Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: It's said his own handwriting was a neat and graceful script,
Speaker 2: not unlike Abraham Lincoln's. He could fake the hand of
Speaker 2: George Washington, Edgar Allan Poe, and dozens of other historical figures.
Speaker 2: In fact, experts believe that a large number of the
Speaker 2: documents he produced in the early twentieth century are still
Speaker 2: in circulation today and inaccurately regarded as genuine. Today, we're
Speaker 2: telling the story of Martin Kannely alias Joseph Cosey, who
Speaker 2: could sign Benjamin Franklin's name perhaps better than ben himself.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky, and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: Martin Kanneely was born on February eighteenth, eighteen eighty seven,
Speaker 2: in Syracuse, New York, of Robert Kennely, an Irish immigrant
Speaker 2: who was a cabinet maker, and Sarah Bees, native to
Speaker 2: the state of Virginia. He had six older siblings, Robert Junior, Patrick, Arthur, Philip, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: and Thomas, who died in childhood. In their adulthood, Robert
Speaker 2: Junior ran a small printing shop. Patrick became a plumber.
Speaker 2: Arthur and Philip were both cooks, and Elizabeth was married
Speaker 2: with children. As a teenager, Martin acquired an insatiable taste
Speaker 2: for mid nineteenth century American history, and, after graduating high school,
Speaker 2: enjoyed helping Robert in the printing shop. Martin left home
Speaker 2: at age seventeen, allegedly after he had a quarrel with
Speaker 2: his father. It's unclear if that's true or why such
Speaker 2: an argument may have happened, but historians think that he
Speaker 2: ended his contact with his entire family at that time
Speaker 2: on his own. He initially just kind of wandered around
Speaker 2: the Midwest, working in printing shops for money. As he roamed.
Speaker 2: Coinciding with his interest in mid nineteenth century America, Martin
Speaker 2: never met a library he didn't like, and he explored
Speaker 2: the resources at the local branch in each city in
Speaker 2: town he found himself in. Unfortunately, with the increasing popularity
Speaker 2: of the Linotype machine, Martin found his work drying up.
Speaker 2: Introduced in eighteen eighty six, Linotype was revolutionizing the type
Speaker 2: setting and printing industry by combining the casting, setting, and
Speaker 2: distributing of type into one machine. But that type of
Speaker 2: streamlining also meant there was no longer a need for
Speaker 2: people with Martin's skill set. In nineteen oh eight, he
Speaker 2: was living in Chicago, where he'd been hired by the
Speaker 2: Bureau of Charities to distribute its reports. Finding the work
Speaker 2: tedious and the pay a joke, he didn't last more
Speaker 2: than a year before he decided to join the.
Speaker 1: Army as a private with Company G nineteenth Infantry. Martin
Speaker 1: was sent to the Philippines in nineteen thirteen, though he
Speaker 1: was back home in the United States, he dishonorably discharged
Speaker 1: for assaulting the company cook. Later, Martin recalled that army
Speaker 1: discipline permanently prejudiced him against law and order, and it
Speaker 1: is around this time in his life that he turned
Speaker 1: to petty crime. It is also when he began to
Speaker 1: spiral into alcoholism. Some records of his life sadly suggest
Speaker 1: that as the years went on, Martin was happy to
Speaker 1: forge you a document or signature in exchange for nothing
Speaker 1: more than a drink.
Speaker 2: His discharge from the military may have been the first
Speaker 2: known instance of Martin as a forger. He made himself
Speaker 2: a certificate of honorable discharge and also tweaked his army
Speaker 2: service record. His new records stated he had served first
Speaker 2: with the one hundred and fifty third Depot Brigade at
Speaker 2: Fort Slocum, New York, and then with Group C Repair
Speaker 2: Units three six and three eleven at Camp Hollibird in Maryland.
Speaker 2: He edited his personal information, making himself a eight years
Speaker 2: younger than his actual age, and he noted that his
Speaker 2: character while in service was quote very good.
Speaker 1: After separating from the Army, Martin spent several years, well,
Speaker 1: as best as we can tell, just drifting. Shortly upon
Speaker 1: his return to the United States, he was convicted for
Speaker 1: stealing a motorcycle in Sacramento, California. That was nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: and he was sentenced to eighteen months in San Quentin Prison.
Speaker 1: He served about six of those months under the alias
Speaker 1: Joe Halloway. Upon his release, he began riding trains back
Speaker 1: and forth across the United States, of course, stopping at
Speaker 1: all the libraries he could along the way to check
Speaker 1: out their American history selections.
