and looked out over the fields for horses which would suit them, and
came during the night and stole them away. They never carried away
horses from the stables. They generally got their booty along the
by-roads, and took them to the fairs in the neighbourhood and sold
them, usually for about 10_l._ or 12_l._ The horses they stole were
generally light and nimble, such as might be useful to themselves. They
disfigured them by putting a false mark on them, and by clipping their
mane and tail. When a horse is in good order they keep it for a time
till it becomes more thin and lank, to make it look older. They let
the horse generally go loose on the side of a road at a distance from
their encampment, till they have an opportunity to sell it; and it is
generally placed alongside one or two other horses, so that it is not
so much observed. The same person who steals it frequently takes it to
the fair to be sold.
“The gipsies are not so much addicted to stealing from farms as is
generally supposed. They are assisted in gaining a livelihood by their
wives and other women going over the district telling fortunes. Some of
them take to hawking for a livelihood. This is done by boys and girls,
as well as old men and women. They sell baskets, brushes, brooms, and
other articles.
“I spent my early years wandering among the gipsies till I was thirteen
years of age, and was generally employed going about the country with
my violin, along with some of my brothers.
“My father died when I was about six years of age. A lady in
Southampton, of the Methodist connexion, took an interest in my
brothers and me, and we settled there with our mother, and afterwards
learned coach-making. I lived with my mother in Southampton for five or
six years. My brothers were well-behaved, industrious boys, but I was
wild and disobedient.
“The first depredation I committed was when thirteen years old. I
robbed my mother of a box of old-fashioned coins and other articles,
and went to Canterbury, where I got into company with prostitutes and
thieves. The little money I had was soon spent.
“After this I broke the window of a pawnbroker’s shop as a cart was
passing by, put my hand through the broken pane of glass, and carried
off a bowl of gold and silver coins, and ran off with them and made my
way to Chatham.
“Some time after this I was, one day at noon, in the highway between
Chatham and Woolwich, when I saw a carriage come up. The postillion was
driving the horses smartly along. A gentleman and lady were inside,
and the butler and a female servant were on the seat behind. I leaped
on the back of the conveyance as it was driving past, and took away
the portmanteau with the butler’s clothes, and carried it off to the
adjoining woods. I sold them to a Jew at Southampton for 3_l._ or 4_l._
“Shortly after I came up to London, and became acquainted with a gang
of young thieves in Ratcliffe Highway. I lived in a coffee-house there
for about eighteen months. The boys gained their livelihood picking
gentlemen’s pockets, at which I soon became expert. After this I joined
a gang of men, and picked ladies’ pockets, and resided for some time at
Whitechapel.
[Illustration:
COMPARTMENT ON THE SIDE FOR VISITORS. COMPARTMENT ON THE SIDE FOR PRISONERS.
FRIENDS VISITING PRISONERS.]
“Several years after I engaged with some other men in highway
robbery. I recollect on one occasion we learned that a person was in
the habit of going to one of the City banks once a week for a large sum
of money--possibly to pay his workmen. He was generally in the habit
of calling at other places in town on business, and carried the money
with him in a blue serge bag. We followed him from the bank to several
places where he made calls, until he came to a quiet by-street, near
London bridge. It was a dark wintry night, and very stormy. I rushed
upon him and garotted him, while one of my companions plundered him
of his bag. He was a stout old man, dressed like a farmer. I was then
about twenty-two years of age.
“At this time I went to music and dancing saloons, and played on my
violin.
“Soon after I went to a fair at Maidstone with several thieves,
all young men like myself. One of us saw a farmer in the market, a
robust middle-aged man, take out his purse with a large sum of money.
We followed him from the market. I went a little in advance of my
companions for a distance of sixteen miles, till we came to a lonely
cross turning surrounded with woods. The night happened to be dark. I
went up to him and seized him by the leg, and pulled him violently off
his horse, and my companions came up to assist me. While he lay on the
ground we rifled his pockets of a purse containing about 500_l._ and
some silver money. He did not make very much resistance and we did not
injure him. We came back to London and shared the booty among us.
