George Bidwell, 33 at the time of the forgeries, had been sentenced to two years imprisonment in 1865 for his part in defrauding grocers in West Virginia.[1] The scam began with Austin Bidwell setting up a deposit account with a branch of the Bank of England under the pretense of opening a pullman car manufacturing business in the region, so as not to raise suspicion of his large financial transactions.[3][4] Then from 21 January to 28 February 1873, the group forged and cashed over 94 bills of exchange worth over £100,000, which were then transferred to the Continental Bank.Noyes acted as the delivery man for the group, exchanging the funds obtained from the forged cheques for US bonds and gold.[1] The forgeries were discovered on 28 February 1873, when the bank contacted the alleged issuer of a banknote for the date of issue that had been omitted from the transactions the forgers had made that day.
An 1873 bill of exchange, England.
The trial of the four Americans at the
Old Bailey
, London.