Speaker 2: His list of arrests grew under the alias Frank Thompson.
Speaker 2: Martin was arrested in Philadelphia on December fourth, nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 2: while trying to cash a forged check, but because he
Speaker 2: hadn't actually succeeded in doing so, the court gave him
Speaker 2: a suspended sentence. In nineteen sixteen, as John Martin, he
Speaker 2: was arrested after cashing a forged check in San Jose, California,
Speaker 2: and was sentenced again to San Quentin, this time for
Speaker 2: three years. It's unclear how much of this sentence he
Speaker 2: actually did serve.
Speaker 1: Fresh out of prison and employed as a runner for
Speaker 1: a Philadelphia bank, Martin, under his Frank Thompson alias, stole
Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars worth of negotiable bonds by forging the
Speaker 1: delivery receipts. He was arrested the very same day when
Speaker 1: he attempted to convert all of those bonds into cash
Speaker 1: at once. He was sentenced to three years in the
Speaker 1: Eastern State Penitentiary and served just about one of those
Speaker 1: years of this crime. Martin stated quote, in a way,
Speaker 1: I suppose it was wrong, but no one would have
Speaker 1: been hurt even if I hadn't been caught. After all,
Speaker 1: the bank was insured.
Speaker 2: Martin, though didn't stay out of prison for long. In
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty two, using the alias Arthur Roche, he was
Speaker 2: arrested while trying to cash another forged check, this time
Speaker 2: in Boston. He was sent to the Massachusetts State Reformatory
Speaker 2: for five years, of which he served two Out of
Speaker 2: prison and back in Philadelphia, Martin, under the alias Frank Thompson,
Speaker 2: was again arrested for cashing a series of forged checks. Convicted,
Speaker 2: he was sentenced to eight to sixteen years in Holmesburg Prison,
Speaker 2: and he was paroled after five years served.
Speaker 1: If it sounds like he did a lot of prison
Speaker 1: time for cashing forged checks or trying to cash forge checks,
Speaker 1: it's because he did. Between nineteen thirteen and nineteen twenty nine.
Speaker 1: If you'd total it all up, he'd spent roughly a
Speaker 1: decade in prison, primarily for larceny. And then, one day
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty nine, quote, a slender little man with
Speaker 1: a lock of brown hair drooping over the right side
Speaker 1: of his forehead walked into the Library of Congress in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. And diffidently asked the guard at the information
Speaker 1: desk the way to the manuscript's division. He was directed
Speaker 1: to the spacious Northwest Pavilion on the second floor. The
Speaker 1: account of this published in The New Yorker in February
Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty six, goes on to describe how he
Speaker 1: quote gazed admiringly at its lofty ceiling, embellished with a
Speaker 1: flight of seraphs and cherubs. In the center of the room,
Speaker 1: beneath a ring of lights, stood a massive circular table,
Speaker 1: divided by clear glass partitions into a number of semi
Speaker 1: private segments, at some of which scholarly looking visitors sat reading.
Speaker 2: Asked to sign the visitor's register, Martin obliged and wrote
Speaker 2: the name Joseph Cosey. We've seen Martin use a handful
Speaker 2: of aliases so far, in particular when he was cashing
Speaker 2: forged checks, but this is the moment when Martin Kinneely
Speaker 2: became Joseph Cosey. It was the name he used for
Speaker 2: the remainder of his life. His trip to the Library
Speaker 2: of Congress, experts have stayed was a defining moment for him.
Speaker 2: Taken to a bank of mahogany card catalog files situated
Speaker 2: at one end of the room, now Joseph Cozy began
Speaker 2: flipping through them, making notes on call slips of the
Speaker 2: numbers of several eighteenth and nineteenth century autographs, mostly those
Speaker 2: of Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, that he wanted to see.
Speaker 2: He handed his lips to the attendant and took a
Speaker 2: seat at the partition table, where several boxes, each containing
Speaker 2: an assortment of letters, signatures, and government papers, was brought
Speaker 2: to him. He spent nearly two hours going through the contents.
Speaker 1: One of the documents Cozy viewed was a pay warrant
Speaker 1: endorsed by Benjamin Franklin in seventeen eighty six when he
Speaker 1: was President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In
Speaker 1: what is often explained as an act of excitement in
Speaker 1: the moment, Cozy stole the document planned or unplanned, that's unknown.