“About the time of the great gathering of the Chartists on Kennington
Common, in 1848, I broke into a pawnbroker’s shop in the metropolis,
and stole jewellery to the amount of 2,000_l._, consisting of watches,
rings, &c., and also carried off some money. I sold the jewels to a
Jewish receiver for about 500_l._ I was arrested some time after, and
tried for this offence, and sentenced to transportation for life.
“I returned from one of the penal settlements about a year ago, and
have since led an honest life.”
COINING.
This class of felonies is as prevalent as ever in the metropolis, and
is carried on in many of the low neighbourhoods.
It is generally effected in this way. Take a shilling, or other
sterling coin, scour it well with soap and water; dry it, and then
grease it with suet or tallow; partly wipe this off, but not wholly.
Take some plaster of Paris, and make a collar either of paper or tin.
Pour the plaster of Paris on the piece of coin in the collar or band
round it. Leave it until it sets or hardens, when the impression will
be made. You turn it up and the piece sticks in the mould. Turn the
reverse side, and you take a similar impression from it; then you have
the mould complete. You put the pieces of the mould together, and then
pare it. You make a channel in order to pour the metal into it in a
state of fusion, having the neck of the channel as small as possible.
The smaller the channel the less the imperfection in the “knerling.”
You make claws to the mould, so that it will stick together while you
pour the metal into it. But before doing so, you must properly dry it.
If you pour the hot metal into it when damp, it will fly in pieces.
This is the general process by which counterfeit coin is made. When you
have your coin cast, there is a “gat,” or piece of refuse metal, sticks
to it. You pair this off with a pair of scissors or a knife--generally
a pair of scissors--then you file the edges of the coin to perfect the
“knerling.”
The coin is then considered finished, except the coating. At this time
it is of a bluish colour, and not in a state fit for circulation, as
the colour would excite suspicion.
You get a galvanic battery with nitric acid and sulphuric acid,
a mixture of each diluted in water to a certain strength. You
then get some cyanide and attach a copper wire to a screw of the
battery. Immerse that in the cyanide of silver when the process of
electro-plating commences.
The coin has to pass through another process. Get a little lampblack
and oil, and make it into a sort of composition, “slumming” the
coin with it. This takes the bright colour away, and makes it fit
for circulation. Then wrap the coins up separately in paper so as
to prevent them rubbing. When coiners are going to circulate them,
they take them up and rub each piece separately. The counterfeit
coin will then have the greatest resemblance to genuine coin, if
well-manufactured.
While this is the general mode by which it is made, a skilful
artificer, or keen-eyed detective can trace the workmanship of
different makers.
Counterfeit coin is manufactured by various classes of
people--costermongers, mechanics, tailors, and others--and is generally
confined to the lower classes of various ages. Girls of thirteen years
of age sometimes assist in making it.
It is made in Westminster, Clerkenwell, the Borough, Lambeth, Drury
Lane, the Seven Dials, Lisson Grove, and other low neighbourhoods of
the metropolis, at all hours of the day and night.
There are generally two persons engaged in making it--sometimes four.
In nine cases out of ten, men and women are employed in it together.
The man generally holds the mould with an iron clamp, that is an iron
hook doubled in the shape of plyers or tongues to prevent the heat from
burning their hands. The women generally pour the metal into it. One
person could make the coin alone, but this would be too tedious. While
engaged in this work, they fasten the doors of their room or dwelling,
and have generally a person on the look-out they term a “crow,” in case
the officers of justice should make their appearance, and detect them
in the act.
The officers make a simultaneous rush into the house after having
forced open the door with a blow from a sledge-hammer, so as to detect
the parties in the very act of coining. On such occasions the men
endeavour to destroy the mould, while the women throw the counterfeit
coin into the fire, or into the melted metal, which effectually injures
it. This is done to prevent the officers getting these articles into
their possession, as evidence against them.
