The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-06-18
Part II.

Edrt IL.
In order-to give the actors i'm the
Lincoln tOmb-robbing plot their
proper places before my readers it viii
be necessary again to wander briefly
from the straight path of my story. In
the early I0s il was as easy for a secret
service operative to find traces of
counterfeiters as il is for fisherman
to get bite in a Wisconsin fish lake.
It was sometimes as difficult to land
the "kOniaCker' as it is for the fisher
man to land his bass. but the central
west teemed with "coney men" more
or less known to the secret service
The custom OF inteTmaTTiage among
counteTfeiting families had bound a
large number of the most prominent
criminals on this line into a league ce-
nented not only by a common purpose
and common danger but by ties of con-
sanguinity. I have told how Pete Nc
CARNEY married Martha Ann Acker-
man, the daughter of an accomplished
pair Of cOuHtcrfeiters. and herself an
expert Ben Boyd had married Mrs
McCaTtuey'S sister. Almiranda. also
proficient IN the printing of bogus cur
1eucy. The mother of the Alderman
girls. after the death of her first hus-
band. married another COunterfeiter
john 3. Trout n desperate 'cOney
man who at one time was the terror
OF the secret service men operating in
the Mississippi valley. II will be re
membered that Nelson briggs married
Gertrude Stadtfeldt whose father.
mother. brother sister and nephew were
all counteTfeiteTs. and who herself was
a valuable assistant to her husband
These marriages are mentioned to set
1ortn the CloseneSS of the ties binding
the different bands which. i'm effect
were one band There we're many
other such marriages. but reference To
these viii suffice.
Besides this bond Of intermarriaEe
there was strong property tie con-
meeting the COUnteTfeitinC PRINCIPALS
Nelson briggs. whose brother kept a
hotel III Jersey city which WAS a rem
devious for 'conay men," had $40 000 I'm
cash. $4,000 acres of land in Texas and
other property Ben Boyd had means
III plenty, as did Mccartney and sev-
eTal others They were men of good
habits IN point Of abstemiousneSs and
many of them lived JekyII and HYDE
lives with such success that i'm their
respective communities they were res
pectee members of society while
making and showing the queer"
Many of them We're men of education
BOYD had magnificent library and
was student Few of them. during
the reputable neriOdS of their careers.
engaged M business that was not hon
"Tdhic. among them being farmers
contractors. professional men and an
editor
To this rule however. there were two
or three executions One Of these was
James kine9ly. who. at the time of this
narrative, kept the Hub saloon at
2Y4 West Madison street. Chicago with
terrence Mullen as a partner. Both
kmealy and Mullen had for years held
close communion with the counter
letters of the central west. and their
saloon. while orderly enough was the
general Chicago rendezvous of dozens
OF the most desperate and accomplished
CounterfeiteTS i'm the country In 81
Louis q saloon of similar character was
run by Fred RiebUSCh. one of the most
extensive dealers in bogus currency i'm
the world. of whose career and final
capture I shall tell in a subsequent
narrative
Tho same men that frequen{od the
Huh i'm Chicago were at home i'm
J Biebusch's in st. Louis. The haIfvay
station was the saloon iu Lincoln. III
kept by Robert Splane a Headquarters
Tor the large band of "kouiackers'' that
lived IN and near Lincoln at that time.
ne principal members OF the Lincoln
band were Benjamin T. Sheridan. farm
owner James L. Fox. ST. and ir con-
tractors; Joseph de Haven. farmer
IhpmaS J. sharp. editor of the States
man published in Lincoln: Nathan T.
Curtis. Sharp's outside man: Robert
Splanc, saloonkeeper, and Vine q. Viii
EamS. bartender. All of these men
Welts intimately associated with Kim
ealy and Mullen in Chicago and Bic
busch i'm ST Louis. as well as with
Nelson briggs. Ben Boyd. Pete Nc
CARNEY and many other somewhat less
prominent. Another member of the
band was john Hughes. am aII-arouud
criminal and boOdle-carrier for Charles
Stadueldt while the latter was showing
the queer made from BOyd's plates.
The incarceration of Ben Boyd i'm the
penitentiary had seriously crippled fba
cOunterfeiting industry of the country
and especially among the devotees of
the calling who were operating i'm Hi
nois. Nearly all the bogus currenrv
showed in the middle west had been
printed from Boyd's plates and handled
by briggs During the winter ~
1S45-46. when it became apparent that
the evidence against these two arch
COnspirators was sufficient to brina
about their Incarceration. there began
series of conferences of the "koniacL
ers ia Chicago, st. Louis and Lincoln
at which was discussed the DrosDer-
tive serious effect on the cOunterfeitinp
business Of the locking up Of its bes1
plate-cutter- The different bands which
had been fed from the Boyd plates he
came more desperate "a the cutting off
of their source Of supply became more
certain, and when. finally. Boyd passed
behind the gray stone walls Of the
Joliet penitentiary there was much
waiting and crashing Of teeth among
the precious lot of criminals that in
Tested the Mississippi Valley.
To add TO their woes. eight months
after the capture OF Boyd in Fulton
Irvine White. another expert engravel
of counterfeit plates, had been arrested
in New Jarsey. stopping this secondary
source of supply The dealers of Chi.
cagO, st. Louis and Lincoln could there.
fore secure no "cOney' money worth
the handling, and the smaller dealers
from the Canadian line TO the Gulf o..
Mexico. were sending in orders for bad
money that could not be filled. The only
plate available for use at the time wa!
the one of a SO note Of the Bank 81
Richmond. Ind. This was what wa.
known as a skeleton plate-that il. s,
made that the part bearing the nam,
OF the bank was mOrtised in. allOWinl
the insertion Of the name of another
bank. the rest of the note being tn,
same. COunteTfeits of the Lafayett,
and Muncie, Ind, banks had beer
printed from this plate but this coun
terfeit had become worthless on &C
count Of the worn condition Of tn,