S ecrets of the Secret Service
—THE
DE SHELLEY CASE
Cadet Operative
Reverts to Football
Tactics and Captures
Counterfeiter
Long Wanted
by Uncje Sam
By JOHN JAY DALY
WORD flashed from Secret Service
headquarters to all motion-picture
houses in Atlanta, Ga warning; against
naised ten-dollar notes.
Without thinking, the girl in the box
office of a downtown movie changed a
ten-dollar bill. The man in front of
her took his ticket of admission, along
with nine one-dollar bills and some
silver. He went In to see the show.
In a little while he came out of the
playhouse, walked across the street and
stood there talking to a man.
The girl got the bill out of her cash
box, examined it. Phony! She pHoned
the Secret Service.
As the oall came in. young Cecil
Jones, latest acquisition to the ranks of
the Secret Service, walked Into the
office. It was his second day on the
Job
The head of the office replaced the
receiver.
“Jones,” lie said, “beat it down to the
Acme Theatre, on Peachtree Street.
See that girl in the box-office. If she
points out a man, shadow him. . ."
Out the door in a bound, Jones de
termined to show what was in him —his
Iflrst chance. Any of the older hands
around, Jones would have been ignored
—a cub. Here he was, a novice, and
actually stalking big game. So he
thought.
The girl at the box-office called Jones'
attention to the man across the street
Jones went over to see what it was all
about. In' his pocket he had a nice
new golden engraved card that speci
fied his calling—a member of the
United States Secret Service.
The new operative walked up to the
two men engaged in conversation. He
tapped the one under suspicion on the
shoulder. “I’d like to talk to you a
minute,” he said.
“Certainly," the man agreed.
"Whatd’ye want?"
Jones led him aside, pulled out the
golden engraved card. “I'm from the
‘Secret Service. . .*
That’s all Jones remembered, for the
moment. The world went black before
him. He saw the*fist coming, but not
in time to duck. It landed on the point
of his chin. As he struck the sidewalk
Jones’ head cleared instead of becoming
foggy. Then he remembered making
the mistake of ail beginners—giving the
culprit a chance.
In the time it takes a man to ran
fifty yards Jones was on his feet and
after the fugitive, who ran down Peach
tree Street and turned the first corner.
Strong, husky, the young Secret Serv
ice man shook off the effects of a bed
blow to the Jaw and raced after the
fleeing figure. Then it was that Jones
remembered his first lesson in the
Secret Service, remembered, it just as
he whipped his revolver from its
holster: “Never Are into a crowd."
That street was crowded—packed with
humanity. It was Saturday, market
day. Women and children made up the
greater part of the crowds. The pur
sued man ran through these,crowds,
knocked people aside, trampled children
as he tried to evade capture.
s£^S~'£>~~.; Bj
Jones the fist
m ffc<? pavement. He XflA sSSwl imr
his gun, but did not .^fKBKKBfr
dare fire because of the flp ’
Jones, many yean younger, gained on
the older man. Soon only ten paces
separated them. The Secret Service
man ordered the fugitive to stop. The
man turned and fired at Jones. The
bullet went wild.
Then youth was served. Jones, a for
mer star football player on the Univer
sity of Georgia eleven, made a flying
tackle. He brought his quarry fee
ground.
Ife was not much of a wrestling
match. The older man was winded.
The younger man was decidedly
stronger. He had his first taste of the
hunt. Now, what to do, and who was
the man? He might, by some chance,
be innocent—and that would be the eed
of Jonee in the Secret Service.
Jones called the Ant policeman on
the beat. Together they toek the mam
to e police station. There they found
that Jones, the novtoe, bed really net
made much of a cateh.
His captive wee eedy Hugh Downs,
whom Jones thought only a minor of
fender; but this expestsnee led directly
to greater glory. Downs passed raised
notes made by a mastse—and the mas
ter eventually was to be Jones* prey.
The day following, the new Secret
Service agent was sent out to investi
gate the passing of counterfeit fifty -
cent coins.
After three days’ intensive work Jones
decided that certain men living in a
downtown hotel were probably respon
sible. So he shadowed them.
One night one 'of the men left the
hotel and went to a nearby store.
