The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-18
Ten millions or ten years-a
chance. We took it and lost.
w. NJ. J.
THIS inscription in fancy lette7.l

tographs hanging IN frame in
the Office of Chief Wilkie Of the United
States secret service department at
Washington, says the New York News.
There are five photographs in the
frame. arranged crosswise. and at the
corners are four brand new greenbacks
two of 500, one of $50 and one of $50.
All are cOunterfeits.
Beneath the lowest photograph of the
group. the one at the foot of the cross,
is written the name of William NJ. ia
cobs, whose initials figure in the in
scriptiOn above. The words are his
own and summarize in a sentence one
OF the greatest Fomances of crime his
tory has known.
Around the walls of Chief wilkes
private Office are a score or more sim
ilarly framed photographs, displaying
counterfeit currency of all denomina-
lions, from $500 bill to the modest
silver certificate of 81 And in the
middle Of one group is posted a Won
deFful imitation of a $50 Bank of Eng
land note. Each frame has its own
story of the Lancaster cOunterfeiters,
in which these five men were the chief
actors
Five years ago, in January. 1897, the
treasury officials at Washington dis
covered that bogus treasury notes for
was made, as all such discoveries are,
in the most haphazard fashion. One
of the tellers in the treasury, in count
Ing over pile of 800 bills, noticed one
on which the stamp was of slightly
different color from the rest. The bill
Itself was comparatively old and dirty
from frequent handling, and the color
of the impression merely differed from
its fellows much as faded salmon color
differs from faded carmine. Idle curl
osity. rather than suspicion as to its
Eenuineness, caused the teller to lay
aside the note, intending 10 call atten-
ton to the curious effect of the faded
ink
When shown to half a dozen officials
of the treasury, all of whom were in
the habit of handling thousands of 800
bills in the course Of a year, it was
pronounced genuine. Even two experts
of the secret service, men whose lives
had been spent in detecting counter
feitsr uHhesitatingly declared it to be
good. Assistant Chief Mclaughlin,
however, was not easily satisfied He
laid the bill before Chief John Wilkie.
who at once communicated with the
head of the stamping department in
another branch of the service, and the
result of the conference was the dis
covery beyond question that the bill
was a forgery
A thorough examination Of the bills
OF similar denomination in the treas
Try vaults revealed the fact that seven
other forged notes had actually been
passed upon the government. How
many more might be in circulation it
was impossible to say.
Where the notes came from or where
they had been manufactured was an
absolute mystery To stop their cir
culatiOn was a comparatively easy
volved the calling in of the entire issue
of $4,000, COO, which was done at once.
But to trace the perpetrators of the
fraud, and, more important still, to
recover and destroy the plates. was a
task seemingly impossible unless some
lucky accident or mistake on the part
of the counterfeiters should betray
them.
Diligent inquiries among the well
known counterfeiters, both in prison
and out Of prison. merely added to the
mystery. Without hesitation every
criminal expert declared the fOrgeries
to be far and away too low to be the
handiWOrk of any one of their ac-
quaintance- Under the microscope the
engraving of these bills failed TO show
the faintest indication of their having
been printed in sections or from plates
made in sections. And, to make the
mystery more bewilderins, it was dis
covered beyond question that they
were actually printed on government
paper.
The secret service department of the
United States resembles that of Scot
land Yard in one point, namely, that
its jurisdiction extends ali over the
country. This fact is worthy of men
ton here, as it was the starting point
at which Chief Wilkie began his inves-
legation for the discovery of the coun-
terfeiters. Convinced from an exam
ination Of the forgeries that they were
the work Of a gang possessing extra
ordinary facilities, even to the extent
of an engraving establishment and
possibly a paper mill of their own,
Chief WillSie issued orders for minute
secret reports as to every engraving
Office and paper mill throughout the
United States. Secret service agents
throughout the forty districts into
which the United States is divided
were instructed to make these reports,
including not only every detail about
the establishments themselves but as
much personal Information as could be
secured concerning individuals en-
ployed therein. and from the proprietor
down to the Office boy.
Such an berculean task was probably
never before attempted in the history
of criminal investigation. 1t meant no
less than taking a census of a most
minute character of all of the engraV-
ing shops and engravers of the United
states, and doing it, too, as secretly
and as circumspectly as a detective
might shadow an armed burglar
through a deserted street on a moon
light night. A break of suspicion in
searching for the guilty ones would
mean failure.
For nearly two years this gigantic
work Of web weaving was continued
II? der the personal supervision of Chief
Wilkie. At the end Of that time the
search had narrowed down to three
cities-New York, Chicago and PhiIa-
delphia-and in each of these places a
dozen or more secret service operators.
under three of the shrewdest of his as
sistants, continued the work
The first discovery OF Importance was
made in Philadelphia. and. singuIarlv
enough, was made exactly as Chief
Wilkie had expected it might be. One
of the points to which the attention ~
those making the investigation was d.
rected was to ascertain If any new en-
craving shops had been opened within
q short time previous to January 1897
when the first notes were circulated
and whether their proprietors had ap-
parently done fiourishing business. as
shown by their improved personal APP
pearance. surroundings and display of
ready money.
In January. 1899. Just two years after
the search began, 1t was reported to the
head office in Washington that an en-
craving shop owned by Baldwin S.
BredelE a young American. and Arthur
Tavffr a 1ro11rr~< Ene1fshroaD had >,ee,,