Author: Bidwell, George.
Title: Forging His Own Chains. The Wonderful Life-Story of George Bidwell. Entering Business As Honest a Young Man As Ever Left a Puritan Home - a Merchant - His Commercial Misfortunes - Thrilling Adventures in Europe and America - the Extraordinary Events, Circumstances, and Influences Which, at 40 Years of Age, Landed Him in Newgate - the Memorable Trial at the Old Bailey for the Conception and Execution of the So-Called 1,000,000 [Pound] Fraud on the Famous Bank of England. [Inscribed & Signed by the Author's Brother Austin Bidwell, Who Was Also Convicted of the Crime].
Description: Hartford, Connecticut: The Bidwell Publishing Company, (1891). (1891). INSCRIBED & SIGNED BY AUSTIN BIDWELL WHO, WITH HIS BROTHER GEORGE, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BANK OF ENGLAND FORGERIES - Octavo, 9 inches high by 6 inches wide. Pictorial green cloth titled in silver on the spine and elaborately illustrated and titled in silver and black on the front cover. The covers are rubbed and soiled with wear to the edges and corners. The head and tail of the spine are chipped. 624 pages, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait, several full-page plates and textual illustrations throughout. The hinges are cracked and the last signature (i.e. group of pages) is lightly pulled with wear to the front edges of those pages. A strip of white tape at the top of the front pastedown obscures a prior annotation. A good working copy. A version of this autobiography was first published in 1888 in Chicago by the Art Album Company. This Bidwell edition, published in 1891, includes an appendix with material from 1891. A wonderful association copy, inscribed on the verso of the frontispiece by the author's brother Austin Bidwell, who participated in the forgery scheme, with a clipped portrait of Austin pasted at the center. Austin Bidwell has penned the following quote attributed to Ovid along the top of the page "Finis coronat opus" [The end crowns the work]. Presenting the book, Bidwell has penned "With compliments of" above his portrait and signed himsel "Austin Bidwell / (F.A. Warren)" below. Bidwell used the name "F.A. Warren" in pursuit of his crimes. He has further penned "The fineness of a man's mettle is not found in Fortune's love But in the wind and tempest of her frown", a paraphrase from Agamemnon's speech in Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida" (Act 1, Scene 3). In 1873, four American con-artists colluded to defraud the Bank of England of over 102,000 British Pounds, a sum nearly equivalent to 10 million pounds in modern days. Brothers George and Austin Bidwell, together with George MacDonnell and Edwin Noyes, each of whom were experienced forgers before this crime, set themselves up in business in England and opened a deposit account with a branch of the Bank of England. Starting off with legitimate transactions, they then took advantage of the fact that time bills deposited with the Burlington Gardens branch of the Bank of England were not sent to the signers to be initialed. They went on to deposit bills supposedly signed by the Rothschilds, Baring Brothers, Jay Cooke and McCulloch & Co. The scheme was only discovered when it was found that several of the bills bore no date and bank officials dispatched a messenger to the issuer to have them dated. An alarm was sounded and all were eventually captured. In Austin Bidwell's words published in the April 2, 1899 issue of the "San Francisco Call" newspaper: "I left England, believing the world was mine, and settled down in the West Indies.. I had no fear of the English police .. and I never counted on their employing the American police after their own had failed to locate me. Unluckily for myself, I was mistaken. John Bull had his back up and determined to have me in his clutches, no matter what it cost; so after the English police failed to find me the bank employed the Pinkertons, with orders to spare no expense." After serving nearly 20 years, Austin Bidwell died in New York in 1899, only a few weeks prior to his brother's death. His obituary in the March 9, 1899 issue of the New York Times, under the headline "Austin Bidwell Dead. He Was Noted for Having Robbed the Bank of England", states that "The cause of his death was given as grip. He was fifty-two years of age and a native of Chicago, to which place his body will be taken for burial..Austin Bidwell was one of the most remarkable criminals in his line of business that this country has produced. Fair .

Keywords: TRUE CRIME; AMERICANA; AUTOBIOGRAPHY; FORGERS; FAMOUS CRIMINALS; AUSTIN BIDWELL; GEORGE BIDWELL; FORGING HIS OWN CHAINS; THE WONDERFUL LIFE-STORY OF GEORGE BIDWELL; ILLUSTRATED; ILLUSTRATIONS; NINETEENTH CENTURY; DEFRAUDING; BANK OF ENGLAND; FORGERY; INSC


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