The "Million Dollar Counterfeiting" Case
Murray's first case was to investigate the forgery of Canadian bills. The forgeries were identified by an expert at the US Treasury Department in Washington when he noticed the bills were suspiciously beautiful. Murray consulted with former counterfeiters; they were impressed by the forgeries, which they declared could only be the work of master engraver Edwin Johnson, the "king of counterfeiting". In 1880, five years after the first forged bill was found, Johnson was arrested for using a fake bill to buy a necktie. He had printed one million dollars worth of counterfeit bills using 21 exceptionally engraved copper plates.
Read more about this topic: John Wilson Murray
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