The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-21
SKIN GAME NIPPED
IN EASY MANNER
Counterfeiters Were Too Care
less and Were Caught
PLATES ARE IN THE RIVER
Address of the Gang of Counterfeiters
in New York is Proven To Be
False Alarm and No
One is Found There.

Louisville, KY, August 2O.-Flippancy
with a dignifed station agent OF the
Louisville and Nashville railroad and dis
honor among thieves are responsible, per-
haps, for the loss of what John Roberts,
confessed counterfeiter, in jail in this city,
considered enough wealth for any man
N,000000. John Roberts, arrested by
Deputy United States Marshal William
Blaydes in Shelby county yesterday was
located in his rural retreat because the
agent remembered that fat guy had
called him cold sport" upon arriving at
the little Kentucky town. Marion Rob
erts, brother to John, foreseeing possibili-
ties in the 100 peso notes John Roberts
had made, furnished the treachery by
stealing several and offering them to J.
NJ. Fetter G. Co., brokers', of Louisville,
for disposal.
In the county Jail here today both
Robertses, who are sons of a jurist of
this city, now dead, admitted the down
fall of their plans to swindle Mexicans
of 100000 The plates with which John
Roberts had the notes printed are, he
said, in the bottom of the Ohio river
VIII Keonig, printer of this city, who
was engaged to print the notes from the
plates, is free on a small bond because
the secret service agents believe him to
have been a dupe
The final touch in the carnival of fraud
which Marion Roberts had projected
came today when a dispatch from New
York announced that the alleged head
quarters of "the gang In Wall street
was occupied by firms of unquestioned
repute and that Marion Roberts repre-
sentation of such headquarters to w. G.
Osborne. a broker of this city, was as
imaginary as were the value of the worth.
less notes his brother had printed in
hut near Harrods Creek, this county.
John Roberts, at work as an en-
gineer on one of the Mexican railroads,
noted the money of that republic and
decided that the notes could easily be
counterfeited. He went to New York
five years ago, and ever since has been
at work upon his plan of initiating
these notes. Two months ago, his plans
perfected, John Roberts came to Louis
Vile and in the farmhouse near the
city, which Marion Roberts had rented,
he began the work of printing the
pesos. When a million had been struck
off John Roberts destroyed the plates
and sent the notes in a brass bound
trunk to Simpsonville, in Shelby coun-
ty, to finish the Job of numbering and
perforating them. He followed the
trunk and, alighting at the station,
called the station agent "old sport"
waving him from the trunk and de-
claring that he would attend to 1t him
self. The station agent remembered
the man and when Blaydes gave him
a description yesterday of John Rob-
etrs, readily directed the officer to
Roberts abode where the counterfeiter.
caught with the goods, admitted his
part in the affair.
Yet had it not been that Marion
Roberts, overjoyed with the artistic
money" his brother could make, ap
preached the local brokers with the
plan to counterfeit everything from
railroad bonds to American gold certi
ficates, John Roberts declares that, in a
week, he would have been in Mexico,
disposing of his imitation values to
the people of that nation.
Tonight the trunk with the fraudu-
lent pesos is in the hands of the secret
service men, Marion and John Roberts
are in the county Jail under $4,000
bonds each and the entire plan Is shat
tered.