Secrets of the Secret Service
L
-THE HOWARD BARR CASE
Razor Blades and Clever Penmanship
Convert Two-Dollar Bills Into
Twenties and Tens
Into Hundreds *
By JOHN JAY DALY
TTtROM the' very first, the United State*
‘ Secret Service was baffled. Some
one with the same artistic ability >f
Jim the Penman was engaged in the
business of making one-dollar notes look
like ten; two-dollar notes resemble
twenties and flve-dollar bills become
hundreds.
When Secret Service experts in the
Treasury Department see a phony bill
they usually know the maker—for each
counterfeiter or note-raiser has certain
characteristics. Not in this case, how
ever This was a newcomer to the fie’d,
so far as the Secret Service knew. They
had never seen the work before until it
began to show uf around Nashville and
Memphis, Tenn.
Though members of the Secret Service
had come in contact with many artist*
in the course of long careers, all those
who saw the new series of raised bank
notes paid tribute to the ability of the
unknown counterfeiter.
“Here," Chief Moran said, “is one of
the best in the business. Get him!"
There seemed to be no way to get the
nan; no clue to his whereabouts. He
was in hiding. Then one day three men
were picked up in one day, all passing
the same brand of bills.
Taken to podce stations in Memphis,
the men were found to be ex-convicts
recently paroled from the State prison
at Nashville.
“Could it be." Secret Service men
asked, “that these notes are made in
prison?”
That’s Just, where they started from—
the 8tate Penitentiary at Nashville.
Though the ex-convicts arrested would
not "squeal.” Secret Service agents fol
lowed a hunch.
All men coming out of the peniten
tiary on discharge or parole were
watched. Nearly each one of them had
In his possession raised notes which he
attempted to pass; and. in most cases,
did pass. There was the tipoff. Those
notes were being raised in a cell.
With the co-operation of State offi
cials, the United States Secret Service
went to work in the Tennessee Peniten
tiary. They tracked down a counter
feiter who, for two years, had baffled the
best detectives in the country.
Finally, after ja process of elimination,
they settled their attention on one How
ard Barr,'a man in his early thirties
doing twenty years for grand larceny.
Barr, before being convicted, was one
of those sidewalk pen-and-ink artists
a fellow with a little table and cards and
Ink. He wrote your name with* all kinds
of nourishes on calling cards, with birds
and Howers and finery—filigree work. On
the side, Barr was also a show-card
writer, clever at lettering. It looked
like this might be the man.
He was the man. In his idle moments
and without regular occupation, Barr
found life behind the bars rather monot
onous. So he conceived the idea of
decorating Uncle Sam’s currency. With
special erasers he worked out a plan to
remove most of the identifying charac
teristics from a dollar bill—and replace
them with those of the ten-do'Vnr note.
A two-dollar bill became a twenty
under Barr's skillful operation. His
The Secret Service men rushed to the cell. But before they could re
trieve the counterfeit bill, Barr swallowed it, thus destroying the
evidence
touch raised the ordinary five to the
aristocratic one hundred.
Without market inside prison walls for
these wares, Barr contacted outgoing
prisoners. On a business-like basi' he
sold them the raised notes for a cer
tain quantity of good coin and currency.
Only those who could keep secrets
were peEmitted to get in on the racket.
Barr, through association with the pris
oners. hand-picked his men. By obey
ing his Instructions, they found little
difficulty passing the raised bills to un
suspecting persons. In that way Barr
^ kept at his new-found trade.
Not even the prison officials knew
what their artistic guest was doing until
Secret Service got on the Job. Then
prison officials refused to believe such a
thing could happen in a well-regulated
penitentiary.
Still, at intervals, the notes showed
up—and the arrest o' ex-convicts paved
the pathway back to the pen. The ac
cusing finger pointed always W Barr. He
was placed under close surveillance. One
day prison officials and Secret Service
men discovered in his .cell a complete
assortment of materials—inks, erasers,
pens and artist’s tools that might be
used in note-raising.
This confirmed the belief of Secret
Service agents that Barr was their man.
Still they could not get any direct evi
dence on him. Barr knew le boys were
now on his trail. He temporarily dis
continued work. For a month or two
all was quiet on the prison tier where
Barr lived.
