Gangsters and Outlaws Novelty Money

Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone was an Italian American gangster whose crime syndicate was dedicated to the smuggling and bootlegging of liquor during the Prohibition era in the 1920s and 1930s. Al Capone, known also as Scarface, was the boss of the Chicago Outfit, a criminal organization. He earned the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he was placed on the Chicago Crime Commission’s “Public Enemies List.” Capone’s gang was linked to the famous 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in which 7 members of a rival gang were cut down by machine gun fire. Although the FBI was never able to convict Capone of racketeering, his gangster career ended in 1931 when he was convicted of income tax evasion by the federal government following an investigation led by Treasury Agent Elliot Ness, of “The Untouchables” fame. Capone was sentenced to eleven years in Federal prison, and served six and a half years when he was released for good behavior from Alcatraz Prison, and transferred to a California prison to serve a one-year misdemeanor term. He was never able to regain control of the gang after his prison term. He died in 1947.

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Jesse James

Novelty Money Bill # 245

Our Jesse James bill honors that famous Wild West outlaw

Jesse James was an American outlaw who was the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang, which robbed banks, trains, stagecoaches, and even a county fair, beginning during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War. The James Gang was chased by agents of the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The gang killed one Pinkerton agent who tried to infiltrate, and in one day killed two more Pinkerton agents. Although Allan Pinkerton swore the world was too small to hide Jesse, he never did capture him. Jesse was shot in the back in 1882 in St. Joseph, MO by a new member of his gang, Bob Ford, who was possibly in collusion with the Missouri governor who offered a reward to Ford for Jesse’s death. Jesse and his brother Frank became folk heroes for their exploits.

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Wild West

Novelty Money Bill # 061

This beautiful bill, The Wild West, pictures famed California robber Black Bart, the poet bandit, who robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches from 1875 to 1883.

This beautiful bill, The Wild West, pictures famed California robber "Black Bart," the poet bandit, who robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches from 1875 to 1883. Bart was later identified as Charles E. Boles, a middle-aged gentleman with good manners. Bart would wait at the crest of a hill and emerge with a double barrel, twelve-gauge shotgun when his chosen victim, always a Wells Fargo stagecoach, slowed near the crest. He would rob the stagecoach of its strong box but would resist robbing the passengers. He often left a note in the empty strongbox signed, "Black Bart, the PO8" (poet). Twenty-eight times Black Bart successfully robbed Wells Fargo coaches. On the twenty-ninth time he was wounded by a passenger who shot at him as he fled. Investigators found a blood-stained handkerchief with a laundry mark. That mark led them to a San Francisco laundry where Boles was identified and subsequently taken into custody. He was convicted and sentenced to six years (served 4) in the famous San Quentin Prison. His sentence was light because Bart was not part of a gang, but was a solitary robbery; he never loaded his twelve-gauge shotgun; he was afraid of horses, so he walked to the robberies and ran away; Bart was not young, but was a rather aging man; and Bart was a gentleman who never cursed or showed disrespect during robberies. The Front of the Bill shows a likeness purported to represent Black Bart, a stagecoach similar to the 29 that Boles robbed, and the famous Colt revolver handgun. The Back of the Bill shows a western landscape scene between pictures of a solitary outlaw and an outlaw gang.

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