The coiners frequently throw the hot metal at the officers, or the
acids they use in their coining processes, or they attempt to strike
them with a chair or stool, or other weapon that comes in their way. In
most cases they resist until they are overpowered and secured.
Counterfeit coin is generally made of Britannia metal spoons and other
ingredients, and very seldom of pewter pots, though formerly this was
the case.
Sometimes four impressions are cast from each mould at the same
instant; in other cases two or three. If too near each other the
powerful heat of the metal in casting half-crowns or crowns would make
the mould fly. Hence there must be spaces between each impression.
Smaller coins, such as sixpences or shillings, can be placed nearer
each other in the mould. On each occasion when they cast the coin they
blow the dust off the mould to keep it perfectly clear, so as not to
injure in the slightest degree the impression. When the latter is
imperfect a new mould must be made. The coiner can use the same mould
again in less than a minute to make other counterfeit coins.
Sometimes a quart basinful is made on a single occasion; at other times
a very small quantity only.
The coiners have agents at different public-houses to dispose of their
counterfeit coin, and some of them stand in the street to sell it.
Sometimes it is sold to their private agents in their own dwellings,
or sent out to parties who purchase it from them. The latter parties
generally pay 1_d._ for a shilling’s worth. Then these agents sell
it to the utterers for 2_d._ a shilling, 3_d._ for two shillings,
3-1/2_d._ for a half-crown, and 4_d._ a crown. Some coiners charge
5_d._ for five shillings’ worth.
The detection of counterfeit coin in the metropolis is under the able
management of Mr. Brennan, a skilful and experienced public officer,
who keeps a keen surveillance over this department of crime.
In 1855 Mr. Brennan, along with Inspector Bryant of G division, and
other officers, went to the neighbourhood of Kent Street for the
purpose of apprehending a person of the name of Green, better known by
the cognomen of “Charcoal.” The street door was open, and the officers
proceeded to the top floor up a winding staircase. The house consisted
of three floors. On passing upstairs they were met by three men on the
top landing, very robust, their ages averaging from twenty-four to
thirty-six. One of them, named Brown, was a noted Devonshire wrestler,
and a powerful-bodied man.
These men attempted to force their way down. Mr. Brennan manfully
resisted and tried to keep them up, and force them back into the room.
Brown leaped over him while struggling with the other two. On Mr.
Brennan’s son and Inspector Bryant coming up to his assistance, the
other two men were arrested and secured in the yard.
A third man came out of the room and was passing by Mr. Brennan, and in
doing so hit him on the head with a saucepan, and forced him against
the staircase window. His son came up to his assistance, when he struck
this new assailant on the arm with a crowbar, and partially disabled
him. At this time the frame of the staircase window gave way, and he
fell into the court.
One of the men in the house jumped from the window of the staircase
on the roof of a shed, and fell right through it, and was followed
by Constable Neville of the G division, who jumped after him and
secured him. The former was a man of about five feet eight inches
high, powerfully built. Other two men were beat back into the room and
secured along with two women. Five out of a party of seven men were
arrested, and the other two effected their escape. The officers only
expected to see one man and a woman coining in this house.
After they succeeded in forcing the two men back into the room, the man
named “Charcoal” struggled desperately, and used every effort to smash
the mould. They found sufficient fragments of it as evidence against
them that they had been making half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences,
besides a large quantity of counterfeit coin.
The officers were obliged to remain in the house and yard until they
sent to the police station for additional assistance. The prisoners
were tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment, from six months to fourteen years. The Recorder from the
bench recommended to Mr. Brennan a compensation of 10_l._ for the manly
and efficient part he had acted on this trying occasion.
