WEBVTT - Joseph Cosey: 'Yrs. Truly, A. Lincoln' 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:13.920 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.880 It's said his own handwriting was a neat and graceful script, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.159 not unlike Abraham Lincoln's. He could fake the hand of 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:28.320 George Washington, Edgar Allan Poe, and dozens of other historical figures. 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.360 In fact, experts believe that a large number of the 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.240 documents he produced in the early twentieth century are still 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:40.599 in circulation today and inaccurately regarded as genuine. Today, we're 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.120 telling the story of Martin Kannely alias Joseph Cosey, who 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.479 could sign Benjamin Franklin's name perhaps better than ben himself. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.720 Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky, and I'm Holly Frye. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.840 Martin Kanneely was born on February eighteenth, eighteen eighty seven, 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:02.440 in Syracuse, New York, of Robert Kennely, an Irish immigrant 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.640 who was a cabinet maker, and Sarah Bees, native to 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:13.280 the state of Virginia. He had six older siblings, Robert Junior, Patrick, Arthur, Philip, Elizabeth, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.199 and Thomas, who died in childhood. In their adulthood, Robert 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.920 Junior ran a small printing shop. Patrick became a plumber. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.919 Arthur and Philip were both cooks, and Elizabeth was married 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:31.360 with children. As a teenager, Martin acquired an insatiable taste 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.920 for mid nineteenth century American history, and, after graduating high school, 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.880 enjoyed helping Robert in the printing shop. Martin left home 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.000 at age seventeen, allegedly after he had a quarrel with 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.560 his father. It's unclear if that's true or why such 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.720 an argument may have happened, but historians think that he 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.600 ended his contact with his entire family at that time 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.320 on his own. He initially just kind of wandered around 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.360 the Midwest, working in printing shops for money. As he roamed. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.960 Coinciding with his interest in mid nineteenth century America, Martin 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.239 never met a library he didn't like, and he explored 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.640 the resources at the local branch in each city in 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:17.239 town he found himself in. Unfortunately, with the increasing popularity 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.519 of the Linotype machine, Martin found his work drying up. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.880 Introduced in eighteen eighty six, Linotype was revolutionizing the type 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.120 setting and printing industry by combining the casting, setting, and 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.760 distributing of type into one machine. But that type of 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.440 streamlining also meant there was no longer a need for 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.200 people with Martin's skill set. In nineteen oh eight, he 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.520 was living in Chicago, where he'd been hired by the 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.239 Bureau of Charities to distribute its reports. Finding the work 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.639 tedious and the pay a joke, he didn't last more 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.520 than a year before he decided to join the. 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:54.400 Army as a private with Company G nineteenth Infantry. Martin 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.760 was sent to the Philippines in nineteen thirteen, though he 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.480 was back home in the United States, he dishonorably discharged 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:06.400 for assaulting the company cook. Later, Martin recalled that army 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.800 discipline permanently prejudiced him against law and order, and it 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.840 is around this time in his life that he turned 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.200 to petty crime. It is also when he began to 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:21.040 spiral into alcoholism. Some records of his life sadly suggest 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.520 that as the years went on, Martin was happy to 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.120 forge you a document or signature in exchange for nothing 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:27.880 more than a drink. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.320 His discharge from the military may have been the first 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.800 known instance of Martin as a forger. He made himself 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.960 a certificate of honorable discharge and also tweaked his army 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.960 service record. His new records stated he had served first 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.080 with the one hundred and fifty third Depot Brigade at 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.240 Fort Slocum, New York, and then with Group C Repair 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:56.040 Units three six and three eleven at Camp Hollibird in Maryland. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.480 He edited his personal information, making himself a eight years 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.920 younger than his actual age, and he noted that his 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.000 character while in service was quote very good. 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.560 After separating from the Army, Martin spent several years, well, 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.400 as best as we can tell, just drifting. Shortly upon 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.000 his return to the United States, he was convicted for 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.400 stealing a motorcycle in Sacramento, California. That was nineteen thirteen, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.120 and he was sentenced to eighteen months in San Quentin Prison. 