The herald., 1897-01-18
FEMALE CoUNTERFEITERs.
Every Gang Ever Arrested Had at Least
One Female Member.

Women have a weakness for counter
feiting. The first person ever executed
for that crime was woman. She was
an English woman, named Barbara
Spencer. and was put to death in 1921
for making false shillings She was
strangled and burned at the stake. Gu
riously enough, her accomplices were
acquitted.
Nancy Kidd was one Of the most re-
markable female counterfeiters ever
known in this country. She belonged to
a family of noted forgers. She carried
on her nefarious trade for more than
thirty years In Chicago, and was arrest
ed there many times. on one of
these occasions lot of fiber paper was
discovered on her person. The gov
ernment officials were completely at "a
loss to know how she had obtained this.
Finally she confessed that q chemical
solution had been used to wash the
faces of the notes and make them per-
fectly clean. Thus she was In the habit
of taking 81 bills and changing them in
to larger denominations. The govern
ment authorities released her in return
for this valuable information and for
telling them what the solution was.
However, they had her shadowed by
detectives, and finally caught her with
sl7 900 worth of counterfeit money in a
box. She was found guilty upon seven
different indictments for counterfeiting
and was sentenced to eight years in the
state prison, where she finally died.
One of the cleverest tricks ever played
on Uncle Sam was invented by wo-
man who lived in Philadelphia. Her
plan was to take $40 and $50 gold pieces,
and with a small drill, worked by steam
power, to bore out the insides, and then
refill them with some base metal, being
careful that sh iorl,
exactly the right amount when she had
finished
This she accomplished by drilling
through the milled edges of the coin. and
after filling the hole covering it with
little of the extract OF gold. In this
way she made $50 on every eagle and
about $16 on every double eagle The
officials of the secret service say that
this is the safest device ever invented
for cheating the treasury.
Counterfeiting is very apt to run In
families. This, of course. is natural as
father brings up his son or daughter
to follow his profession. Women who
would otherwise he good are often led
into this sort of crime by marrying men
who carry it on as business. But
sometimes 1t works the other way Wom-
en- teach their husbands how to make
false money This is what happened
when Ben Boyd married Mary Acker-
man of Indiana. Her father was one of
the most successful counterfeiters of his
day, and his daughter had a thorough
acquaintance with the art. Mrs. Boyd
carefully taught her husband all the
secrets of the trade, and he became one
of the most facous forgers of the age.
They carried on the business with such
high degree of skill that they were
not captured for years, and, when at last
the secret service Hawkshaws did run
them down, not single counterfeit
plate, note or coin was found in their
possession When their house was
searched $4,000 in good money was found
This small amount was all they had ac-
cumulated during all their years of
crime. OF course the officers could not
touch it, Afterwards sufficient evidence
was secured to convict them and they
were sent to prison. They both claimed
to be converted while in states prison,
and after their release settled in Chi
cago, where they apparently lived an
honest life.
case that annoyed the secret serv-
ice very much was that of a woman who
employed a clever dodge. She went to
a large shop and selected a valuable
shawl. To pay for this she handed the
clerk United States treasury note for
$1,000 He took the money and disap-
peared, not returning for several min
utes. When he came back she asked him
why he had kept her waiting, and he
confessed that he had taken the bill to
bank near by to be sure that 1t was
good. She pretended to be very angry
and said that she would not buy the
shawl on any account and walked out of
the shop. A little later in the day she
returned and said that as she could not
find any other shawl that suited her as
we'll in the other shops she had decided
to take it in spite of the insult offered
her She gave him the $1,000 bill, and.
getting the shawl and the change, left
the shop. The owner of the shop after
ward discovered that the note he finally
accepted was a counterfeit The first
bill had been good. but on her return she
gave him the false one, which waS
wonderfully clever imitation. The Sc
cret service was much agitated about
this and several others of the $1,000 bills
which turned up. but they have since
captured the plates.
Practically every gang of counterfeit
ers ever arrested has had women asso-
ciates. In the office of the secret service
in Washington there is large frame.
four feet square, filled with the photo
graphs of women who have either made
or passed false money. Men always
employ their wives or daughters for the
pt,rnoea of "oboving o. their cOunterfeits