Evening star., 1936-12-06
THE SAN QUENTIN CASE.

a Suddenly Seattle. San Rafael
and San Francisco began to bristle
with phony $40 Federal Reserve notes.
New Year eve. 1885, saw flock OF
these bills passed on taxicab drivers
in the three cities. 1t was veritable
orgy OF counterfeiting. The Secret
Service went into action.
Since only one of these peculiar /
notes appeared east Of the Rocky |
Mountains the chase for counterfeiters |
confined itself to the Far West.
On one day-February 10. 1896 !
three arrests we're made in the afore-
mentioned cities Pieced together, they
uncovered one of the greatest coun-
terfeit conspiracies Of modern times
and the trail led directly to San Quen-
tin, the largest penitentiary in Amer
lea, with 5000 prisoners.
Involved in this master plot were
five convicts behind the bars. two con-
victs out on parole and two civilians.
For two years they piled their trade
one year to get organized and equipped.
another year spent to spread results
of their counterfeit craftsmanship.
Only for an innocent-enough look
ing telegram sent one day from Seattle
to an inmate in San Quentin. the con-
spiracy might have gone along farther.
The telegram read:
Baby boy arrived stop alice doing
we'll GALE"
This message was sent to Jack T.
Lewis, an expert photographer serving
a stretch in San Quentin.
Lewis was working in the prison
photoengraving plant He had been
assistant there to Daniel r. Wilson,
foreman Of the photoengraving outflt,
who was out on parole.
Whether it was Wilson or Lewis
who devised this counterfeiting scheme
Secret Service operatives will never
know. Each man blames the other.
Anyway. Secret Service agents
cracked the case when they made
three separate arrests in one day. On
the morning of February 10, 1886. they
picked up Thomas Bell. 80, on the
streets of San Rafael. Bell. a native
Of Scotland, had just passed a queer
$40 bill on taxicab driver. They got
Bell before he even so much as touched
the pistol in his hip pocket.
Shortly after that, on the same day
in Sacramento, Secret Service men !,
landed Clifford L. Parr. a photo
engraver, who had dispensed with
number of $40 Federal Reserve notes.
Parr went along peaceably after agents
got the drop on him.
That night in San Francisco Secret
Service agents arrested Daniel r. Will
son, 81, for passing more than ~
counterfeit notes, all Of $40 denom-
ination.
EXAMINATION of these men proved
them all ex-convicts-on parole |
from San Quentin, Wilson the former
foreman of the engraving plant there.
Parr also had been employed in the
same plant. Circumstances began to
add up.
Down to San Quentin went Capt.
Thomas B. Foster. the head OF the
United States Secret Service in San
Francisco-San Quentin, that desolate
peninsula IS miles north of the Golden
Gate. With the chief were Tex"
Strange and Phil" Geauque. two ace
operatives who had broken the case.
With members of the Prison Board
and prison officials headed by Warden
James B. Holohan, now retired, the
Secret Service put on their act in the
big board room at San Quentin.
For five hours the show went on,
with one central character playing q
leading role. That was the nervous
convict, Jack Lewis. He was jittery
as he faced the Secret Service men.
His gray clothing set of his chalky
face Outside bowling wind dashed
breakers against the seawall surround
ing the penitentiary.
Hot coffee and cigarettes started
Jack Lewis to talk. In ICON" language
he turned on the sewer" Inmates
of San Quentin employees. q detective
sergeant in Los Angeles-every one
that Jack Lewis held a grudge against
became unwittingly involved in an
amazing counterfeiting plot inside the
worlds greatest prison.
Lewis told how it all began in the
dark room of the photoengraving plant
at San Quentin.
In the early morning hours Jack
Lewis worked in his improvised coun-
terfeiter's den. Lights were shaded
so the beams of electricity fell only
on the bills being made.
Notes were aged by folding and rub
bing them together. Placed in pill
lowslip, the bills were held above q
bucket of boiling water and steamed.
A secret panel. operated by q spring
at the entrance to the photoengraving
plant. concealed the plates. The base
of huge camera had been rigged up
as the mysterious hiding place for
counterfeiting tools.
When the money was made and
ready for the market the first object
Of the gang was to purchase . $1,000
Government bond-to be counter
feited, as . start to . fortune.
Outside confederates were TO be
statesmen for the boys on the inside
and q salesman who provided pho
tographic equipment for the engrav-
ing plant was contact man. First
thing he did was to carry out $50
of the $40 bills, which he shipped to
Seattle, receipt acknowledged by the
Baby Boy Arrived" telegram.
EXCITED, Jack Lewis took three
- hours to tell his dramatic story.
Then the Secret Service men took him
in hand. They told him things he
never dreamed they could know; how
he had tried to involve the innocent
wife of Q fellow convict by sending
her 10 of the counterfeit bills; how
he had inveigled an outsider into
l. IL.