Morning journal and courier., 1890-11-12

all paper money existed. With this fact
to work upon, Mccartney travelled through
the country as an expert on the subject of
genuine currency. His lectures on the
subject, ssHow to Tell Good Money from
Bad" were largely attended. But while
instructing people in the art of discover
ing true from false currency he was carry
ing on the business of counterfeiter in a
wholesale manner. Every town and vii
lage he visited was well stocked with his
spurious greenbacks ere he left. To such
an extent did he carry his operations that
people openly declared that the govern
ment had hand in the business. The APP
parent security which the ssKing of Koni-
ackers" enjoyed appeared to lend truth to
this suspicion, and it was only after a
change Of government that anything like
an effort was made to run Mccartney
down.
Among the spurious bills which Nc
Cartney had put in circulation were q
number of ten dollar bills of such excel
lent character that detection was almost
an impossibility. After repeated COM
plants had been made to the government,
and after Federal officials themselves had
been taken in by the false bills, the whole
series was retired from circulation. Then
a determined effort was made to capture
X
Rogers, in government employ, was put in
the way of the gang in such q manner that
he was taken into their confidence. Com
munication between the stool pigeon and
government officers was next to impossi-
BILE, owing to the vigilance of Mccartney,
who distrusted his new ally. But the lat
ter managed to steer the gang to st. Lou
is, where he hoped to hold them until an
opportunity of su-rendering them to the
government presented itself. McCartney's
suspicious, however, prevented the carry
ing out of this plan.
A quarrel between the 'tKing of the
Koniackers" and the government employe
which nearly resulted in the murder of
Watts led, however, to the capture of the
whole gang. Rittenhouse was caught
with three thousand dollars in queer"
money in his pockets, while Mccartney,
Rankin and Watts were arrested after q
desperate struggle, in which revolvers,
knives and slungshots We're freely used.
In Jail Mccartney made the acquaintance
of James W. Moore, alias Mike Rogers,
and John Hall, notorious counterfeiters.
who had been arrested for showing the
queer" at Csrondelet. To organize plan
of escape appears to have been an easy
matter, but the details of the plan were
marked with the bold effrontsry that char
dcteflZtQ I'll lut ullSutcus WHICH udO maue
Mccartney notorious. On February 5,
1875, the guards at the jail were overpow-
cred, and the gang of counterfeiters, with
skeleton keys, which they had made in
jail, opened every cell in the prison, and a
general jail delivery was the result.
Mccartney was next heard of in Texas,
the usual flow of spurious greenbacks
marking his trail through that state. He
was again arrested by the United States
Marshal and Secret Service Agent Duck
worth. But on the trip to st. Louis the
other members of the gang boarded the
train and succeeded, by overpowering the
guards with liquor, in releasing Mozart
ney and his companions The escape,
however, did not serve to keep Mccartney
long out of the clutches of the police. BE
was caught at his old tricks in Indiana,
along with Walker Hammons, one of the
Reno gang, and sent to the penitentiary al
Michigan. City for o term of fifteen years
In his career as a counterfeiter Mozart
ney had amassed considerable fortune
which he had invested in farm at Neoga
| Ill. But while serving his penitentiary
sentence he learned that his wife had beer
living with doctor at that place Nc
Cartney's jealousy prompted a curious re
venge He disclosed to the prison OH
cials the hiding place of his counterfeitinl
Il NpQA1 0lA Aut WAAtAt NAAG a14 al
| doctor were living. A seizure was mad
and the doctor and Mrs. Mccartney wer
arrested. The counterfeiter himself wa
| meantime a source of endless worry to tn
pcnitentiary officials His old passion 70
counterfeiting had not deserted him, ani
| anything in the shape of wood or meta
that came into his hands were turned int
q false key or tool Of some kind or other
Even spurious bills were found in his pos
session, undoubtedly manufactured in jail
but by what process could not be discoy
cred. Time and again the convict woult
| provide himself with skeleton keys, witl
which he would unlock the door of hi
cell and hide in some corner of the prisol
until an opportunity to escape presente'
itself. To put him at work in any of tn
shops was only to put temptation in hi
way in the shape Of materials for maxim
false keys. He was eventually given pc
sition as porter, where the nearest ap
| proach to any implement which he coul,
possess himself of was an old broom.
In 1887 he was liberated, and for nearl'
year he managed to escape arrest, al
though he had begun counteIfeiting agail
almost within sight of the penitentiar
walls. His last arrest took place in Ne'
Orleans in 1888, when he was sentenced I
term of ten years in the penitentiary i
| this city 1t was while serving tins teri
that he died. For years he had been sui
fering from consumption, and prior to hi
death had been confined to the hospitf
for weeks. During his last illness hi
daughter was constantly with him.
The marvellous ingenuity of the conyi'
was a theme upon which Warden MurdoC
of the Michigan City penitentiary fr,
quently spoke. He could take an impre
sion of lock in a hundred ways, an
with the simplest possible tools. 81
greatest skill, however, was in manufas
turing plates out of the most out-of-th'
way pieces of metal. The bottom of
drinking cup was perfect copper plate I
Mccartney. and out of an ordinary tin ca
he could reproduce fac-similes of the MOI
intricate designs. In his later days b
would often speak of the craze which Ion
association with counterfeiters had bego
ten in him. To keep his hands still whe
an opportunity for fabricating some kin
of counterfeit presented itself was next
an impossibility. With his death the s.
cret service department is relieved of
load of anxiety, and the title of king {
the Koniackers" passes into disuse.