Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1919-02-14
MOST ..SKILLFUL OF
C0UNTEREE|TERS
MAN WHO LOOKS LIKE POET POE
eAap TO HAVE PASSED $1,000
PRISONER AT LAST
KNOWS THE SILK PAPER SECRET
After Many Years OF Success, He
Remained Too Long in Small
California Town.

nSWaHSo soo GonS 'n oHai
~ California Town.
Washington.+-His career ended at
%. H. r. Wilken today faces a peni-
tentiary sentence of anywhere up to
Is years when he is tried at'San n.
cisco for counterfeiting. But. while
he may drop out for time, he will
have left behind him a lot of visiting
cards--in the form OF the most nearly
perfect counterfeit 81, IS and $40 bills
ever showed across a counter in pay
ment for small purchase, according
I, the secret service.
Wirken was arrested at Santa Cruz,
CAL, by Secret Service men, who say
they obtained confession during
subsequent trip to San Francisco,
where he IL held for trial. Whenshe
landed in Jail Secret Service men,
from Chief Flyn down to the. newest
operative. heaved long, deep signs OF
relief.
Wilken is young man. Where he
started the police do not know. The
first time the Secret Service ever
heard Of him was when particularly
excellent counterfeit bills began COM
ing back to the treasury from banks
all over the country which had ac-
cepted them as genuine. The chase
fer their manufacture started. 1t led
the secret service throughout the
country several times and ended in
Santa Cruz.
For some years Wilken fitted gaily
about from town to town, the service
says, leaving in his trail all sorts of
counterfeit bills. The first charged to
him were 81 bills, made of sheets of
paper pasted together, with the ia
miliar strands of silk in between. Lots
of the bills were found, and many wor-
thy citizens who tried to use them
found their way into police stations to
undergo question. But there never
was trace of the owner.
The Secret Service is authority for
this story about one of them. A Bling
hampton IN. W bank several days
ago received 81 bill about which
there was some question-apparently
after it had been accepted as genuine.
No other bill of the series being in
the bank, runner was sent to
neighborhood bank for a sample. He
brought it back. 1t compared exactly
with the questioned bill. Then some
one investigated bin No. 1t also
was counterfeit.
One of Wilken's bills-a counterfeit
of the Buffalo" IS Treasury note--is
regarded by many experts as one of
the best-or worst-counterfeits ever
Tut over" One official who discussed
il after Wilkens arrest asked that
warning be sent out for banks to
watch for specimens of it, which, :.
is feared, will be '.fioaters
tionally well made counterfeits that
are accepted long after the maker has
been arrested-going around through
the country until they wear out. These
bills are declared to be in nearly
every large city in the country.
As to. paper and engraving, they
match almost perfect a genuine bill
and amateurs have been unable to de-
tect them even when told they are
counterfeit. But one defect resulted
in its discovery. In the headdress OF
the Indian there are a number of tiny
fine feathers in the case of genuine
bills. In the counterfeit these are
missing, and there Is a white space.
Rut few noranno n ua nnfioad tho 1aol-
G feathers, and still less have known
by their absence that the bill is
counterfeit. 1t has been accepted, as
have other bills, at banks as genuine
and they probably will continue to
be accepted.
Banks now are watching for Will
ken's last alleged bill, the $40 Federal
Reserve. That is another bill said to
De one of the best out.
Wilken was caught after years of
search, during which it is declared he
circulated counterfeit bills of the face
value of over 100000. And if he
hadn't stayed at the little town of
Santa Cruz, where persons who spend
one type Of bill are easily found, he
might not have been arrested. In
larger cities the bills always had
been discovered days or weeks after
they had been dumped on the town.
1t is believed by many that Wilke1
has the secret of making the dis
tinctive" paper used by the Govern
ment for it's notes. Some of his bills
are believed to have been raised from
smaller ones, but many of them, al
most impossible to detect, bear the ap.
pearance OF having been made from
distinctive" paper of unauthorized
manufacture. Such bills are expensive
to make: but, as in the case OF many
counterfeit gold coins, sometimes
worth $3.50 where IS is the represent
ed value, there IL a margin of profit.
Wilken himself, from his photo
graphs. is highly artistic. He looks
like an Italian, with big dark eyes, an
exceptionally high and broad forehead.
a small black mustache over a small
mouth and dark features. Altogether