Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1894 — UNDER GROUND MINT. [ARTICLE]

UNDER GROUND MINT.

A. Subterranean Counterfeiters' Den Raided in Oklahoma. Baiheli of the Queer Scooped Up by th< Officers—lmportant Arrests. • e A Guthrie, O. T., special Dec. 11, says: A squad of deputy United States marshals ids Just unearthed a powerful and dan<erons gang of counterfeiters which hat been operating in conjunction with confederates in Indiana, Missouri and othei States. A chance word uttered by a member of the gang while intoxicated led to a raid and the subsequent lodging in In the United States jail of the foilowing leaders of the gong: Guy Harper, L Drawford, Joseph Tillery, Jess Locket! and Sam Lockstt. After shadowing , these men thres months the outlaws were nabbed and unwillingly led their captors to an underground cavern a few miles east of Perkins ased by the counterfeiters as a mint and general rendezvous. After traversing ths lubterranean passage for a hundred yard! they burst in a door and covered twenty* ive men with Winchesters. The counterfeiters had been trapped so adroitly and sere so taken by surprise they 'ailed to show fight and scattered through hidden exits. Every nan escaped. But it afterward developed that tho prisoners were the loaders of the gang and the others were only cappers, whose work was to float the spurious •,oln. The officers gathered Jn three buckitsful of counterfeit dollars, perfectly hade, and two tubsful of quarters, dimes Ind nickels, besides a costly assort ment oi nolds and other paraphernalia. The men bad been operating in the cave nearly tight months, and much of tho spurioni toln was boxed find expressed to agents in Western States. All the prisoners are edicated and well dressed. Tillery was at mo time an employe In tho mint at Philaielphia.' Tho Lockett brothers resided in Perkins, where they were considered extmplary young men. The prisoners so far ire reticent and refuse to answer questbns.