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Sentencing of Mercer County Counterfeiters

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
June 16, 1911


Two More Alleged Counterfeiters Pinched

Several Witnesses Said to Have Seen Men With Molds and Other Necessary Materials.

Jack Wilson, the head of the counterfeiting gang operating in the coal fields, was arrested by Cyrus Thompson, of the Baldwin-Felts detectives, yesterday. Thompson lay in the woods nearly all day and at a late hour yesterday afternoon he saw his man and captured him. Earlier in the day Coopoer Leonard, a brother of N. M. Leonard who was arrested the previous day, was taken. It was reported last night that the first of the Leonards arrested made a confession and implicated Wilson. It is said that a good bit of additional evidence has been secured and there are witnesses who saw the men with molds and materials. Wilson has served a term in the government prison at Atlanta for counterfeiting. It is said that the gang has been operating for six or eight months and it is possible that there is much of the spurious coin in circulation by this time.


Crime and Punishment

West Virginia Archives and History