In 1845 Mr. Brennan received information that a man who resided at
Bath Place, Old Street Road, was making counterfeit coin. This house
consisted of two rooms, the one above the other. Mr. Brennan went
there, accompanied by Sergeant Cole of the G division, leaving a police
constable at the end of the court. He broke open the door with a
sledge-hammer, and attempted to run upstairs, and was met at the door
by the coiner, who tried to rush back into the room, when the former
seized him by a leathern apron he had on. In the struggle both he and
Mr. Brennan were hurled down to the bottom of the staircase, a distance
of eleven steps. The officer was severely injured on the back of the
head, and the coiner’s knee struck against his belly, yet this brave
officer, though severely injured, kept hold of the coiner.
At this time Cole was struggling with the coiner’s wife and daughter,
while their bull-dog seized him by the leg of his trousers. The dog
kept hold of him for about twenty-five minutes. Latterly the three
parties were secured.
Meanwhile the constable whom he had left at the end of the court heard
the disturbance, and entered and assisted in securing the prisoners.
The woman was tall and masculine in appearance, and the girl was
thirteen years of age.
On securing this desperate coiner Mr. Brennan proceeded upstairs, and
found four galvanic batteries in full play, and about five hundred
pieces of counterfeit coin in various stages of manufacture--crowns,
half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences. The prisoner was committed to
Newgate for trial. His wife was acquitted, she having acted under his
direction. He was sentenced to fifteen years’ transportation. The girl
was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for the exceedingly active
part she had taken in the affair.
Mr. Brennan on this occasion was severely injured in his gallant
struggle.
Several years ago Mr. Brennan went to apprehend a man of the name of
Morris near Westminster. The street-door of the house, which consisted
of three stories, was shut, but was suddenly burst open by the blow of
a sledge-hammer. On running up to the top floor he found his hat struck
against something, and found there was a flap let down over the “well”
of the staircase, which was dreadfully armed with iron spikes of about
three or four inches long, and about the same distance apart, and it
seemed utterly impossible to force it up.
The man meantime effected his escape through the roof, and ran along
the roofs and jumped a depth of twenty-five feet on the roof of a shed,
and was much injured. He was carried away by his friends to Birmingham,
and kept in an hospital till he recovered. He then left London for two
years.
Afterwards he made his appearance in the neighbourhood of Kent Street
in the Borough, where Mr. Brennan went to apprehend him, assisted by
several other officers. He paid him a visit at seven o’clock on a
winter’s evening. The coiner was sitting in the middle of the floor
making half-crowns. One of the windows of the house was open. On
hearing the officers approach he jumped clean out of the window on
the back of an officer who was stationed there to watch--the height
of one story. Mr. Brennan followed him as he ran off without his coat
along some adjoining streets, and caught sight of him passing through
a back door that led into some gardens. Here he fled into a house, the
floor of which went down a step. There was a bed in the room with three
children in it. Mr. Brennan missed his footing, and fell across the
bed, and narrowly escaped injuring one of the children by the fall. The
father and mother of the children were standing at the fire. The man
stepped forward to the officer and was about to use violence, when Mr.
Brennan told him who he was and his errand, which quieted him.
Meantime Mr. Brennan tripped up the coiner as he was endeavouring to
escape, and threw him on the floor, secured him and put him into a
cab, where a low mob, which had meantime gathered in this disreputable
neighbourhood, tried to rescue the coiner from the hands of the
officers. They threw brickbats, stones, and other missiles to rescue
the prisoner.
While the officers were conveying him to the police-station this coiner
while handcuffed endeavoured to throw himself in a fit of frantic
passion beneath the wheels of a waggon to destroy himself, but was
prevented by the officers. When in Horsemonger Gaol he refused for a
time to take any food.
He was tried at the Old Bailey, and sentenced to thirty years’
transportation for coining and assaulting the officers in the execution
of their duty.
Number of cases of coining in the metropolitan
districts for 1860 6
Ditto ditto in the City 0
--
6
Number of cases of putting or uttering
base coin, &c., in the metropolitan districts 616
FORGERS.
