Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1891-01-08
KING OF TIE coz MES.
PETE MCCARTNEY MADE A MIL
LION DURING HIS LIFE.

2
short time ago at the Ohio Penitentiary.
During his lifetime he made 81, 900, 900
of counterfeit money, according to his
own confession. This figure may per
haps be overestimated, but the officials
of the Treasury Department will agree
that Mccartney put more spurious
money into circulation than any other
counterfeiter IN this country. He was
yet In his teens when he began his
career. He soon gained local notoriety,
which eventually developed into national
fame of the most unsavory character.
In his younger days he frequently tried
to break off his old habits, but the
counterfeiting mania inevitably got the
best of him. He married and had
several children but, his domestic felic-
ity was short-lived-
Mccartney was a born genius. Al
though his early education was meagre
he possessed in his prime a wonderful
| amount of information. He made
thorough study of every branch of
science that would assist him in his
criminal business, and the success of his
counterfeiting was not due so much to
his ability as an artist and engraver as
to his knowledge of the applied sci
enees. He was a skilled chemist, under
! stood the manufacture of paper of every
texture and was an adept printer. His
mechanical genius enabled him to make
any kind of tools, and it is remarkable
that during the last days of his confine
ment, with only poor facilities, he made
a complete and perfect set of dental
instruments. Mccartney spent as much
as six months in the manufacture of a
set of counterfeitiug plates. While
these were as nearly perfect as it was
possible to make them, it was in max
ing the paper for the notes and printing
them that Mccartney achieved a tri-
umph. For years the Treasury De-
! partment was unable to discover how
he managed to initiate so closely the
particular texture Of the paper used for
national bank notes. Finally the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury pursuaded him to
| let him into the secrets, under a prom
Use that he would, during the remainder
of his lifetime be supported by the Gov
eminent. Mccartney then visited
Washington and made several sheets of
bank-note paper after his own process,
and the Secretary placed them among
the genuine paper in the mint. They
passed through the printers hands
without detection, and when they were
shown the employees of the mint they
were dumbfounded. After this visit to
Washington, Mccartney returned to his
home in Illinois, where for a time he
received his stipend regularly from an
agent of the secret service. This al
lowance missed, however, on several
occasions and finally ceased. Mozart
ney was piQued by the failure of the
Government to keep its contract and re-
turned to his old business with the in
tention of making it interesting for the
Treasury officials. AS a result Nc
Cartney put out his greatest effort-a
$1,000 bank note, which gave the de-
partment more trouble than all the
other money he had ever made.
Although the counterfeiter king spent
most of his time in prison. he had
many thrilling experiences in several
parts of the country. He never estab-
lished other than temporary headquar-
ters and seldom worked alone. He was
imprisoned several times before the
war and once succeeded in escaping
/ from Jail in Northern Illinois. For a
time he remained in hiding and was
next heard of in the army, having pro-
cured a situation as sutler in the Union
ranks. A provost marshal took him in
irons to st. Louis. While there, Nc
Cartney persuaded the officer that the
irons were unnecessary, and once re-
Heved he made successful break for
liberty. Mccartney resumed opera
tons in Colorado, but soon disappeared.
He again came into prominence as the
author of an immense amount of frac-
tional paper currency, known as "shin
plasters." The Johnson Brothers and
Sam Rivers were members of the gang
which pushed this fraudulent issue.
The former were caught and promptly
told all they knew to shorten their
terms. Mccartney was arrested in a
small town in Texas by a st. Louis
| United States Marshal. Mccartney
told his captors that he would never be
taken to st. Louis and made good his
word by jumping out Of the window of
a sleeping car while it was running at
a speed of nearly thirty miles an hour.
In 1887 he was arrested with a gang of
counterfeiters at st. Louis and sent to
prison.
McCartney's mechanical genius and
| his wonderful nerve soon enabled him
to escape from this prison. With the
aid of a spoon he manufactured out of
| tin cup two keys with which he one
night unlocked every cell in the CORR
! dor. The gang then dug through
solid wall and escaped. It was two
hours before the discovery was made
that the gang was gone and by that
time they were far away. After his
escape he went east, and succeeded in
creating a sensation by counterfeIting a
United States bond, which was actu-
ally redeemed by the Government and
the owner of the genuine bond arrested
on a charge of counterfeiting. Two
years in the State prison of Michigan
broke down McCartney's health, and
when he was arrested for the last time,
In New Orleans in 1888. he was infrm.
Though his criminal life naturally
drew him to desperate methods, he
was not desperate man at heart, and
| alruars claimed that many of the stories