunter, Till
summer.
When Cooper arrived in London il
the fall oil 1877, he did not register a
Langham hotel, but, on the contrary
engaged apartments for himself anC
wife in a private hotel near tn,
Strand. He passed there as Henri
q. Neville, an American iron mer
chant and maker of Knowing machines
After a short stay in this hotel, he be
gan negotiations with a firm of solici
tors for the obtainment on lease o
East Lodge, a beautiful country scat
with spacious grounds, at Hemel
Hampstead, in Hertfordshiro. II,
, obtained possession of this estate at
, heavy yearly rental, aud set M hi
carriage and horse, keeping a hal
dozen servants in his house. Ho ha,
his stud Of hunters, rode with In,
| county hounds, and so secured thl
friendship and acquaintance of thI
t surrounding gentry. with whom hi
t wife and himself became speedily In
: innate. This intimacy he turned /,
good account, for, by inviting them !,
dinners and receptions, and r%oeeiyinl
their replies, he familiarized himsei
{ with the character of their handwrit
, ing, and forged checks on their bank
Q trs IN London. On June 18th he sen
a boy TO the Bank Of England with