S ecrets of the Secret Service
NO. B—THE MICHENER CASE
Counterfeiters Are
Balked in Their
Attempt to Steal
Supplies From a
Printing Plant
By JOHN JAY DALY
ONE Saturday night In Minneapolis
burglars broke into a print plant and
made away only with material for coun
terfeiting
Nine nights later, two men stood
watch in the back room of an engraving
plant in Duluth, Minn., while a young
photo-engraver etched a set of plates—
(ten-dollar notes on the Federal Reserve
Bank of Minneapolis.
As the engraver worked, late into the
night and early morning, one of the
,men covered him with a revolver. The
other man directed the work.
When the plates were finished, the
|two men bound and gagged the en
jgraver, pasted his mouth with adhesive
Jtape. locked him In a dark closet and
went their way
Two nights after that, robbers broke
Into a printing plant in St. Paul, put
engraved plates on the presses and ran
off a series of bogus notes. They stole
nothing, but in the haste of a getaway
they left behind them a partially printed
■ten-dollar note—a proof print. This
print was later found under a press.
On the following day, the Northwest
ern National Bank In Minneapolis re
ported to the Secret Service that coun
terfeiters were circulating a spurious
ten-dollar bill. Two of these turned up
at the bank. Uncle Sam's men started
an investigation
Unknown to the crooks, the Duluth
engraver turned a trick on the men who
Imprisoned him. While they had him In
power, working under the muzzle
iof a gun. he made one extra negative.
This he slid under a pile of steel engrav
ings. It was the face of the note. When
Ireleased from his workshop prison on a
(Monday morning, the engraver turned
the negative over to the Secret Service.
With only this slim evidence to go on,
Secret Service men started on the trail
■of the counterfeiters, coupled them with
Ithe engraving and printing Jobs and
robbery. That was in late August and *
early September, 1934.
1 At noon on February 15, 1935. In St.
Paul, the manager of a large printing
establishment notified the Secret Service
that he had received a mysterious tele
phone call from an unknown man who
(Wanted some particular work done -the
printing of a utility bond. An emer
gency job. Saturday afternoon the plant
was closed, only the management on
duty.
The Secret Service agents were sent to
the shop—Grady Boatwright and his as
sistant, Lauren Jackson. They formu
lated a plan of action. Instead of one
man. two men arrived. They made a
bluff about getting some stock certifi
cates printed along with the utility
bonds. Wanted a certain brand of green
Ink; like that used on United States cur
rency.
Boatwright and Jackson had stationed
themselves In the company’s office and
posed as officials. When the two men
arrived, Boatwright was behind a desk
in his shirt sleeves. February, it was
cold outside; but the plant's offices were
(heated. ,
The men had on overcoats. Boat
wright, supposedly manager of the
plant. Invited them to tak; oil their
overcoats. They said “No.”
PIC
1 m fr
The Secret Service Man stepped in front of one of the crooks and
grabbed his arm. The other operative immediately covered the sec
ond counterfeiter
While one man talked business, the
other sat in a chair, in the middle of
the room, both hands thrust deep In his
overcoat pockets. Boatwright suspected
the man was armed.
Then the visitori asked to be shown
through the plant—the deal consum
mated. , Boatwright sensed this was the
moment few a planned hold-up. He
asked them to wait a minute. Every
body in the room stood. As Boatwright
brushed by the larger of the two men, a
pistol was felt through his coat pocket.
By a prearranged signal, Jackson
from another room ordered a radio po
lice car to come quietly—without blow
ing sirens—to the assistance of the Se
cret Service agents. The call was put in,
but no time to wait for the responding
officers. The duo demanded action.
They were In a hurry. Wanted to see
the plant, and see It right away. Also,
stage their hold-up. They had their
eyes on a safe.
"All right," Boatwright said, as he
stepped In front of the taller man and
grabbed both his hands. He Jerked two
Colt .45-caliber revolvers froir' him.
Tossed them away. In a flash. Boat
wright turned and covered the other
man. Jackson stepped through the door
and pounced on the first man, who
tried to recover his own guns.
The radio car came and hauled these
two men to Jail. They were indignant,
put up a front. Demanded to know why
they were arrested. When photographed
and fingerprinted they admitted being
escaped convicts from the Idaho State
Penitentiary.
One man turned out to be John
Knight Giles, alias John Douglas, alias
Basil Haig, and also known as John EC
Laird. He had been serving a lifetime for
murder. His companion was Brady Dur
rell Morris, alias James M. Ford, who
had done three years at the Chilllcothe,
(O.) Reformatory before going to Idaho.