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.719 He served about six of those months under the alias 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.039 Joe Halloway. Upon his release, he began riding trains back 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.400 and forth across the United States, of course, stopping at 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.159 all the libraries he could along the way to check 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.640 out their American history selections. 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.240 His list of arrests grew under the alias Frank Thompson. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.080 Martin was arrested in Philadelphia on December fourth, nineteen fourteen, 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.440 while trying to cash a forged check, but because he 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.760 hadn't actually succeeded in doing so, the court gave him 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:03.599 a suspended sentence. In nineteen sixteen, as John Martin, he 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.640 was arrested after cashing a forged check in San Jose, California, 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.520 and was sentenced again to San Quentin, this time for 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.000 three years. It's unclear how much of this sentence he 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:14.880 actually did serve. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.320 Fresh out of prison and employed as a runner for 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:24.279 a Philadelphia bank, Martin, under his Frank Thompson alias, stole 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.240 thirty thousand dollars worth of negotiable bonds by forging the 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.400 delivery receipts. He was arrested the very same day when 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.800 he attempted to convert all of those bonds into cash 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.719 at once. He was sentenced to three years in the 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.000 Eastern State Penitentiary and served just about one of those 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.960 years of this crime. Martin stated quote, in a way, 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.520 I suppose it was wrong, but no one would have 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.599 been hurt even if I hadn't been caught. After all, 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:54.080 the bank was insured. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.320 Martin, though didn't stay out of prison for long. In 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.599 nineteen twenty two, using the alias Arthur Roche, he was 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.320 arrested while trying to cash another forged check, this time 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.520 in Boston. He was sent to the Massachusetts State Reformatory 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.880 for five years, of which he served two Out of 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.960 prison and back in Philadelphia, Martin, under the alias Frank Thompson, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.960 was again arrested for cashing a series of forged checks. Convicted, 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.560 he was sentenced to eight to sixteen years in Holmesburg Prison, 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:27.800 and he was paroled after five years served. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.360 If it sounds like he did a lot of prison 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.920 time for cashing forged checks or trying to cash forge checks, 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:39.080 it's because he did. Between nineteen thirteen and nineteen twenty nine. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.479 If you'd total it all up, he'd spent roughly a 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:46.320 decade in prison, primarily for larceny. And then, one day 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.839 in nineteen twenty nine, quote, a slender little man with 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.440 a lock of brown hair drooping over the right side 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.240 of his forehead walked into the Library of Congress in Washington, 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.520 d C. And diffidently asked the guard at the information 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.560 desk the way to the manuscript's division. He was directed 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:08.200 to the spacious Northwest Pavilion on the second floor. The 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.200 account of this published in The New Yorker in February 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.480 of nineteen fifty six, goes on to describe how he 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.920 quote gazed admiringly at its lofty ceiling, embellished with a 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.000 flight of seraphs and cherubs. In the center of the room, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.440 beneath a ring of lights, stood a massive circular table, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:29.480 divided by clear glass partitions into a number of semi 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:34.160 private segments, at some of which scholarly looking visitors sat reading. 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.480 Asked to sign the visitor's register, Martin obliged and wrote 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.920 the name Joseph Cosey. We've seen Martin use a handful 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.680 of aliases so far, in particular when he was cashing 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:51.280 forged checks, but this is the moment when Martin Kinneely 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.120 became Joseph Cosey. It was the name he used for 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.440 the remainder of his life. His trip to the Library 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.040 of Congress, experts have stayed was a defining moment for him. 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.080 Taken to a bank of mahogany card catalog files situated 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.440 at one end of the room, now Joseph Cozy began 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.280 flipping through them, making notes on call slips of the 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.840 numbers of several eighteenth and nineteenth century autographs, mostly those 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.840 of Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, that he wanted to see. