The Elbert County tribune., 1908-08-13
Many Thousands of
Dollars Worth of
Spurious Bills Are
"Kflled'' by Clever
Detectfve CaLprit
Had Every Track
Covered BY One Rase
or Another.

(-S
tJohn T.. wiIkie. chief OF the secret
service division of the United States gov
ernment. has not only upheld the high
traditions of that very responsible post,
but has won special lourels by his per-
nonal success In several big cases. He
was born in Icigin. III, 47 years ago. and
before accepting the headship of the
secret service had made an cnvinble rep
uhtion as working journalist. While
connected with the Chicago newspapers
no mado a specially OF criminal nvesti-
cation which probably accounts In part
for his unusual success as n detective.
During the Spanish American war he or
ganized a special emergency force of men
20 chcclSmate Spanish spies In this coun-
try As consequence he succceded in
Hrrcsting their best spies and driving
most OF the others OF the soil of the
United States.)
~ NE Monday morning. not many
years ago. smartly dressed
man strolled down lower Broad
way and entered one of the
Trust company buildings in the
heart of the financial district of
to the patrons of the turf as
bookmaker. and he had called at the
bank for the purpose Of securing a roll
OF bank notes that he had left there
on the previous Saturday night for
safe-keeping. It was promptly handed
to him, a roll as big as both of his
fists. He counted II over rapidly to
see that the amount was correct, and
when he got near the end of the roll
he paused long and looked earnestly
at 800 gold certificate that lay there
conspicuously among the bills of
smaller denominations. He continued
his study of the yellow back for
considerable period, and finally thriist-
ing the balance of the bills in his
pantaloons pocket. walked over to the
cashier and handed him the bill.
Whats the matter with this note ?"
he asked.
The bank official looked at 1t cas-
ually and handed it back with smile
Nothing" he answered. except
that it's counterfeit"
The. .bookmaker gasped with astonish-
ment. He went over his roll and
found three or four more notes of
the same kind That morning he noti-
fed his fellow bookmakers, and before
"a hours had passed 80 or 40 of the
counterfeit notes had been located in
New York city. Samples were imme-
diately secured by the authorities and
forwarded to John w. Wilkie, the
chief OF the secret service division of
the United States treasury depart
ment
The chief dropped the business in
hand and Immediately turned his at
tention to the new developments in
the hundred-dcllar counterfeits. Tele-
grams we're sent to the agents of the
secret service instructing them to visit
the race tracks in their vicinity and
look out for bogus bills These in
structions applied particularly to Gin
cinnati. Louisville. Memphis, New Or
leans and st. Louis.
At st. Louis Capt John Murphy, the
secret service agent in charge of that
district. went to the Delaware race
track and posted the bookmakers to
look out for any 500 bills that might
be offered them. Agents of the serv-
ica were posted in various parts of the
track, and it was agreed that If any
of these certificates were offered by
any of the patrons the bookmakers
should at once give the secret serv-
ice pre-arranged signal. In less than
two hours one of the agents received a
signal and hurried to the booth occu-
pied by the bookmaker. He made a
careful examination of the bill that
had been given to the 'bookie" and
found that IL was one of the counter
feits. 'rhe agents were then posted at
spots where they could see the patrons
Of the track in the act of ''cashing in
their winnings The man who had
put up the 500 bill bet on the favor
tie, and he came out winner.
The man 'cashed in and as he did
so was taken into custody.
He was marched over to the club
house and searched white en-
velope was found in his pocket. con-
tanning 2s of the 800 counterfeit bills.
He said his name was Marcus Cra-
han, the proprietor of an extensive
photo-engraving establishment at
Providence. r. l. He was perfectly
candid in his explanations. He said
that he had been visiting the fair and
was a guest at the Southern hotel, and
that he would be very glad to refer