Evening star., 1932-11-27

counterfeit money out of circulation.
And vet that last named job is far
from a sinecure, and European counter
feiters who have been fiattering our cur
rency with a great deal Of sincere lmlta-
ton realize this fact.
Prison "grapevineS," over which travel
interesting bits of information concern
ing the plans of prisoners about to be
released and other news of the under
world, have supplied the Secret Service
with invaluable information in many
famous case. Last year group OF de-
termined counterfeiterS, one OF whom
had just been released from Atlanta,
found themselves a willing financial
backer in the person of one John Dash
and began work with 81 900, 900 in coun-
terfeit $40 bills as their goal. Dash was
to get $4,000 in spurious money for his
$2,5OO backing But Government raids
on their headquarters in Philadelphia
wrecked the rings plan, and when Dash
took the stand to testify against them,
revealing himself as a Secret Service
agent, one of the gang literally tainted
talked too much in Atlanta.
Counterfeiting mobs are usually closed
affairs. They have little or no connec-
ton with narcotic, liquor or slot ma
chine organizations But the racketeers
outside the law are still their easiest
market for spurious bills, as rum row has
learned to it's sorrow One Canadian
50 hi
with $211 900 in counterfeit money given
to him for his cargo by American boot
leggers. Racketeers, who have their own
reason for not appealing for Federal &C
ton when victimiZed by counterfeiterS,
often accept bills they know are spu-
rious in dealings with each other. From
these stalWartS come the counterfeits so
often passed on the unSuSpecting Gus
toners of Manhattan's Speakeasies.
In one instance this year a counter
feiting ring was far from closed affair.
An unemployed salt in the Seamens In
Stitute on South street needed nickelS to
get uptown and see his sister in the
Bronx, so he made his own slugs. When
other seamen discovered that their fel-
low had a method of avoiding even the
five-cent fare they went into the business.
Secret Service agents, called in to dis
cover the source of innumerable SlugS
appearing at the South Ferry station of
the subway systems, investigated the fare
collecting machines after a delegation of
Al unemployed Seamen from the inSti-
tute went through en- route to charity
dinner uptown and discovered Al SlugS.
When the manufacturer was discovered
and arrested he told Government at
torneys that eff I'd aknown the guvment
was agin' it would'na even tried it,
OF the thousands of cases handled by
~ the Secret Service in dealing with
counterfeiters, none was more strange
than one involving number of bills
expertly raised from 81 and 81 denomi-
nations to $40 and $40 figures None of
them vas good enough to pass bank
tellers, but the public was victimized to
the tune of more than 100000 in 1928
before the source of the notes was found.
Federal agents were baked by the fact
that the paSSerS, all of whom had Grim
inal records, seemed to hav& no connec-
ton with allied gangs or with each other.
Then some one noted that each of the
passerS had at one time or another been
confined in the New Jersey State Prison
at Trenton. There an investigation dis
closed a counterfeiting plant headed by