Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1918-05-09
CRIMINAL 90 SAYS
CAREER A FAILURE
CouNTERFElTER KING FREED
FROM ATLANTA PEN
FriendIess, Homeless, Broken In
Health, He May End His Last
Days in AImshouse.


: Days In Almshouse.
Sam Tate, Oldest and most skilled
bad coin maker, who now is in Phil
adelphia, Pa, has done his last bit.
Clever as he was, the king of coun-
terfeiters could not beat the game. His
success in crime was measured in
lew hunured dollars and few weeks
or months Of easy living, at most. His
gains were soon gone, and today he is
penniless without friend or relative.
His daughter, Emma Tate, who had
followed him in crime, died nearly
twenty years ago.
Tate, 80 years old, came out of At
lanta, Ca, penitentiary recently,
hopeless pai aiy nc, too old and Grip
pied to make living, honestly or dis
honestly. tIe was taken TO Pniladel-
phia and is being cared for in chari-
table institution.
River pirate, burglar, highway rob-
Ear, counterfeiter, gang leader, has
been Tate's life-three- quarters of a
century of crime. He has defied the
law and the best efforts of skilled
sleuths. He has defied the death SEN
tence that his advancing years seemed
to make out of every prison term. He
has postponed old age with his feet
3 of strong body. But now he is an
old man, with all the feeble helpless
ness of old age, broken at last by di-
sease.
When he went to Atlanta on his last
sentence it was thru a special order
from Washington, because Tate had
appealed to be sent to the prison he
liked best among all he had tried. He
went in white-haired. almost erect
man, strong for his years, confident
as of old, the match for younger wits.
But three years have done for him.
had to be carried out and started on
his journey to Philadelphia, the scene
of his most daring crimes.
He is being cared for by the Penn.
sylvania Prison Society until place
in some old mems home can be found.
If no such place is available, Tate
may have TO go to the almshouse.
Police and court records tell of most
of his life. Tate was never caught
until he was Al years old.
He was born in Maryland and went
to Philadelphia, where he set up as a
junk dealer as mask for disposal OF
the booty of his river robberies. He
kept an old boat, in which he wan
dered up and down the river, robbing
houses, tugs and private yachts.
He was first caught in haul of a
gang of burglars. Since that time he
has not been out of the sight of the
law.
1t was after he was arrested as q
witness in the Sharpless murder case
in Philadelphia in 1888 and aided the
commonwealth in learning as much as
was ever found in that still unsolved
mystery of the wealthy farmers death
that Sam Tate abandoned his more ac-
tive criminal career and became a
quiet and dangerous counterfeiter. He
was never a paper money maker. But
the last coins he made, the ones they
found in his little. dirty hangout in
1914, were almost too good to be de-
tected. They rang true.
In 1891 Emma Tate, his daughter, a
beautiful girl, who had followed the
old man thruout these years, and aid
ed him in his counterfeiting ventures,
was passing the coin for her father.
She was caught and sentenced to the
| penitentiary for three and half years.
She came out year later and married
while her father was doing five-year
term at Atlanta. She died soon after.
ward, leaving the old man alone.
When he came out again all his old
cronies were disappearing, too. But he
kept on at the game. He was develop
ing his methods of making false coin.
In 1907 he was arrested with a gang
of five, and the jury acquitted him.
But three months later he again was
arrested, this time in a house where
counterfeiting outfit was discovered
by the detectives, He protested his
innocence, saying that lead pipe found
there was part of his stock as junk
dealer. He was sentenced to eight
years in the penitentiary.
In 1914, several weeks after Tates
sentence was commuted, a detective
received tip of counterfeiting joint
in North Second street in Philadel-
phia. He went there one night, found
the door locked, broke in and searched
the place. He found the layout in the
kitchen-molds. powders, metals.
Then he sat down to wait for the coun.
terfeiters to come in. At 2 o'clock in
the moring two old men approached
the door. Police surrounded them.
The detective looked into the face OF
one and saw Sam Tate.
II thought you were dead, SAM" the
detective told him.
mo, not yet" Tate replied, laconi
cally. With him was George Reilly
then rs years old, one of the few "old
timers" whom Tate felt he could make
partner. The secrets of molding the
| pninc Wpra Caubo nUn and he kent