Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1912-11-08
PHIL HEINRIcH's STORY.


at is my firm belief" said Phil
Heinrich, that there is more philos-
ophy among crooks than in any other
class of people. They take what
comes in their way In a moral sense
as well as in a physical sense. with
out complaint. / have seen the work
Of years go in a second without a
murmur. l know a gang Of crooks
who spent four years laying an outfit
for a bank and then got dumped in
the end. and l never heard a whimper
from any Of them.
Il had a bit of this sort Of luck my
self and know how It feels. found
that I took disappointment as well as
the best Of them and did not want
anybody's sympathy. / was at that
time running a counterfeiting layout
In partnership with Sam Ellis. We
had put up some very fine work in
Philadelphia. We ran out an edition
Of twos, fives and tens in government
notes which were beauties In every
way. I tell you the work was so
good that we could have passed the
bills on ourselves without knowing II.
Instead of turning out our work
in two years, 1t Vas nearly four be-
fore we got the plates just right and
got a good imitation paper to use for
printing. We ran OF a big wad of
money, and put 1t In circulation as
rapidly as possible. Just when we
got things running beautifully, and Il
looked like a million a year. a bloom
ing fire hit our. house, and all the
plates. paper and presses were de-
stroyed as well as the mute servant
We did not carry any insurance,
and we had to write up a total loss.
We managed to get most Of the plates
out Of the ruins in order to put them
out of the way TO avoid arousing sus-
picion. but everything was not clean
ed up, and the secret service men
began TO get suspicious. Some of the
money that we had put out got to
Washington, and II made a terrific
muss. but they did not get near to us.
although there was lot of'talk about
the game being worked in PhIladel-
phia.
ut was useless, for time, to think
about putting another .counterfeiting
layout to work in this country, so
Sam and went up to Buffalo and got
few samples Of Canada money TO
experiment with. The best bin that
saw for our purpose was the $40
Canadian bank note. II was a pretty
bill. not nearly as cleverly put up as
one Of Uncle Sans $40 notes. and
we decided to give 1t a test. We got
new set of tools, and laid out for a
two years job. We worked with the
greatest care so as to avoid injuring
plate II possible, and we had mag.
nihcent luck. l never did such good
work in my life, and never saw Sam
In quite such fine trim.
In Just eighteen months we turned !
out plate which, I'll bet, would have
been accepted by the government Of
ncials Of Canada as the genuine arti-
Gle. There appeared to be a great
wad OF dust in this layout for us, but
before single bill was laid down the
pair OF US got the collar. 1t all came
through an inquisftive and gabby
plumber. who was sent to our house
to repair broken pipe. He saw a
lot OF things during our absence
which he did not know ANYTHING
about. and got to firing OF his mouth |
in bar rooms in Buffalo.
His talk In some way reached the |
ears Of the Treasury agents. and Sam
and / were caught red-handed. II was
the greatest throw-down l ever got
but when we got chance Sam and |
shook hands and smiled at our bad !
luck. He had not word of COM
plant to make, nor had I. III bet
that there never were two men who
lost fortune so easily and kept more
even tempers.
1T looked a good deal like working
for the state for about twenty years. |
but l did not lose heart. When I got
into the Erie county JAN studied the
situation Of Affairs very carefully, and
I saw that I had more than an even
chance OF getting a peep Of sunshine
again. | set up communication with |
q friend OF mine. When I was taken |
to the court to plead my friend shook
me heartily by the hand. incidentally
he slipped up my sleeve in front OF
the bright-eyed coppers some very
small tools which would be Of great
service to me-. took the precaution
Of putting them away in case should
be searched on entering the jail.
got through all right. and divided my
tools with Sam, who had a cell on the
same tier with me. about twenty-five
ieet away. Ny tools consisted Of a
set Of the finest steel band saws and
. little box Of acid to soften the iron