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A. H. HATLET.fetters. The notorious Miles Ogle, now doing time on his seoond conviction, had the advantage of many years of pracfcioe, during which time he was associated with a gang of clever men and had abundant opportunities to work, with all the facilities of the professional crook for disposing of the stuff.Taking the work of these two notorious criminals as a criterion, the work of Haf-ley may be properly called phenomenal. A country reared boy, his knowledge of engraving mostly self taught, without the advantages of secret channels of information and methods relied on by professional crooks, he produoed a counterfeit seoond only to those made by Hill and incomparably better than Ogle’s beat work.It is not the least wonderful feature of Hailey's work that he was enabled to do this work in a rural community, where everybody’s business is known to everybody else, without awakening the slightest suspicion. More than this, it now develops that, beginning as a boy of 18 years, he has for the last ten years been making and disposing of counterfeit gold and silver coin without arousing suspicion. Thiswould seem almost incredible but for the evidence of his father, given in the trial of Hafley and Lucien Hubbard of St. Francis, who was arrested after the arrest of the Wilson brothers and Hafley on a charge of being an accomplice.Hafley, Sr., is a respectable, well to do farmer and bad neither knowledge nor suspicion of his son’s wrongdoing. He identified Hubbard as a man who visited bis house two years ago, when he affected to engage his son to perfect some alleged patents. Young Hafley had some mechanical genius, and the family was proud of his success in obtaining lucrative employment. Hubbard stipulated that the work must be done in absolute secrecy, and that none of Hafley’• family must be admitted to the workshop. This ruse succeeded admirably. Hafley *s father and brother, confiding, unsuspicious people as they wore, respected the oonfldenoe and never even attempted to learn what was going on in that mysterious workshop in the barn, but not doubting but that some day it would evolve some prodigy of mechanical genius which would place the loved son and brother on the pinnacle of fame. It was a terrible blow tothem to discover the truth.HAH A AIK I FT IN HIS HEAD.' A RURAL COUNTERFEITER.A* H. HAflejr Is la Mmj Bospaets * nominal Yonng Mm.The recent capture of A. H. Hafley of Ashley, IIla., at his home, by Otvil Service Operative Murphy, nipped in the bud the career of one of the cleverest counterfeiters in the United States. He 1* a phenomenon because of the fact that he is a ooontry boy, bora and reared on a farm, never having lived any length of time away from his father’s house. The bear counterfeit work on bills ever done in fchis oountry was probably that done by Charles W. Hill of the celebrated Driggs gang of Dayton, O.But Hill, besides the advantages of learning the engraver’s art in a large city,had been employed in the treasury department and had been connected for yean afterward with a clever gang of counter-
Newspaper Details
Wilmington Weekly Star
Wilmington, North Carolina, US
Fri, Nov 30, 1894
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Mary A.
NC, USA 01 Sep 2021
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