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.040 He handed his lips to the attendant and took a 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.480 seat at the partition table, where several boxes, each containing 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.040 an assortment of letters, signatures, and government papers, was brought 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.640 to him. He spent nearly two hours going through the contents. 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.439 One of the documents Cozy viewed was a pay warrant 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.160 endorsed by Benjamin Franklin in seventeen eighty six when he 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:47.679 was President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.880 what is often explained as an act of excitement in 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:57.960 the moment, Cozy stole the document planned or unplanned, that's unknown. 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.160 He signed with an alien, suggesting that he wanted anonymity, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.640 but there's nothing in his crime history at this point 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.400 to suggest what was to come. In nineteen twenty nine, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.040 there was no practice in place for officials to verify 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.319 the contents of a box before restoring it to the stacks. 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.439 Cozy just walked away with the Franklin manuscript, easy enough, 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.280 and then he spent days, weeks, perhaps even months, practicing 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:30.480 and perfecting Franklin's autograph and handwriting style. Cozy later claimed 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.920 he saw nothing especially unethical in his actions, saying quote 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.240 after all the library belongs to the people, and I'm 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:38.080 one of the people. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.280 And on that note, we're going to take a break 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.160 for word from our sponsor. When we're back, we'll talk 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.120 about the first time Cozy sold a forged work and 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:58.959 the techniques he used for closing the deal with prospective buyers. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.960 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the first time 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.640 Cozy sold a forged signature and what spurred him to 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.480 do so so. 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.280 About a year after his visit to the Library of Congress, Cozy, 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.280 penniless in New York City, tried to sell the original 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.800 Franklin document he'd stolen to a New York City book dealer. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.920 The book dealer rebuffed him, though saying Cozy was peddling 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:36.400 a fake. Cozy was blown away because it was authentic. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.280 In response to the expert's inaccuracy, Cozy saw opportunity he 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:46.320 had discovered through practicing Franklin's signature, an exercise he did 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.480 with the handwriting of various famous and distinguished people in 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.760 American history, that while he was very good at mimicking Franklin, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.400 it was Abraham Lincoln's handwriting that came the easiest to him. 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.800 By nineteen thirty one. He was so proficient at imitating 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.040 Lincoln's hand he returned to the same book dealer who'd 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.440 rejected the Franklin and produced a scrap of paper with 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:12.840 the signature yours truly a Lincoln. The dealer determined it 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.600 was authentic, and Cozy made ten dollars on the sale, 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:17.360 and he found a new career. 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.480 From the early nineteen thirties until shortly after the Second 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.280 World War, Cozy forged a whole lot of people's signatures. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.120 He also forged whole letters and other manuscripts in the 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:34.000 handwriting of greats like Edgar Allan, Poe, Walt Whitman, and 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.199 Theodore Roosevelt. But of all the fakeries, he most often 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:43.080 faked Lincoln's hand. Renowned book and autographed dealer Charles Hamilton 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.280 described Cozy as quote the most skilled and versatile forger 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:52.679 of all time. He was also quite prolific as a salesman. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.480 Of his works, Cozy always had some kind of backstory 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.120 of how he'd acquired the item, sometimes elaborate, usually not, 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:05.560 though One of his favorite explanations was quote, my sister 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:07.720 used to work for a doctor, and he gave it 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.480 to her when he retired. Another example is one in 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:14.199 which he would explain that he was a Works Progress 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.200 Administration or WPA worker, and that he had found the 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.080 documents while helping demolish an old building on the Lower 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.600 East Side of Manhattan. Around nineteen thirty four, he tried 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.280 out a new inheritance story in his attempt to sell 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:31.000 a three page letter penned by Well penned by Cosey himself, 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.080 though he claimed it was written by American religious leader 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.040 and writer Mary Baker Eddie. Benjamin Bass, proprietor of the 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.480 Strand bookstore in New York City, was his target. Bass 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.800 was quoted saying, I was pretty new at the game then, 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.320 and autographs weren't exactly in my line anyway. I looked 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.880 for letters like it in records of book auctions and 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.920 saw that they brought upwards of forty dollars, so I 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.559 figured at four dollars it was worth the gamble. Bass 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:00.640 paid four dollars for that letter, but when he had 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:04.120 it examined by more experienced collectors, he found out he'd 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:05.040 been duped. 