Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-01-07
THOSE $500 coUNTERFElTs,
George BidweII Discusses the Methods
Employed and Manipulators' Prob
abe Capture.

| George Bidwell, who engineered the
one miIlion-pound raid upon the Bank
of England and is now stopping in this
city for few days, was asked by a
representative of the Spy, Thursday, for
an expression of his views regarding
| the methods employed by the men who
have put into circulation the 500 coun-
terfeit silver certificates, and also of the
i likelihood of their ultimate capture.
Mr.. Bidwell received the reporter cor
daily; and, in the course Of the inter-
! esting chat which followed, said:
"Knowing as 1 do the power and re-
sources of the Pinkertons, 1 should not
care to be one of the operators in get
ting up and disposing of the 500 silver
certificates. l have been asked to give
my views as to the probable modus
operandi.
mot having seen the note, it is diff
cult to judge of the exact method; but
it must have been in one OF four If the
bill was engraved, it was the work of
skilful engraver who is, or has been,
in the employ of one of the great bank
note companies. Whether it would be
possible for him to do it by hand, is
doubtful Therefore, the person who
planned the operation must have been
man of resources and a good bust
ness man. On the pretense Of starting
an engraving establishment, he must
have purchased the various machinery,
and then had this man do the work Sc
cretly there. Such a man always has
at his disposal a number Of the clever
est and brainiest men in the country.
The men who have usually been brought
up in the business understand all the
methods of commercial life, and can
present a bogus in as plausible a man
ner as they had been accustomed to in
transacting legitimate business.
In this view, when the notes were
ready they were divided among, say,
five operators. Each was assigned GER
tain territory. Calculation had been
made for the time necessary before one
Of the notes was liable to reach the
treasury and be detected. That time was
doubtless about one week. Simultaneous
~ each started, passing as many as
possible within that time; then disap-
pearing, and are lying perdued.
IF the above should prove to be the
case, I expect 10 see very large
amount of the bills come to light. /
would not be surprised if they succeed
ed in putting out more than a Million
dollars.
"On the other hand in case only a
few appear, it will show that it was the
work of some engraver or photographer
who wished to make a few thousand
dollars with comparative safety. In this
case he had no confederates, and the
discovery of the operator will be very
difficult
Taking the first view, If the work
was done by photographers, by the
same operator and his agents, the same
tactics in disposing of the bills would
have been pursued. 1t is possible that
they had among the gang paper
maker. In such case. they would get
possession of some part of a paper mill
or the whole of it, and have a man
make paper secretly.
"Of course all this would require con-
siderable capital and the cleverest man
ipulation, to avoid suspicion. On the
other hand, if the paper was made by
pasting two sheets together with a silk
thread laid between, it would appear to
me to be rather slow and bungling
process to carry out an operation inten-
ded to be of such magnitude. If the pa
per proves to be Of this character. III
should take it as an indication that
there was one operator, either an en-
graver or photographer, and that only
a comparatively small number of hills
had been issued.
yet it is possible that, with great
care and taking time they could pre-
pare sufficient quantity of paper nv
this latter method for large operation
Doubtless, the operator or operators are
feeling excessively happy in the possess
sion OF their ill-gotten gains But. with
the Pinkertons on their track, | fancy
their happiness will be as snort-lIved as
was ours after the great raid on the
Bank of England"