Speaker 1: He signed with an alien, suggesting that he wanted anonymity,
Speaker 1: but there's nothing in his crime history at this point
Speaker 1: to suggest what was to come. In nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 1: there was no practice in place for officials to verify
Speaker 1: the contents of a box before restoring it to the stacks.
Speaker 1: Cozy just walked away with the Franklin manuscript, easy enough,
Speaker 1: and then he spent days, weeks, perhaps even months, practicing
Speaker 1: and perfecting Franklin's autograph and handwriting style. Cozy later claimed
Speaker 1: he saw nothing especially unethical in his actions, saying quote
Speaker 1: after all the library belongs to the people, and I'm
Speaker 1: one of the people.
Speaker 2: And on that note, we're going to take a break
Speaker 2: for word from our sponsor. When we're back, we'll talk
Speaker 2: about the first time Cozy sold a forged work and
Speaker 2: the techniques he used for closing the deal with prospective buyers.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the first time
Speaker 1: Cozy sold a forged signature and what spurred him to
Speaker 1: do so so.
Speaker 2: About a year after his visit to the Library of Congress, Cozy,
Speaker 2: penniless in New York City, tried to sell the original
Speaker 2: Franklin document he'd stolen to a New York City book dealer.
Speaker 2: The book dealer rebuffed him, though saying Cozy was peddling
Speaker 2: a fake. Cozy was blown away because it was authentic.
Speaker 2: In response to the expert's inaccuracy, Cozy saw opportunity he
Speaker 2: had discovered through practicing Franklin's signature, an exercise he did
Speaker 2: with the handwriting of various famous and distinguished people in
Speaker 2: American history, that while he was very good at mimicking Franklin,
Speaker 2: it was Abraham Lincoln's handwriting that came the easiest to him.
Speaker 2: By nineteen thirty one. He was so proficient at imitating
Speaker 2: Lincoln's hand he returned to the same book dealer who'd
Speaker 2: rejected the Franklin and produced a scrap of paper with
Speaker 2: the signature yours truly a Lincoln. The dealer determined it
Speaker 2: was authentic, and Cozy made ten dollars on the sale,
Speaker 2: and he found a new career.
Speaker 1: From the early nineteen thirties until shortly after the Second
Speaker 1: World War, Cozy forged a whole lot of people's signatures.
Speaker 1: He also forged whole letters and other manuscripts in the
Speaker 1: handwriting of greats like Edgar Allan, Poe, Walt Whitman, and
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt. But of all the fakeries, he most often
Speaker 1: faked Lincoln's hand. Renowned book and autographed dealer Charles Hamilton
Speaker 1: described Cozy as quote the most skilled and versatile forger
Speaker 1: of all time. He was also quite prolific as a salesman.
Speaker 2: Of his works, Cozy always had some kind of backstory
Speaker 2: of how he'd acquired the item, sometimes elaborate, usually not,
Speaker 2: though One of his favorite explanations was quote, my sister
Speaker 2: used to work for a doctor, and he gave it
Speaker 2: to her when he retired. Another example is one in
Speaker 2: which he would explain that he was a Works Progress
Speaker 2: Administration or WPA worker, and that he had found the
Speaker 2: documents while helping demolish an old building on the Lower
Speaker 2: East Side of Manhattan. Around nineteen thirty four, he tried
Speaker 2: out a new inheritance story in his attempt to sell
Speaker 2: a three page letter penned by Well penned by Cosey himself,
Speaker 2: though he claimed it was written by American religious leader
Speaker 2: and writer Mary Baker Eddie. Benjamin Bass, proprietor of the
Speaker 2: Strand bookstore in New York City, was his target. Bass
Speaker 2: was quoted saying, I was pretty new at the game then,
Speaker 2: and autographs weren't exactly in my line anyway. I looked
Speaker 2: for letters like it in records of book auctions and
Speaker 2: saw that they brought upwards of forty dollars, so I
Speaker 2: figured at four dollars it was worth the gamble. Bass
Speaker 2: paid four dollars for that letter, but when he had
Speaker 2: it examined by more experienced collectors, he found out he'd
Speaker 2: been duped.
Speaker 1: Under law. At the time, Cozy's forgeries were considered archaeological forgeries,
Speaker 1: not signature or document forgeries, as we would call them today.
Speaker 1: It's shady, but Cozy's statements about his documents were not illegal.