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:12.240 Under law. At the time, Cozy's forgeries were considered archaeological forgeries, 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.880 not signature or document forgeries, as we would call them today. 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:22.440 It's shady, but Cozy's statements about his documents were not illegal. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.679 As experts point out, he doesn't represent his forged documents 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.800 as anything more than some old pieces of paper he found. 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.400 According to New York law and a few other states 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.199 at the time, too, the act of forging any archaeological 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.360 object was not in and of itself illegal. In order 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.319 to get into trouble, he'd have to get caught selling 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.520 it as an authentic work. Additionally, he almost always let 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:54.000 his victim slash prospective buyers set their own prices, and 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.480 those prices usually ranged between five dollars and ten dollars 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:01.280 for the most part. On a few occaisis, it's reported 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.120 that he accepted payments as high as fifty dollars and 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:08.640 possibly seventy five dollars, and in nineteen thirty seven, it 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.680 is said that he once demanded and got one hundred dollars, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.199 and that is actually true. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.040 Getting to know Cozy has shown us that he never 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:22.280 had a lot of luck staying out of prison. In 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.080 January of nineteen thirty seven, he was arrested again, but 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.240 not for cashing forged checks. This arrest was for selling 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:33.320 a letter allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln to a stamp 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.040 dealer named Walter Gissinger in New York City. The letter 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:41.360 was enclosed in an envelope postmarked Springfield, Illinois. Cozy had 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.960 been described as uncharacteristically disheveled during this transaction, and that 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:50.480 he also uncharacteristically did the following two things during the sale. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.600 One he declared the document as genuine, which he never did, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.240 and two he declared he wanted one hundred dollars for it. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.680 They were pretty much the opposite of how he typically 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.560 worked with his prospective buyers. 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.080 So here's how it went down. Gissiger, who dealt exclusively 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.600 in stamps, sent for a friend who dealt in both 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.040 stamps and autographs. That was twenty six year old Herman 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.200 Hurst Junior, who was a relative novice in the business. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:24.040 Hurst declared that Cozy's Lincoln document was authentic and advised 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.760 that it was probably worth two or three times as 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.680 much as the asking price. He handed over one hundred dollars, 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.360 but had a caveat. He expected that that money would 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.960 be refunded if analysis proved the letter as fake, but 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.680 if it was authentic, Cozy could expect an additional payment. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.840 Once back in his office with the document, it took 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:48.320 only a moment for Hurst to see the truth. There 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:53.920 was one very obvious problem. The document was dated December second, 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.720 eighteen forty six, but the paper it was written on 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:02.560 was watermarked eighteen sixty. Hurst attempted to contact Cosey to 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.360 let him know that they had both been fooled, but 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:09.320 Hurst couldn't be sure Cosey ever got that letter, and 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.560 then Hurst framed the forged Lincoln letter and hung it 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.520 in his office as a reminder to temper your enthusiasm 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.200 when doing business. Hurst later said quote, I had the 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.960 feeling I was dealing with a reputable person. I'll admit 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.360 there was nothing at all about his appearance to make 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.440 me think so, but he did seem to have considerable 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.120 knowledge of Lincoln. I didn't stop to ask myself how 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.840 someone looking like a down and outer would come to 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.920 have a Lincoln letter in his possession, or why if 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.720 he did know anything about Lincoln, he would be willing 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:43.240 to sell the letter so cheap. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:50.000 Hurst's story spread quickly among the dealers in the stamp district. 