Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-12-30 | Page 25 | W. H. Moran is Chief of Secret Service

W. H. 11 IS CHEF OF SECRET SERVICE Successor to Flynn Said to Be Most Clever Counterfeiter Counter-feiter Detector. WASHINGTON, Dec. '29. AY. II. Moran, assistant chief of the treasury secret service for the last ten years, will become chief January 1, to succeed suc-ceed AVilliam J. Flynn, resigned. His appointment was announced tonight by Secretary McAdoo. Mr. Moran entered the secret service thirty-five years ago as an operative and has experience in all branches of the w:ork. lie was largely responsible for detection of the noted counterfeit of the $100 Monroe head silver certificate in 1897, the result of which was the withdrawal of the entire issue, and the discovery of an extensive conterfeiting plot. Mr. Moran had charge of many famous secret service investigations, including in-cluding the cotton leak case. "By experience and training he is admirably equipped to undertake the important work of chief," said Secretary Secre-tary McAdoo. Mr. Moran has been acting chief since Mr. i'lynn :s resignation a few days j ago. Discovery of the Monroe bill head gave Mr. Moran tho reputation of being one of the most clever counterfeiter detectors de-tectors in the world. The note was under un-der suspicion, but many experts pronounced pro-nounced it genuine. Mr. Moran insisted insist-ed it was a fraud, and proved bis contention con-tention by gathering a pan of hot water from a radiator, soaking tho bill, nnd pulling the two faces apart, it was then found that the counterfeiters had carefully laid silk threads between the two faces to imitate genuine certificates certi-ficates and had pasted the two engraved en-graved pieces together so nicely that the product fooled every expert "of the bureau of engraving and printing and every secret service man but one. It took a year to run down the makers, but twelve were finally arrested and prosecuted. It became the most famous counterfeiting case m Amerran history, and the credit went to Mr. Moran. In many other eases M r. Mnrnn gained the reputation for solving difficult diffi-cult criminal cases by close analysis and unique methods. He ran down a coin counterfeiter in Louisville by affixing af-fixing pins to a eit.v map at every point where a counterfeit was discovered and then senrchine for a man who did business busi-ness in certain streets where the pins were thickest. A huckster was caught and convicted.