Secret Service Secrets

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

Secret Service Secrets

End of A Ring

By JOHN JAY DALY.

rRRELL, of the Secret Service, sat en the front porch of his home in San Antonio, Texas, a late afternoon in August, all duties done for the day. His wife was in a hammock nearby. Down the street a Mexican strummed a guitar. A limousine passed by the house. It stopped not far away. Two men got out.

"Looks like s holdup," Ed. Tyrrell remarked to his wife. Hs got up and sauntered down the street, following the men to • small business centre.

They separated. One entered a chain grocery store. The other crossed the street, went into a drug store. Through the shop .window Tyrrell saw the girl cashier In the grocery examine a piece of paper money, shake lier head and hand the note back to the stranger. He paid his bill with other monpy, came out of the store and walked toward his parked car, near the house whore the Tyrrells lived. Tyrrell followed. As he went by his Irnmo, Mrs. Tyrrell came down the walk. Nip mot. her husband at the gate. From under hpr apron she produced a .38 revolver, which she had got from the hmißP while Tyrrell followed the men.

With n, woman's Intuition, Mri. Tyrrell scented trouble. Tyrrell believed no had a counterf.-iter. Not able to follow him in a car and fearful the other nmn would show up, Tyrrell accosted the Btrnnßer an he approached the parked automobile.

"Who are your the man asked mis

riir'ioiisly, Tyrrell showed his card—goldenengraved credentials from the United Suites Treasury Department. Like nn enraged tiger the stranger shoved Tyrrell n gainst the limousine, pulled ii .-1"> from Its holster and opened Hie. The first shot missed Tyrrell by iin inch. Before the second shot was on its way, Tyrrell hnd his gun in action. The nmn fell, fntnlly wounded, a bullet thikugh his heart. Just its the stranger hit the sidewalk the second man ran from the drug store. He started another fusillade. Tyrrell felt the breeze of six bullets as they whizzed by him. He dropped behind a tree. His antagonist got in the limousine and made a getaway. Tyrrell k shot three times through the back of the car.

A crowd gathered. Someone phoned for an ambulance. The. police arrived.

Examination of the dead man proved him to be one of the most-sought-after counterfeiters in America, Adrian Seney, master mind in a ring that kept the Secret Service ;jn the move many years. On Seney's body were found 50odd brand new 20-dollar Federal Reserve notes, fresh off the press; printed only long enough to be dry.

Immediately a man-hunt was on for the escaped partner, known to be Lloyd H. Anderson. He had been more successful in the drug store —passed one of the notes—and had come out to find his pal shot down by Tyrrell.

Every Mam Roped In For Mom Hunt

Every Secret Service nan In the Great South-west went on the trail of Anderson, with Tyrrell directing the search. Description of the fugitive was broadcast over the territory. . Tyrrell got the license number of the limousine. Toward midnight it was found on a little side street in San Antonio, abandoned. The' car contained many purchases made with counterfeit bills. Before dawn the Secret Service men located the Seney-Anderson hide-out , and entered, only to find the remains of a counterfeit plant. The men were on the move.

The hunt continued. Phony notes made by Seney began to show up in little towns in the Panhandle.

One day a bank teller caught one of the Seney notes. The Secret Service was notified. They were hot on Anderson s trail now. From four points the agents crowded in, directed by Tyrrell They circled their man, aaw him enter a hotel.

No doubt about the description, no doubt this man was Anderson. Tyrrell

would never forget him. He was per

mitted to enjoy an evening meal and pay for it with a "queer" bill. It bore

all the earmarks of Seney's work. Tyrrell himself examined the note at the cashier's desk and decided to put an end to Anderson's career. The Secret Service man hod an old score to settle. It was twilight in front of the hotel when Tyrrell stepped up to Anderson, who pulled an automatic, but too late. Tyrrell took the gun away from the man. Single-handed he arrested Anderson and put him in prison.

After severe questioning, Anderson admitted that the plates from which the Seney notes were printed had first seen the light of day in Kansas City, Mo., ""and that understudies were even then operating there. The Secret Ser* vice, with this information, broke up one of the biggest counterfeiting plants in the Mid-West. Anderson, when he pleaded guilty, was sentenced to seven years in Leavenworth Penitentiary. J . From what Anderson admitted and what Secret Service men knew of this team, Seney and Anderson, the Treasury Department reports contain one of the most fascinating stories in the history of modern counterfeiting.

