The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-09
The BIEBUSH BANDR ,

Dorm IN Prussia, in 1923 and emigrated
'hlS country When he was 81 years
oiu- Prior 70 his arrival I'm America
nothing IL known Of him. but his his
tory since Is a romance of crime. His
whole life was devoted to crime as a
chosen profession. and his priuriDaT
pursuit had been the exacting one of
wholesale dealer I'm coItntarfAif
money. In this business he had gained
the SoDriquet OF the great southwest I
kOniacker."
The readers of this narrative who
Tead my recent account of The events
leading up to the attempt to steal the
body of Abraham Lincoln will recall
that 1 then made clear the different
hands through which coupterfcIr
money passes before il reaches the
pubic Tho engraver, printer dealer
shower and Doodle carrier each has his
distinct function to perform i'm tho pro-
cess or robbing the people The dealer
IS the circGlator, and. il he has suit
"ple plates or dies. can flood the coun-
Try with counterfeit money long after
every engTaver or die-ctftter i'm the
business is behind prison bars
TO the business OF dealing ia ''conev'5
BleDush had devoted his time and gen
1uS, Yet he found leisure to- act 5s n
receiver of stolen goods, and was the
patron and financial hacker of thieves
and burglars. He furnished the on
graVers of counterfeit plates with cap
ilal' helped produce the plates bought
and then found trustworthy men to act
as ms agents in the circulation of the
spurious currency For thirty years
ne had followed his chosen calling with
uhequaled success, his bold and profit
aDie operations extending from Illinois
to Texas.
Within a year Of his arrival i'm the
United states Fred Biebush began his
criminal career. He was then 4 broad
shOuldered man of tine physical az
a
keeping saloon called the War Eagle.
after famous steamboat of ante-bel-
Ium days. in Third street. St Louis
tilS place was frequented by river men
OF the better class, for he was a jovial
chap and a good business man as we'll
am not familiar NTH the way in
which suspicion first attached to him.
nut one day the st. Louis police raided
ms saloon, and. buried in the walls.
lhey found an immense lot of stolen
sllVerWare, plate and iewelry. There is
said To have been found a good-sized
sack Of watches. He was arrested but
escaped punishment. At this time his
permanent headquarters were estab-
lshed in st. Louis. but his agents
worked throughout the entire Missis-
sipp1 valley. Personally he dealt at
wholesale only, negotiating with ex-
IRENE caution and keenness Of discern
ment FOR the sale Of very large guam
titles of his wares
In Missouri at that time there was
state law which provided that the
testimony of no man who had served
a penitentiary term was admissible in
the courts of the state. Fred -Biebush
was familiar with this provision and
Followed one rule-as immutable in
MS business as the laws OF the Modes
and Persians-never to deal directly
with any man who could not prove
ne mad been a convict And he went
even further toward the extreme OF
caution, tor while he would negotiate
IL person for the sale Of counterfeit
money with an eN-convict and would
receive from such a one the honest
money in payment for the bogus cur
rency, he would invariably deliver the
coney through the hands of a third
party. SO far as 1 know there is no
man who can say he ever received
cohey' from Fred BiebUsh except his
1tHe-teSted personal agents His rule
against doing business with any except
eX-convicts was the thing that rem
utreu 10 practically impossible to con-
Nict MN. resides observing the pre-
cautions mentioned he usually succeed
ed in bringing his subordinates Iiuder
his power so that his safety was theirs.
For twenty-five years he pursued his
criminal career unpublished.
Before the present system of national
banks was established BiebUsh flour
lShed wonderfully in his operations in
/. the COunterfeits Of the bills OF the old
state banks. He did 10 mauufactur-
Ing In those days. but from his ST.
Louis headquarters he jobbed tho
-coney' in enormous quantities all over
Inc country through such DISTINGUISHED
dealers as Nelson briggs. Louis Sleighr
and others. the amount OF representa-
tive dollars running into the hundreds
OF thousands. In this way he aceumu-
lated a large fortune. Then he went
into the manufacturing business him
self
Not being an engraver nor printer.
ne had TO hire these artisans, and soon
formed partnership with John Peter
Mccartney, for whom he had formerly
! beeen an agent. Mccartney was an
engraver Of high rank and the new
nrm was a strong one. Mccartney
| did the engraving and Biebush su-
perintended the printing and cireulat-
ing. Later he acquired plates engraved
Dy such high class cutters as Benia-
min Boyd and William Shelley. His
fortune grew by tremendous leaps. He
was arrested fifty times in all. but
/ the early arrests never resulted I'm
conviction for two reas0f1s--his caution
WIN whom he dealt atfd his wealth.
Alany times he was arrested undoubt-
! ediy s" that the officers making the ar