The Counterfeiter of Tacoma
A notorious gang of spurious coin makers is finally apprehended in a remote Tacoma house, ending a long cross-state crime spree.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Alice Reaper, alias Ellen Johnson, alias Mrs. Grady, one of the cleverest counterfeiters the secret service has ever encountered, has been received at San Quentin to serve five years at hard labor. Her career began in Portland, where she led a ring of counterfeiters, including Frank Lunstrum, before moving the operation to Seattle, Des Moines, and finally Tacoma. In Tacoma, Reaper hired an isolated house on a branch line of the railroad to manufacture coin on a large scale. Officers watched the gang until they had sufficient evidence, finding $135 in counterfeit silver and gold at the Des Moines headquarters before swooping down on the Tacoma house. Her 19-year-old son, Charlie Johnson, pleaded guilty and confessed that his mother had forced him to participate in shoplifting and fraud since he was an infant. Judge Hanford sentenced the boy to one year at McNeil Island and promised to help him start an honest life, though the mother remained entirely unaffected by the proceedings.
“She has not one shred of hair on her head, wearing a glossy auburn wig, and her general appearance makes her a splendid study in criminology.”
While Tacoma has shifted from a place where federal counterfeiting rings could hide in 'isolated' suburban houses to a modern urban center, the exploitation of children by parents in criminal enterprises remains a recurring tragedy. The mention of McNeil Island as a federal prison is a stark reminder of how the region's geography has long been shaped by its relationship to the penal system.
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