The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-23

my lie to get him out OF jail instead OF
getting him into one?
After our arrest and release in I,o,Iis-
vile, we proceeded at once to Cincin-
natl, where / was introduced 10 the
leaders OF the big gang by Hanford,
who declared that / had proven nv
loyalty beyond any question or doubt.
Then my work began in real earnest
In this famous gang OF counterfeiters
were Jim Hanford, Jim" Ritten-
house, Marry Brown. "Bill'' Gordon,
Charles Freeman, Nelson briggs. ]. A.
Price, Charles Stadfeldt. Ben" BOYD,
Boyd, ''Nelse" Horn, Ned" Nevers,
George Manning and others of lesser
note. spent five or six months work
ing with the gang and discovering all
their secrets. They were doing an
enormous business in making fifty-dol-
lar notes of the Tradeanans' bank Of
Chicago. They changed the Trades
mans note four times Il was very
skillfully designed.
( Nelson briggs was the moneyed man,
or the hacker OF this hand Of counter
feiters- He was remarkably shrewd
and willy man. Boyd was the engraver.
and very skillful and competent art
list briggs superintendent the entire
business, The counterfeit money to
the extent Of 5000 600 was made on a
small island in the Mississippi river
about twenty-five miles below St Paul.
The gang had been at work making
the money for three years and they
/ had been very successful in the massage
of it at the time l became a member
o. the gang they were about to issue n
new counterfeit Of large denomination.
but before the work was finished had
perfected my plans, and the arrest OF
the entire gang followed
While the workmanship on these
notes was not equal to that on the bills
turned out By BroclSway and his gang,
they were an excellent imitation and
would deceive except under the most
careful scrutiny.
The different members Of the gang
were tried and sentenced. George
Manning, briggs right hand man for
over thirty years, was arrested In Kan
sas City and served his term. Boyd. the
skillful engraver. did time, and | be-
-
now eighty-five years old, was SEN
fenced to fifteen years in Joliet, Ill,
and Is now poor, barely making a hv-
ing from his little road house, which is
half way between Dayton and the Sol
diers' home. Charley Stadfeldt was ar
rested again during the exposition in
Chicago and got three years at Toilet
for passing counterfeit money. Nearly
all the rest Of the gang are now dead.
Hanford among the rest who served
five years for this his last attempt to
establish good currency IN the south"
The sheriff of the county in which
the Oxford Jail is located, ran for cleo
ton soon after Hanfori and l escaped.
but bece use of his supposed negligence
in letting US get away, be was defeated
at the polls The secret service officials
did not know of the fact until after
the election, so they could not pre-
vent his defeat and the sheriff never
learned that was IN the government
service, and that the escape from Jail
had all been arranged beforehand with
the United States marshal who took
him to the dance
The famous Brockway gang of coun-
serfeiters Is also now completely
broken up. Brockway Is an old man.
The last heard of him he was earn
ing five dollars a week bookkeeping.
Martin p. Foster, who was one of his
right hand men, after doing different
terms In prison throughout the coun-
try, went to Colorado. where he Is hv
ing In want Irwin White, another Of
the gang, proba bly, with the exception
of Brockway, the most expert coun-
terfeiter the world ever produced, was
arrested in 1876, sentenced 10 ten
years. and Is now dead-died penniless.
Henry @. Cole, another famous cOun-
feiter, occupied a similar position in
the fraternity to briggs caused him
to be arrested twice, and he was finally
sentenced TO twelve years in Trenton
prison, where he ended his days.
A l.. DRU&NoSD.