In the course of his career Adrian Seney travelled under several aliases. Once he was known as A. D. Duncan.

At another time he was Albert D. Hill-

yer. Whatever his name, he was ,the master mind of a gang. He had associated with him only the best in the business, expert photo-engravers, master printers, clever passers and all good marksmen. They had to be quick on the draw. All over the country the handiwork of Adrian Seney was known by Secret Service men. He had teamed with Lloyd Anderson from the time they first met

in 1905. They floated fake Federal Reserve bills on banks in each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts from California to New York, from Florida to Washington State. When Seney faced Ed Tyrrell and was shot to death that day in San Antonio it was no£ the first gun battle of this desperado, but it was the first time he failed to make a getaway. He met a better shot. Powder marks on Ed Tyrrell's left temple told the story of his narrow escape. Tyrrell, a Brooklyn boy, went into the Secret Service whep he was 18, and has been at it 40 years.

Walked Into Police > In Town In Texas When Anderson walked into the arms of the law that night in a little Texas town it was not the first time he had seen Secret Service men, either.. Previously they nabbed him in March, 1028, and found in hia possession 114 bad 20-dollar bills. He pleaded guilty and was given a year and a day in gaol. From the date of his release on that charge until he was caught the last time in Texas, Anderson was sought all over the United States by Secret Service men, wherever they had branch offices.

Until the Tyrrell incident, which turned up two prizes at once, Secret. Service men had come to the belief that

these two, Seney and Anderson, could * -a. j rr»i •

not be captured. They were about as clever as crooks come. Though the Secret Service was sometimes within a day or night behind them, Seney and Anderson managed to "work" the big hotels of San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City and New York. Aside from their cleverness in making and passing counterfeit money, they had plenty of nerve. It is estimated that between them they got

away with almost £400,000 in notes so beautifully made that Treasury experts were forced to admire the workmanship.

One of the Seney-Anderson plants uncovered in Chicago turned out Federal banknotes almost as good as the United States Government makes in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at Washington.

"Seney's notes were almost perfect," according to Julian Baber, Secret Service man who examines all counterfeit notes sent into the Treasury Department.

With this near approach to actual currency, Seney and Anderson had no hesitation in driving their limousine up to the entrance of any good hotel in America and registering under aliases. Then they went to work. They spent only a day or so in any one locality. Before they left that place was pretty well laden with samples of their art. They specialised in "twenties." They passed these in cocktail rooms, at cigar counters, news stands and even at the cashiers' desks.

By a strange quirk of fate it was the shoddiest note that Seney ever made which caused his end in San Antonio. Ordinarily a corner grocery store in a residential section would be ideal for "putting over a phony." Ordinarily, had Seney carried with him some of his, higher-class notes, his apprehension would never have taken place. What happened was, he had a mediocre workman in the plant at San Antonio, instead of an old-line pressman like he employed in Chicago.

On file in the Treasury Department are samples of almost every species of bill made by Seney, at least one bill out of every issue. The workmanship improved with experience.

From the time Seney and Anderson started out on their counterfeiting career, back in 1905, they had 12 years to try their hands at the game before the Secret Service trapped them. This in itself is a tribute to their cleverness. They were first arrested in Montebello, Calif., for possessing and passing new counterfeit notes. They pleaded guilty and each was sentenced to one year and one day in gaol. Each was fined £1000. While the fine was paid in good legal tender, the lawyer who defended them got the remainder of his money, after the first payment, in good old-fashioned Seney notes.

When Ed Tyrrell shot Adrian Seney to death that day in San Antonio, this Secret Service man did a great favour for the American people, according to Treasury officials. Tyrrell put an end to a career of crime that had gone a long way. As a result of this acticm, breaking up the team of Seney and Anderson, many innocent persons will never again be imposed upon by two of the cleverest counterfeiters who ever came into the survey always being made by -the Secret Service. And only for a woman's presence of mind, Mr. Tyrrell getting the gun for her husband, this might have been a different story. In the annals of the Treasury Department this occurrence is the one positive proof that a Secret Service man is never off duty.—Copyright.