Then a new series of notes made their
appearance. All bore the earmarks of
Barr's handiwork. Observation o' Barr
was further increased.
Aroused at being baffled. Secret Serv
ice men and prison officials crept up to
Barr's cell while he had his back to the
grated door. They caught him in the
act of raising a one-dollar bill to a ten.
Before the agents could actually cap
ture his work, Barr swallowed the bill—
fresh ink and all.
Now it became a battle of wits. Barr
had actual proof he was being watched.
His equipment had been taken away
from him. He lay quietly in his cell
planning.
Then the notes began to come out
again. This tim there was another
method. Barr, with the aid c* a safety
razor blade, patiently developed the art
of splitting a dollar bill in two ports—
separating tile face from the back. He
did the same thing with a twenty-dollar
bill. Then he pasted the front of a
twenty on the back of a one. With his
clever pen he made the back of the one
dollar bill look .ike the back of a twenty.
He took the back of a twenty-dollar bill
and pasted it to the front of a one.
That frontispiece was raised to twenty.
Thus Barr found a method of saving
himself lots of trouble—and passing only
half-counterfeit bills. He got away with
that for some time until the Secret
Service agents grew tired of this man in
a cell who flooded the Southern States
with queer money.
They wrung a confession out of a con
federate. Then they confronted Barr.
Unable to refute the charges against
him, he was indicted in Nashville for
note-raising. Brought before United
States Judge Qore to answer the indict
ment against him, Barr pleaded guilty.
This was ttie first breathing spell the
prison officials had since the Secret
Service traced America’s second Jim the
Penman to a cell. Although Howard
Barr had many years to serve under
the grand larceny charge, officials of the
State of Tennessee were so glad to get
rid of him that they waived all claims
on him—turned him over to the custody
of the United States authorities.
Barr was convicted and sentenced to
ten years in the Federal Penitentiary at
Atlanta—a term shorter than he had to
fulfill an his lesser charge; but that
made no difference. In Atlanta Ban
will make no more trouble for the Se
cret Service.
“His money-raising days are over,” an
official of the Secret Service remarked
the other day, discussing the Barr -ase.
“Only money he can raise now will be
legitimate—for work in the penitentiary,
If he chooees to do so.”
Nevertheleea, Secret Service men and
experts at the Bureau ot Engraving and
Printing express admiration for Barr's
ability with pen and ink. Some of the
notes he raised are on exhibit in the
Treasury Department, shown to young
men training for detective work as the
highest form of this nefarious art.
With all this artistry behind them,
however, the Barr notes could be passed
only on a gullible public. They are
handsomely done, but they have their
give-away—and the give-away on any
raised note happens to be the picture of
a President of the United States.
According to Secret Service men. lack
of alertness on the part of the American
public makes it possible for men like
Barr to raise bank notes and have them
passed.
There are other ways of detecting
spurious money. For instance, there is
the "feel'’ of the paper. Those who
handle a great deal of paper money can
tell almost intuitively when a bill is
counterfeit It is a good rule, when in
doubt, to compare the feel of a question
able bill with one that you know is
genuine.
Every one should guard against
counterfeiting and report immediately
when they have discovered a spurious
bill. Don't wait when you have detected
one.
“If people handling money gave more
than passing attention to bills that come
their way. we'd have little trouble in this
direction,” one of the authorities says.
"Any one who handles paper money
should be aware of the fact that a ten
dollar note does not carry the portrait
of George Washington.”
Yet that is the picture all of Howard
Barr's ten-dollar bills carried—George
Washington. A legitimate ten-dollar
note out of the Bureau of Engraving
has a picture of Alexander Hamilton.
Twenties carry a portrait of Jackson;
fifties. Grant; one hundreds. 'Franklin;
five hundreds, McKinley, and a thou
sand-dollar bill a picture of Cleveland.
Barr, in his cell, had plenty of time
to improve upon Uncle Sam's currency
to the extent of raising one-dollar bills
to ten; but even ho—artist that he is—
could not make over a portrait of George
Washington into that of Alexander
Hamilton.
Out of a cell in the State Penitentiary
at Nashville came what the Secret Serv
ice men. in jocular mood, refer to as a
sell-out—for one of the raised notes was
passed on a warden.