Since their escape they were wanted in
Salt Lake City for train robbery and
for killing a Deputy Marshal. Also for
robbing a bank.
When the Secret Service men looked
up Giles* record they found he was
wanted also for a robbery In Denver.
On his person he carried a utility bond
of a Colorado company. That was the
bond he wanted reproduced in the St.
Paul print shop.
The Secret Service also learned that
two men escaped at the same time from
the Idaho State Penitentiary with Giles
and Morris. These men were Elliott W.
Mlchener and Richard Franzeen.
Now the Secret Service operatives
were getting somewhere. Tilings were
beginning to add up. Tell-tale tokens
in various parts of the Western country
Were checked. *
For instance, a month before the ar
rest of Giles and Morris, and the final
bun of activities in and around the
Twin Cities, Secret Service men cracked
down on a house in Alameda, Calif. It
was a counterfeiter’s den—but the occu
pants had fl6wn. However, a stolen
printing press was recovered and It hap
pened to be a press taken from Minne
apolis, along with a lot of counterfeit
ing material. Agents got 100 incomplete
flve-dollar United States notes.
The recovered press, an imported ma
chine valued highly, bore one distin
guishable thumb mark. So did a proof
print, left in the hurry to get away
That thumb mark presented possibil
ities. It did more. It resulted in the
Secret Service getting their men—Mlch
ener and Franzeen. Fingerprint ex
perts narrowed that thumb-mark down
to one man—Richard Franzeen.
The Secret Service now knew posi
tively who they wanted—but the two
men were on the loose and traveling
last. TTieir trail led through a vast ter
ritory. They scattered spurious notes as
they went
In a liquor store otie night In Mon
tana, the proprietor questioned the gen
uineness of a $lO bill. Michener pulled
a pistol on the man and made his es
cape; but the note remained behind as
an indication of the direction these two
men followed. It was in another liquor
store that Michener came face to face
with Secret Service agents, who knew
his habits, but * s time his pistol was
of no use. They knocked It out of his
hands before he fired a shot.
Franzeen, his partner, went to work
on a farm In Northfleld, Minn. After
all the excitement he decided to go
straight. Once he had studied to be a
military man. Even had an appoint
ment to West Point. Six months on the
farm, leading a quiet regular Use, started
$ g j. I 1 l--.ISM
him thinking. He might still get back to
be a useful member of society if some
Judge would only be lenient. Because
the farmer, Floyd Jones, had been good
to his hired man, Franzeen decided to
let the old fellow collect the reward of
fered for the arrest and conviction of a
counterfeiter. The farmer called the
Minnesota State authorities. They knew
nothing of the case, they said. It was
more difficult for Richard Franzeen to
surrender than it was for him to avoid
arrest, in the past.
Finally, when the Secret Service got
the welcome news they went out to the
old farmhouse in Northfleld, and brought
In the man.
From Michener and- Franzeen. in an
effort to piece together a rambling story
and check their records, the Secret Serv
ice learned many interesting things.
Michener and Franzeen went into a
factory near Minneapolis one Saturday
afternoon just after all the work-hands
had gone for the day. The desperadoes
blew the safe and got out the treas
urer’s check book. They spent an hour
or so forging checks. Then, one of them
went into the business district and pre
sented these for cash, while the other
remained in the factory to answer phone
calls.
Whenever any merchant expressed
doubt about a check, Michener told him
to call up the factory and talk to the
officials.
Franzeen answered the phone and
pretended he was the company treasurer.
“It’s okay,” he'd say. “Give the man
his money.”
Michener and Franzeen specialized in
raiding print shops—at night—working
under cover of darkness. In those places
they made their notes.
On their last big Job In a print shop,
working in semi -darkness, afraid to turn
on all the lights, Franzeen and Michener
left another Identification mark that
helped prove their undoing. When they
finished their work, prepared to depart,
they overlooked one impression made on
the press—the back plate number of a
$lO note.
On all notes there are two numbers—
the back plate number and the front
plate number.
All Secret Service agents had to do
now was put their fingers on these men.
Their habits known. It was s case of
watchful waiting by Uncle Sam’s unre
lenting agency.
When Michener and Franzeen were
confronted with all the evidence against
them they confessed. On their pleas of
guilty they were sentenced to serve
thirty years, on two counts, In Alcatraz.