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Counterfeiting in the Washington Times, 1903 & 1923

HER SHARP EYES TRAP 'MONEY' MAKERS

Item

Title
HER SHARP EYES TRAP 'MONEY' MAKERS
Source
The Washington Times
Date
1923-02-28
page
16
Identifier
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1923-02-28/ed-1/?sp=16&q=counterfeiting&r=-0.122,0.036,0.472,0.282,0
Crime
Counterfeiting
Subject
bank notes, ring
Gender of alleged offender
Male and female alleged offenders
Law enforcement involved
Police
Stage of the Legal System
Arrest
Location
Out-of-state, MI
Length of story
306
Description
HER SHARP EYES TRAP ‘MONEY’ MAKERS
Detroit Girl Gets Credit for Unearthing Band of 100 Counterfeiters
DETROIT, Mich., Feb. 28.—The observing eye of nineteen year old Miss Jean Siegel, Detroit, resulted in disclosures which led to the sensational arrest of the gang of international counterfeiters in New York recently, it became known today. Miss Siegel, who works in her father’s store, noticed that Mrs. Linnlan Rossi, who with her husband, Angelo, were recently sentenced to a Federal prison for counterfeiting, failed to count her change when she tendered a $20 bill for a small purchase. When Mrs. Rossi failed to count her change. Miss Siegel told her mother, who examined the bill and, after taking it to the bank, discovered it was counterfeit. Miss Siegel and her mother notified Inspector Gustave Schink, who made a tour of the neighborhood stores and learned that several Other spurious bills had been passed. A watch was set for the passers of the worthless money and a few days later John Strompeck, a grocer notified the inspector that a girl had passed a worthless $20 bill in his store for a small purchase of groceries. Police arrested the girl, who was Freda Rossi, eight years old. She took the officers to her home, where Mr. and Mrs. Rossi were arrested and several counterfeit $20 bills taken. The prisoners were questioned by Inspector Schink and Joseph A. Palma, of the New York and Detroit secret services. Freda Rossi told them her parents made frequent trips to a small town near Buffalo, N. Y. She said her parents had given her and her brother the notes to pass. Working on this information, Chief Palma and other secret service men staged the New York raid and arrested nearly 100 persons, who are now charged with being members of the gigantic counterfeiting ring.
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