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.760 In the nineteen thirty stamp collecting was so popular that 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.240 Nasau Street became the center of Manhattan's stamp District or 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.680 Street of Stamps, with dozens of stamp and coin dealers 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.600 along its length. Think of it like New York City's 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.359 famous stretch of flower markets on the west side of Manhattan, 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.359 or Book Row between Astor Place and Union Square. So 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.960 one day, a man named Elliott Wilson, from the Island 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.440 Stamp Company, located in the same building as Hurst's office, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.439 telephoned to say a man was in his store trying 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.800 to sell him a Lincoln letter and what should he do. 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.919 So Hirst requested that Wilson keep him there, he was 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.520 on his way and would bring police. When Hurst arrived 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:38.320 with two detectives, he immediately recognized Cozy. Cosey was trying 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.520 to sell Wilson a copy of the very same letter 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:45.080 Hurst had bought. Cozy also immediately recognized Hurst, and in 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.719 seeing him, ripped the alleged Lincoln letter to shreds. Cozy 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.840 was arrested at the police station. He first claimed he'd 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.440 found both Lincoln letters, the one he sold to Hurst 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:58.280 and the one he was trying to sell to Wilson 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.000 while cleaning out the basement a house for a woman 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:02.080 who lived in Jamaica. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.960 He did, though, drop that found it in a basement, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:10.200 excuse and confess to his forgery. This was his first 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.720 and only conviction in the role of an archaeological forger. 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.560 On February twenty fourth, nineteen thirty seven, in a Court 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.439 of Special Sessions, he pleaded guilty to petty larceny and 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.280 was sentenced to an indefinite term in the Riker's Island workhouse. 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.560 About a year later, he appeared in Hurst's shop, reportedly 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.240 to say quote, I just wanted to thank you again 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.240 for not trying to cheat me while I was cheating you. 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.680 It sounds like maybe he did read Hearst's letter after all, 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.760 but none of this stopped him or his forgery career. 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.600 In June of nineteen thirty eight, Cozy showed up at 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.680 the offices of the Box Book Company located in Brooklyn, 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.600 with three Lincoln items he wanted to sell. The documents 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.920 were secured in an envelope address to William A. Hank Wheeler, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.920 Junior Educational Radio Projects Box one ninety one Station D, 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:08.040 New York. Without actually saying so, Cozy gave the impression 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.040 that he in fact was Wheeler, and to back that 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.560 up inside the envelope with the Lincoln manuscripts was a letter, 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:18.960 also forged by Cozy, explaining the provenance of the papers. 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.199 It was directed to friend Hank and signed by A 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.240 Walter Kahn. Fox Book Company paid him three dollars for 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.080 the documents, thinking they were authentic. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.520 It's been said that Cozy was able to quote whip 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.440 out forgeries with great ease, never resorting to the amateur 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.159 device of tracery. He may have had a talent at hand, 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.280 but many experts believe that much of his success should 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.720 also be attributed to the materials that he used. For instance, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.960 at first, he used only Waterman's brand inc. Until he 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.760 discovered that it didn't fade fast enough to look like 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.399 one hundred year old ink should, so he worked at 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.240 a formula of his own with ink from the local 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:06.200 store mixed with rusted iron filings to replicate that dark 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.720 brown look of age documents. And when it came to 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:14.800 paper that depended for his more ambitious forgeries, historians note 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.800 he preferred using title pages and fly leaves of old books, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.600 which he bought when he could afford them, and he 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.320 stole them when he couldn't. When old book paper wasn't available. 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.920 He used paper that he bought at his local stationary 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:32.280 store and aged it himself. Originally, he used a weak 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:36.399 solution of oxalic acid to give new paper an old appearance. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:40.520 But while the acid did give the desired yellowish brown 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.320 tinge to the paper, there was also a problem. It 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.240 kind of messed with the size of the individual sheets 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:52.159 caused distortion. Cozy changed to a solution of potassium per manganate, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.199 which produced the same tinge but did not have that 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:56.719 resizing side effect. 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.920 We're going to take a break for from our sponsor. 