Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-18

man girls. after the death of her first hus-
band married another counterferiter, John
=. Trout, desperate "coney man., who at
one time was the terror of the secret serv-
ice men operating IN the Mississippi valley.
1t will be remembered that Nelson briggs
married Gertrude Stadtfeldt, whose father,
mother, brother, sister and nephew were all
counterfeiters, and who herself was yalu-
able assistant to her husband.
These marriages are mentioned to set
forth the closeness OF the ties binding the
different bands which, in effect, were one
band. There were many other such mar.
riages. but reference to these viii suffice.
Besides this bond of intermarriage there
was strong property tie connecting the
counterfeiting principals Nelson briggs,
whose brother kept hotel in Jersey City
which was a rendezvous for "coney men,"
had $4,000 in cash. 2S.000 acres of land in
Texas and other property. Ben Boyd had
means in plenty, as did Mccartney and sew
eral others. They were men of good habits
In point of abstemiousness, and many Of
them lived Jekyll and Hyde lies with such
success that In their respective commune
ties they were respected members of So
ciety while making and showing the queer"
Many of them were men of education. Boyd
had magnificent library and was stu
dent. Few of them. during the reputable
periods of their careers, engaged in business
that was not honorable. among them being
farmers. contractors. professional men and
an editor
X
To this rule. however. there were two or
three exceptions. One of these was James
Kinealy, who at the time of this narrative
kept the Hub saloon at 294 West Madi-.
son street. Chicago, with Terrence Mullen
as partner. Both Kinealy and Mullen had
for years held close communion with the
counterfeiters of the central west, and their
saloon, while orderly enough. was the ger
Qro ocrn nf n
most desperate and accomplished corlrter
feiters in the country. In st. Louis = salocn
of similar character was run by Fred Bic
busch, one of the most extensive dealers in
bogus currency in the world, of whose ca
reer and final capture shall tell in SUBJ
sequent narrative.
The same men that frequented the Hub
in Chicago were at home in Biebusch's In
st. Louis. The halfway station was the
saloon in Lincoln, ILL.,, kept by Robert
Splane, a headquarters for the large band
Of "koniackers" that lived in and near
Lincoln at that time. The principal men,
bers of the Lincoln band were Benjamin
T. Sheridan. farm owner; James l.. Fox,
ST. and jr., contractors; Joseph de Haven.
farmer; Thomas J. Sharp, editor of the
Statesman. published in Lincoln; Nathan
L. Curtis. Sharp's outside man; Robert
Splane, saloon keeper. and Vine G. Will
lfanrs, bartender All of these men were
intimately associated with Kinealy and
Mullen in Chicago and Biebusch in st.
Louis. as well as with Nelson briggs Ben
Boyd. Pete Mccartney and many others
somewhat less prominent. Another mem
Der of the band was John Hughes. an all
around criminal and boodle-carrier for
Charles Stadtfeldt while the latter was
showing the queer" made from Boyd's
plates.
The Incarceration of Ben Boyd in the
penitentiary had seriously crippled the
counterfeting industry of the country. and
especially among the devotees of the call
Ing who were operating In Illinois. Nearly
all the bogus currency showed in the middle
west had been printed from Boyd's plates
and handled by briggs During the win
ter Of 1S75-76 when it became apparent
that the evidence against these two arch.
conspirators was sufficient to bring about
their Incarceration. there began series of
conferences Of the "koniackers' in Chicago,
st. Louis and Lincoln at which was dis
cussed the prospective serious effect on the
counterfeting business of the locking up Of
its best plate-cutter. The different bands
which had been fed from the Boyd plates
became more desperate as the cutting off
of their source of supply became more GER
tain, and when, finally. Boyd passed behind
the gray stone walls of the Joliet peniten-
tiary there was much waiting and gnashing
of teeth among the precious lot Of criminals
that infested the Mississippi valley.
To add to their woes, eight months after
the capture of Boyd In Fulton, Irvine White.
another expert engraver of counterfeit
plates. had been arrested in New Jersey,
stopping this secondary source of supply
coin could therefore secure no "coney''
money worth the handling, and the smaller
dealers, from the Canadian line to the Gulf
of Mexico, were sending in orders for bad
money that could not be filed The only
plate available for at the time was the
one OF $40 note of the Bank of Richmond,
Ind. This was what was known a skele-
ton plate-that Is, SO made that the part
bearing the name Of the bank was mortised
In. allowing the insertion of the name of an
other bank. the rest of the note being the
same. Counterfeits of the Lafayette and
Muncie, Ind. banks had been printed from
this plate, but this counterfeit had become
worthless on account of the worn condition
of the plate. The Richmond ''1Os" were SO
wen known as to be practically unpassa-
BILE.
Peter Mccartney was at large but was
not inclined to divide the fruits of his Ia
bors with the Lincoln crowd. Charles F.
Ulrich, another cutter had been released
from the Ohio penitentiary, but his release
was not generally known and he was not
disposed Immediately to resume operations
with a knowledge of these facts 1t can
readily be understood why the straits to
which the counterfeiters were reduced
were desperate. The release of Boyd was
an absolute necessity. to be accomplished
at any cost.
For months the members Of this most
cunning and desperate band had been whfp-
ping their brains for feasible plans to eff
feet the release of their pal None that
passed muster in the criminal council had
been suggested The secret service know
ing that every energy of the criminals
would be strained to free Boyd, but having
no knowledge of the plans suggested, work.
ed diligently to enmesh the known members
at large on eounterfeiting charges, and in
SO doing made special effort to tran John
Hughes. who for a dozen years had success
fully passed and dealt in counterfeit money,
besides taking side excursions into other
paths of crime. Sufficient evidence against
l,iu had been gathered to secure an In
dictment by the federal grand jury in 1874.
put for year and half he had eluded the
| snreWdest men in the secret service
AT that time I often secured information
from man named Lewis c. Sweeles. He
was what we then termed roper or
STOOL pigeon. Swegles was the son OF the
hrst auditor of the state of Michigan-the
black sheep in fine family-but man
VINO had been of considerable value to the
secret service on account of his intimacy
with criminals.
! had been working to locate Hughes. but
mao peen unsuccessful until August, 1876,
when Swegles informed me of his where
abouts. Starting with the Information