The morning call., 1890-12-15
PRINTED HIS OWN MONEY.

Pete Mccartney, the Conpterfeiter, Made
About "a Million During HIS Long Lifc.
The death VI Pete Mccartney at the Ohio
Penitentiary, says Columbus special to
the New York World, removes one of the
most remarkable characters of criminal his
tory in this country. Mccartney was
justly called the liking of Counterfeiters."
In his particular line he never had an equal,
and, except under extraordinary conditions,
the future will not develop another like
him. Shortly after his arrival at the Ohio
Penitentiary he said to the writer that dur
ing his lifetime he had made over $1,000, 600
OF counterfeit money, some of which was
probably in circulation at that time. This
figure seems large and may perhaps be over
estimated, but the officers of the Treasury
Department will agree that Mccartney
placed in circulation more spurious money
than any other cOunterfeter in this country.
II Is not dlfhcnit TO understand how so much
money could be manufactured by single
person when it is known that the
spurious notes were nearly all of a
large denomination. Mccartney learned
to make counterfeit money when he
was yet in his teens. He was born on a
poorly TILED farm in Illinois sixty-eight
years ago. He received scarcely any edu-
cation, but like many country youths early
learned the ways of the world. When about
fifteen he discovered that he had talent for
engraving, and 1t was not long until COM
panions had suggested to him the matter of
applying it to counterfeiting the paper
money then used. Young Mccartney tried
his hand and found his first attempt, though
crude, was successful and promised him
large remuneration. Paper money in those
days, commonly called wildcat currency,
WINS poorly made and not difficult to counter
felt. Mccartney found larger returns in
this business than in tilling the farm, and
1t was not long until he began TO follow it as
profession and achieved local notoriety.
McCartney'S vocation naturally caused
him TO drift into rowing life. AT different
periods in his younger days he attempted to
break away from his old habits, but the
c0unterfeiting mania inevitably got the best
of him He married and had several chill
dren. but his domestic felicity was short
lived.
HE LEARNED PHOTOGRAPHY
And dentistry, but when he took up the lat
ter vocation he had made such a wide repu-
tation in criminal business that he was soon
compelled to abandon 1t. The last thirty
years Of his life he was practically an out
law and under the almost constant surveil-
lance OF the United States Secret Service.
Before the war Mccartney contented him
self with flooding the country with wildcat
currency. SO Skillful did he become in this
work that its superior finish alone enabled
people to detect the counterfeit. When the
State banks were supplanted Mccartney
turned his attention to the manufacture Of
State bonds, and his handiwork was readily
detected on counterfeit issues of several
Southern States. Afterward he began to
make spurious National Bank notes, and
the counterfeils were so clever that they
gave the Government authorities no end of
trouble.
McCartney's counterfeit of one issue of
notes was SO good that the spurious paper
was rarely detected until it reached the
Treasury Department. The Government
was at last compelled, at great expense. to
withdraw the genuine issue.