The Fake $10 and the Free Meal: Counterfeiters Busted, Then Turned Loose
Two alleged bogus-money passers are caught at a Newport restaurant — but the federal attorney can't even tell if the bill was counterfeit, so they pay for their suppers and walk.
Green Goods Gang Grabbed.
Thomas Bigbee and Raymond Holmes, two alleged bogus money passers, were arrested Monday night by Officer Bennett. Bigbee had attempted to pass a poor imitation of a $10 bill at the Little Gem restaurant in payment of a meal for the pair. Bennett was present and detected the counterfeit. He took the pair in tow and landed them in the city jail, where they are held awaiting action by the federal authorities.
The pair are known to the police of Newport. Holmes was arrested last year for being the affinity of a woman residing in the restricted district in Old Town. He was given a hearing but claimed that he was a traveling man and was discharged, as he proved that he had registered at a New town hotel and had occupied his room on several occasions.
The pair are a fair sample of the bunch that is drifting into town, especially on the Idaho side, drawn here by the reports of the good times soon to arrive on account of the railroad construction.
Officer Bennett received word this morning that the U.S. district attorney had decided that the authorities could not tell whether or not the bill the parties passed was counterfeit, so advised that the prisoners be given their liberty. They were made to pay for the meals that they had been served with and discharged.
“The pair are a fair sample of the bunch that is drifting into town, especially on the Idaho side, drawn here by the reports of the good times soon to arrive on account of the railroad construction.”
Con artists and drifters trailed the railroad money into Newport, just as hustlers follow every boomtown today. And then as now, a case can dissolve on a technicality — here the government simply could not swear the bill was fake.
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