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.639 When we return, we will meet g William Burkewist of 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.320 the New York Public Library, and we'll talk about how 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.600 he and Cosey found themselves in an ongoing game of 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.280 cat and mouse. Then friendship. 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.439 Welcome back to Criminaliam. Let's talk about the day that 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.640 Cozy was outed as a forger. 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.960 Cozy was often quoted saying, I take pleasure in fooling 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.679 the professionals. His works were so convincing they made it 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.160 into the collections of some of the country's most renowned 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:50.960 bibliophiles and esteemed autograph experts and collectors, including American industrialist 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.800 John Gribble, as well as Emmanuel Hertz, who was an 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.840 attorney and historians specializing in Lincoln auction houses too got 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.920 caught up in his counterfeit. Among them was the Park 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.920 Bernet Galleries, which once scheduled a Cozy forged Lincoln document 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:10.000 it had appraised at fifteen thousand dollars for auction. That 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.679 story ends well, actually, as the documents in authenticity was 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:16.080 discovered before it was sold. 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.159 Another Cozy forged Lincoln document, a lengthy legal brief, was 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.520 long held in an office safe in Brentano's on Fifth Avenue. 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.560 Arthur Brentano owned what was at the time the largest 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.760 retail bookselling business, not in New York but in the world, 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.639 and his purchase of the forgery, it would seem in 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.159 the historical record, is not a thing the officials of 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.120 the company ever wanted to discuss. 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.800 And then there's Mary Benjamin, whose renowned autograph firm in 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.720 New York City was founded in eighteen eighty seven by 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:56.480 Walter Benjamin, her father. According to Mary quote, practically everybody 0:22:56.520 --> 0:23:00.199 has been stung by Cozy. In fact, Walter was one 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.240 of Cozy's victims. He paid twenty five dollars for what 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.800 he thought was a genuine Lincoln Legal brief to be 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:10.280 fair here. By this time in his career, Walter was 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.240 retired and in his eighties and no longer at the 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.479 top of his game. He'd always relied on his natural 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.119 vision rather than a magnifying glass to evaluate works, but 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.080 he didn't realize his eyesight had begun to fail due 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.760 to a cataract. His daughter, however, knew he'd been taken 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:29.960 by Cozy as soon as she saw the document it was. 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.400 She explained an uncharacteristic sheen of the ink that gave 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:37.439 it away. In her book Autographs Akida Collecting, published in 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.440 nineteen forty six, Mary explained that quote Cozy, who had 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:44.000 good reason to be proud of his Lincoln forgeries, had 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.800 mastered Lincoln's writing in an astonishing manner. 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:52.800 Book Detective G. William Bergquist, an authority on literary hoaxes 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:56.879 of all kinds, got to know Cozy well while operating 0:23:56.920 --> 0:23:59.840 as a special investigator for the New York Public Library 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:03.160 at its main building on forty second Street in Manhattan. 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:07.480 Of him, he has stated, quote Cozy was the greatest 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:11.160 forger of his kind in this century, and speaking about 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.280 Cozy to an audience of bibliophiles, at the Grolier Club 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:18.840 in nineteen thirty nine, Burquist was quoted saying, decidedly there 0:24:18.920 --> 0:24:22.159 is something intriguing in the idea of a person sitting 0:24:22.200 --> 0:24:27.600 down and deliberately forging the handwriting of some well known person. Obviously, 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.600 this is not the work of any ordinary criminal. I 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:34.640 am convinced that the person who does this is hardly 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:39.320 ever motivated by the sole hope of monetary reward. Rarely 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:43.439 do these forgers sell their goods to the unwary. No doubt, 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:48.120 hunger or some other unsatisfied want forces them at times 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:51.560 into the displeasing practice of selling a forgery to the ignorant. 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:55.320 But certainly they get no pleasure in doing so, and 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.399 must feel that they are prostituting their art, for it 0:24:58.520 --> 0:25:02.800 is an art rather than a profession. It is understandable 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.520 how a man might learn to forge one hand, but 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:07.720 marvelous to switch to others. 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:13.080 At will Bergquist was really the first person to suspect 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:15.879 that there was a talented forger at work in the 0:25:15.920 --> 0:25:20.400 autograph market. While investigating the theft of some valuable back 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:22.880 issues of the Christian Science Journal from the New York 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:26.720 Public Library, Birkwist visited the rare book company, a shop 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:31.480