St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-08-26
BIDwELL, THE FoRGER.
The Man Who SwindIed the Bank
of England Tells His Story.

tlonal Prison association there is prob
ably no one who can tell more inter-
eSting story of his life than George Bid
well. In 1878 the Bank Of England was
yictimiZed by a gigantic swindle to the
amount of G1.000,000. George Bidwell
was the head and front of the gang OF
four who perpetrated this enormous
fraud upon the financial Gibralter of the
world, and, of course, his name was tel
egraphed to the four corners of the
earth.
He was arrested with his accompliceS,
tried, convicted and sentenced to i'm
prlSonment for life. He served four
teen years in prison, and last year he
was freed on ticket-Of-leave and came
to this his native country, where he has
since resided with his family at East
Hartford. Conn.
During this one year of his freedom
he has been engaged almost night and
day in writing an account of his life and
Imprisonment, with the object of not
only gaining an honest means of sub
slstence thereby, but also hoping ito
OF his own reformation and to
offer a timely warning to any
young business man OF those occupy
ing positions of trust" This work
will soon be upon the market. and is in
tended not as "a mere record OF crime"
as he expresses it, ''Or contribution to
tiash' literature for the edification of
the vicious. but is intended for honest
people, and as an enduring injunction
for them to remain such.
Thinking that personal talk with
Mr.. Bidwell would be interesting to its
readers, the Globe sent man last night
to look him up. He was found at the
office of his publishers, William E.
Smythe & Co., on fremont place.
Mr.. Bidwsll had been out during the
day with some members of the Prison
association, engaged in looking over
some prisons in this vicinity. His
health, which was completely broken
down during his long Imprisonment,
has improved somewhat during his free
dom. but he was yesterday seized with
a fainting fit which made him very weak
and tired last night.
He is man approaching sixty years
Of age. with strong and attractive
face. His head is quite thickly sprin-
kled with gray hairs and has suspi-
cIOn of thlnness Oh the top. He wears
a closely-cropped black mustache. A
high forehead, prominent features and
a massive jaw and chin got make up
which is all the more interesting when
one thinks that behind that brow thrObS
the brain that planned what is probably
the most mammoth fraud in the annals
of crime.
When one looks at the man as he is
now, and at his picture taken in Paris
in 1872, before the inception of the
fraud which mad him famous, the terri
BILE change wrought him gives an ink
ing of the mental and bodily torment he
was compelled to undergo during his
fourteen years inside the prison walls.
For five years he saw neither sun, moon
nor star, but was in solitary confinement,
and for six months wore siXteen-pound
chains for an attempt to escape.
But it will be better to let Mr.. BidWell
tell his story in his own words:
Il was born in Bloomfield, n. Y. and
came of an old Puritan family whose
tree can be traced back to the Dooms-
day Book compiled by order of William
the Conqueror. My family was strictly,
almost fanatically religious, looking
upon the most innocent games as in
struments of Satan. After a youth of
varying ups and downs | got we'll eS-
tablished in business and married. Get
ting into bad company l was inStru-
mental in some crooked transaction,
and was finally swindled by my own
partner. After this increased my VEN
lures and had many narrow escapes and
thrilling adventures.
"a fter a long course of fraud and
crime in this country found myself in
England with three accomplieeS, and
by accident we discovered an unguarded
loOphole i'll the business transactions of
the Bank of England, and | eoncocted
a scheme to take advantage of this to
Swindle them to the best of our ability.
You see, this bank was in the habit of
receiving bills of exchange in deposit
on account without verifying either the
signatures or the acceptanceS, and stow
ing them away till they became due.
We took advantage Of an account we
had opened under an assumed name
with the bank some time previous, got
lot of bills of exchange printed on
counterfeit plates and flooded the
Bank of England with these bills from
all over the world. pr0fuSely signed and
accepted. and the bank unhesitatingly
cashed them and put the proceeds to
our credit. kept no account of the
sums we got out of them, but at the
trial they claimed that their loss was
about G1.000,000, or S5,000,0g0 of our
money. All went well until we were
about to make the last move and leave
the country, when, unfortunately, [
neglected. to date the acceptance of two
of the fraudulent bills These were
sent to the acceptors for the omission to
be supplied, and were, of course, at
once pronounced fraudulent.
Immediately the whole police and
detec i've force was put on the track.
The wires flashed reward for our cap
ture to all parts of the kingdom, and
IaH m
cur escape. | was the last one cap
tured. / was chased through England,
Ireland and Scotland for days, twisting
and turning like hunted fox, and |
threw the detectives off the track again
and again by Shrewd devices. After
some weeks was captured in Edinburgh
and found the bracelets on my wrists,
after the trial. in which the bank
officials attempted to show that the
whole affair was the result of plot
carefully conceived and matured for a
year or more, we were sentenced for
life, and after serving fourteen years.
time, | am now free man, through the
exertionS of people in this country and
England, while my three confederates
are still in cOnfnement-AuStin. my
brother, at Chatham; Edwin Hills at
Portsmouth, and George Mcdonald at
Portland. Ny prison life was spent at
Newgate, Pentonville, Dartmoor, Wok-
ing and Millbank.
''On my return to this country l was
received at New York by an officer, who
arrested me, but was obliged to release
me by order of the court. Bank of
England people now pay detectives to
dog my footsteps in this country, and
my every movement is telegraphed to
London. However. L am perfectly safe
in this country, and am determined
now. at my age, to lead an honest life
Mr.. Bidwell thus gives, in a few
words, the story of a career which prob
ably cannot be equaIed. He is
man of much native ability,
speaks French and German as