Forgery is the fraudulent making or altering a written instrument, to
the detriment of another person. To constitute a forgery it is not
necessary that the whole instrument should be fictitious. Making an
insertion, alteration, or erasure, on any material part of a genuine
document, by which any of the lieges may be defrauded; the insertion of
a false signature to a true instrument, or a real signature to a false
one, or the altering of the date of a bill after acceptance, are all
forgeries. There are different classes of these. For example, there are
forgeries of bank notes, of cheques, of acceptances, wills, and other
documents.
_Bank Notes._--There are many forgeries of Bank of England notes,
executed principally at Birmingham. In the engraving and general
appearance the counterfeit so closely resembles the genuine note,
that an inexperienced eye might be easily deceived. The best way to
detect them is carefully to look to the water-mark embossed in the
paper, which is not like a genuine note. When the back of the former is
carefully inspected, the water-mark will be found to be indented, or
pressed into the paper. The paper of a forged note is generally of a
darker colour than a good one. To take persons off their guard, forgers
frequently make the notes very dirty, so as to give them the appearance
of a much-worn good note. They are frequently uttered by pretended
horse-dealers, in fairs and markets, and at hotels and public-houses
by persons who pretend to be travellers, and who order goods from
tradespeople in the provincial towns, and pay them with forged notes.
This is often done before banking-hours on the Monday, when they might
be detected, but by this time the person who may have offered them has
left the town. This is the common way of putting them off in London
and the other towns in England. Sometimes they utter them by sending a
woman, dressed as a servant, to a public-house or to a tradesman for
some article, and in this manner get them exchanged--perhaps giving the
address of her master as residing in the vicinity, which is sure to be
false. Tradesmen are frequently taken off their guard by this means,
and give an article, often of small value, with the change in return
for a note. They sometimes do not discover it to be false till several
days afterwards, when it is taken to the bank and detected there.
An experienced banking clerk or a keen-eyed detective, accustomed to
inspect such notes, know them at once. It sometimes happens they are
so well executed that they pass through provincial banks, and are not
detected till they come to the Bank of England.
They generally consist of 5_l._ or 10_l._ notes, and are given to
agents who sell them to the utterer, and the makers are not known to
them. Knowingly to have in our possession a forged bank note, without a
lawful excuse, the proof of which lies on the party charged, or to have
forging instruments in our possession, is a criminal offence.
There are also forged notes of provincial banks, but these are not so
numerous as those of the Bank of England. The provincial banks have
generally colours and engine-turned engraving on their notes. Some have
a portion of the note pink, green, or other colours, more difficult and
expensive to forge than the Bank of England note, which is on plain
paper with an elaborate water-mark.
Numerous cases occur before the criminal courts, where utterers of
forged notes are convicted and punished.
A case of this kind was tried at Guildhall, in October, 1861. A
marine-store dealer in Lower Whitecross-street was charged with
feloniously uttering two forged Bank of England notes for 5_l._ and
10_l._, with the intent to defraud Mr. Crouch, the proprietor of the
“Queen’s Head” tavern, in Whitecross Street.
The store-dealer had waited on him to get them exchanged. Mr. Crouch
paid them to his distiller, who took them to the Bank of England, when
they were sent back, detected as forgeries.
The prisoner was committed to Newgate.
Many forged notes of the Bank of England are now in circulation. They
may be detected by wetting them, when the water-mark disappears. The
vignette is often clumsily engraved. In other respects the forgery is
cleverly executed.
_Cheques._--A cheque is a draft or order on a banker, by a person
who has money in the bank, directing the banker to pay the sum named
therein to the bearer or the person named in the cheque, which must be
signed by the drawer. Cheques are generally payable to the bearer, but
sometimes made payable to the person who is named therein. The place
of issue must be named, and the check must bear the date of issue. A
_crossed_ cheque has the name of a banker written across the face of
it, and must be paid through that banker. If presented by any other
person it is not paid without rigid inquiry. The word banker includes
any person, corporation, or Joint-Stock Company, acting as bankers.