The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-20
CountBrfeiters Caught With a
Million Dollars in Mexican
Money In a Trunk
FINANCIAL BUCCANEERS
ADMIT THEIR GUILT
Schemers Planned To Go to Mexico To
Carry Out Their Plan But Stop
ped Too Long in Louisville
For Their Own Good.

Louisville August 19.-Dreams of
wealth which reflected their gaudy hues
from a brass-bound trunk containing a
million dollars in counterfeit Mexican
pesos were scattered for John c. and
Marion Roberts here today when Deputy
United States Marshal William Blaydes
arrested John Roberts in Shelby county
with the money in his possession. Since
the hour of arrest this morning there
has been unraveled in the customs house
of Louisville and in Central police sta
tion a tale of financial buccaneering that
puts into the shadow some of the boldest
exploits in the history of counterfeit
ing.
Roberts. sitting in the office of the
secret service bureau today, coolly said
that he would plead guilty at the oc-
tober term of the federal courts and
seemed philosophic about spending ma
jority of his years in the United States
prison at Atlanta, Ga. He had played
a bold game and failed. He said he
would have been rich beyond his dreams
had 1t succeeded. Now lie was poor
and in the hands of the sternest law
on earth. but he laid fiautering unction
to his soul that the scheme had been
daring and romantic. 1t was through
Marion Roberts that the counterfeiters
were apprehended.
Marion Roberts some days ago ap-
preached Louisville broker and made
him the proposition that he dispose Of
counterfeit Mexican pesos at a high
commission The broker notified Chief
of Police j. H. Hager who at once
enlisted the secret service men and the
trap to catch Marion Roberts was laid.
Marion fell into it Monday and since that
time the police and secret service men
have been extracting from him the in
formation which led to the descent upon
his brother at SimpsonvlIIe today.
Admission of Guilt.
When Marshal Blaydes confronted John
Roberts in the hamlet in Shelby coun-
ty the chief counterfeiter admitted that
he was behind the plan to dispose of
the imitation pesos through the Louisville
broker
He showed Blaydes a brass-bound trunk
of the sort especially constructed to fig
ure in romances and this was filled with
$1,ooo,0o0 in the crisp Mexican notes.
Roberts said that he would have been
in Mexico with the trunk a week ago
had he not been awaiting the arrival
of perforating machine and device
for numbering the bills.
Did you suspect the federal officers
were after your" Roberts was asked in
the custom house office today.
'If l had I'd never been in Simpson
ville,' he replied laughing.
VIII Koenig. a printer. was also ar
rested In connection with the case. All
three men will have examining trials
before United States commissioner
shortly.
Roberts Big Man.
Roberts is a bulky man. Weighing
close to $50 pounds and when he was
brought into Louisville today his
clothing was spotted and frayed with
hard wear. He says that he had man
ufactured all the peso notes in this
country and that he had not intended
to defraud any one In the United
States
Il merely wanted to get rich," he
said.
Roberts Is son of the late Judge
Roberts, once "A well known Louisville
and he at once waived preliminary ex-
animation trial
The police tonight announced that
j. M. Fetter & Co. were approached by
Marion Roberts, who undertook tho
duties as promoter Of the concern Hia
scheme, as explained to the brokers
and detectives posing as brokers' is
one of the most gigantic swindling
ideas on record, according to the au-
thorities here, and contemplated no less
than counterfeit corporation with
counterfeit stock certificates. its bust
ness to be done with counterfeit money.
Brokers Indignant.
Though all plans and collateral were
to be false, Marion Roberts told tho
brokers' who are indignant that they
Were made the objects Of the proposal,
that the money he made" Mexican or
as desired. was fiawlessly ae-
curate and could not be detected He
proposed to counterfeit stock certi-
ficates of corporations as solid as the
Pennsylvania and Louisville and Nash
Vile railroads, and the Louisville Rail-
way company. He proposed that they
buy real stock with fake money and
give counterfeit stock certificates in
any exchange they might make.
The colossal house of worthless paper
crumpled today before the agents OF
the secret service. So vast was tho
plan that Chief John f. Wilkie of the
secret service department at Washing
ton has been personally in charge of
the investigation.
The police tonight arrested Mamie
Harp, housekeeper for Marion Roberts,
as an accessory. John Roberts. 1t ap-
pears was only the artisan in the part
nership of crime