There be passed a fifty-cent piece that
proved to be counterfeit. When the
man got back to the hotel Jones de
cided to raid the place. With police
aid be battered down the door leading
to a counterfeiter’s den—the workshop
of Luis Eduardo de Shelley, expert en
graver and notemaker, brought by
necessity to hobnob with ex-convicts
engaged in passing counterfeit ootaa.
De Shelley’s pride was hurt He octed
like e baby when arrested in such com
pany. It meant that when he went la
the penitentiary De Shelley would be In
disgrace. /
Never was there a counterfeiter like
De Shelley. De Shelley, a native Vene
zuelan, is still rated by the Secret Serv
ice as the most expert designer and
maker of raised notes the Nation ever
saw. No one who ever operated in the
United States could touch De Shelley
for artistic workmanship. His notes
bore the stamp of genius, and yet he
was never at large for any long period.
It was on St. Patrick’s Day, 1935, that
the youngest Secret Service man, Jones,
arrested De Shelley on the charge of
possessing and passing counterfeit
notea As the old counterfeiter was
cornered he tried his best to get rid of
the queer money he carried, and notes
flew all along the line of pursuit. Still,
when they had him safely In a cell, De
Shelley had enough evidence on him
to warrant a six-year sentence in the
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He
pleaded guilty nine days after his arrest
and is now back in his old haunt,
thinking it over.
Really, it was while serving a previous
term fas Atlanta Penitentiary that De
Shelley made plans for the operations
that led to this spectacular arrest.
Once a counterfeiter, it seems, always
a counterfeiter. It become# a habit.
Years before his last Atlanta arrest
De Shelley had been apprehended in
New York State as a counterfeiter. He
got twenty years in Atlanta, and had
served fifteen years when he made his
escape some time in 1934.
Immediately following that escape Ds
Shelley hit for Chicago. There he set
up another establishment for the mak
ing of ten-dollar notes, his specialty.
In order to get the money for purchase
of necessary equipment this expert
counterfeiter had to become a common
passer of queer coins.
Only nine months’ liberty was en
joyed by De Shelley in Chicago. The
Secret Service men got him there after
another lively tussle in which gun-play
figured.
ITm law had a strange quirk to it this
Urns. De Shelley, returned to Atlanta
bo serve out his sentence after enjoying
his nine months' freedom, was released
am March 31. 1934. Authorities had
found that he was not a native Ameri
can; that he was not even entitled to
be in the country. So upon hie release
from Atlanta they deported him, by
direct order of immigration officials.
Anyway, the cleverest notemaker of
them all was sent out of New Orleans
and Into La Guayra, Venezuela, his old
home town. There he was born and *
there he had learned the art of making
notes.
La Guayra did not appeal to De
Shelley. It was, to begin with, not big
enough for his operations. Also, paper
money there was not so valuable as that
which came from the United States
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. So,
on September 20. 1934, De Shelley, his
pockets full of spurious coins, sailed
from his native heath and went to
Santo Domingo. It was easy then to
cross over to Cuba, and he made that
journey by passing counterfeit money.
Then on to Key West, Fla. There the
nemesis of the Secret Service again en
tered United States territory illegally.
To make ;ure they would not identify
him so easily this time, De Shelley in
Cuba applied for a birth certificate
issued in the name of Jose Ignacio
Herrera. It was under this name that
he purchased passage to the United
States.
In Tampa De Shelley probably sensed
the Secret Service men were on his trail
again, and that was a good guess, for
they were about to pounce on him when
he started his trek northward.
In Atlanta De Shelley dropped tho
Jose Ignacio Herrera alias and con
tacted two old prisonmates, discharged
with him from Atlanta. Together this
trio entered a conspiracy to make flfty
cent coins —a comedown for a note
maker. They were just getting a good
start, the ides being to recoup De
Shelley's fortune so he might get back
to note-raising, when Jones, the new
Secret Service man, went on the Job.
When taken into custody De Shelley
had In his possession som high art
samples of his superb work as a note
raiaer.' That convicted him and put •
novice in the ranks of professional
Secret Service men.
A source of trouble to the Secret
Service for the last twenty years, old
timers at first oould hardly believe a
newcomer to the fold had landed De
Shelley, the expert.