Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/110

Rh This youth was the afterwards notorious Bill Dow, a faithful likeness of whom will be found at page 128, whose numerous exploits as "cracksman" and counterfeit dealer, throughout the length and breadth of New England, marks him as one of the most skillful of coney men that ever flourished in America.

It was Bill's custom, after a varied experience in his newly adopted secret trade, to visit New York city, and thence to take away from five to ten thousand dollars of bogus bills, at a time, upon the State Banks then in operation. These sums would last him but a little while, when he would return and get another bundle of "stock" which he distributed himself, or spread abroad through his confidential agents, all over the Eastern country. Large bills he could not use to advantage in that region, and so he carried one's and two's and three's, most frequently. He obtained this stuff through Bill Gurney from Josh. D. Miner; then, as in later days, a big wholesale dealer in the coney.

As a cracksman, afterwards, Bill Dow got familiarly acquainted with Mike O'Brien, Jack Rand, Charley Brockway, Langdon W. Moore (alias "Charley Adams,") Tom Shotwell, et als., and with these worthies he was engaged for years in his inquitous trade, sub rosa. Tom Shotwell, known as "Blacksmith Tom," furnished the burglarious tools. He was a good mechanic, and was constantly in Bill's confidence and employ. Dow paid all the bills, at length, for he accumulated money rapidly. As a leader in the nefarious work, it fell to his lot to "locate" the jobs, of which he was the grand manipulator, first and last, prior to the operations of the cracksmen, with whom he was thus in villainous association.

Bill grew to be a very handsome man, and at 35 to 45 years of age his polished address, gentlemanly bearing, and