Speaker 1: As experts point out, he doesn't represent his forged documents
Speaker 1: as anything more than some old pieces of paper he found.
Speaker 1: According to New York law and a few other states
Speaker 1: at the time, too, the act of forging any archaeological
Speaker 1: object was not in and of itself illegal. In order
Speaker 1: to get into trouble, he'd have to get caught selling
Speaker 1: it as an authentic work. Additionally, he almost always let
Speaker 1: his victim slash prospective buyers set their own prices, and
Speaker 1: those prices usually ranged between five dollars and ten dollars
Speaker 1: for the most part. On a few occaisis, it's reported
Speaker 1: that he accepted payments as high as fifty dollars and
Speaker 1: possibly seventy five dollars, and in nineteen thirty seven, it
Speaker 1: is said that he once demanded and got one hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and that is actually true.
Speaker 2: Getting to know Cozy has shown us that he never
Speaker 2: had a lot of luck staying out of prison. In
Speaker 2: January of nineteen thirty seven, he was arrested again, but
Speaker 2: not for cashing forged checks. This arrest was for selling
Speaker 2: a letter allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln to a stamp
Speaker 2: dealer named Walter Gissinger in New York City. The letter
Speaker 2: was enclosed in an envelope postmarked Springfield, Illinois. Cozy had
Speaker 2: been described as uncharacteristically disheveled during this transaction, and that
Speaker 2: he also uncharacteristically did the following two things during the sale.
Speaker 2: One he declared the document as genuine, which he never did,
Speaker 2: and two he declared he wanted one hundred dollars for it.
Speaker 2: They were pretty much the opposite of how he typically
Speaker 2: worked with his prospective buyers.
Speaker 1: So here's how it went down. Gissiger, who dealt exclusively
Speaker 1: in stamps, sent for a friend who dealt in both
Speaker 1: stamps and autographs. That was twenty six year old Herman
Speaker 1: Hurst Junior, who was a relative novice in the business.
Speaker 1: Hurst declared that Cozy's Lincoln document was authentic and advised
Speaker 1: that it was probably worth two or three times as
Speaker 1: much as the asking price. He handed over one hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: but had a caveat. He expected that that money would
Speaker 1: be refunded if analysis proved the letter as fake, but
Speaker 1: if it was authentic, Cozy could expect an additional payment.
Speaker 1: Once back in his office with the document, it took
Speaker 1: only a moment for Hurst to see the truth. There
Speaker 1: was one very obvious problem. The document was dated December second,
Speaker 1: eighteen forty six, but the paper it was written on
Speaker 1: was watermarked eighteen sixty. Hurst attempted to contact Cosey to
Speaker 1: let him know that they had both been fooled, but
Speaker 1: Hurst couldn't be sure Cosey ever got that letter, and
Speaker 1: then Hurst framed the forged Lincoln letter and hung it
Speaker 1: in his office as a reminder to temper your enthusiasm
Speaker 1: when doing business. Hurst later said quote, I had the
Speaker 1: feeling I was dealing with a reputable person. I'll admit
Speaker 1: there was nothing at all about his appearance to make
Speaker 1: me think so, but he did seem to have considerable
Speaker 1: knowledge of Lincoln. I didn't stop to ask myself how
Speaker 1: someone looking like a down and outer would come to
Speaker 1: have a Lincoln letter in his possession, or why if
Speaker 1: he did know anything about Lincoln, he would be willing
Speaker 1: to sell the letter so cheap.
Speaker 2: Hurst's story spread quickly among the dealers in the stamp district.
Speaker 2: In the nineteen thirty stamp collecting was so popular that
Speaker 2: Nasau Street became the center of Manhattan's stamp District or
Speaker 2: Street of Stamps, with dozens of stamp and coin dealers
Speaker 2: along its length. Think of it like New York City's
Speaker 2: famous stretch of flower markets on the west side of Manhattan,
Speaker 2: or Book Row between Astor Place and Union Square. So
Speaker 2: one day, a man named Elliott Wilson, from the Island
Speaker 2: Stamp Company, located in the same building as Hurst's office,
Speaker 2: telephoned to say a man was in his store trying
Speaker 2: to sell him a Lincoln letter and what should he do.
Speaker 2: So Hirst requested that Wilson keep him there, he was
Speaker 2: on his way and would bring police. When Hurst arrived
Speaker 2: with two detectives, he immediately recognized Cozy. Cosey was trying
Speaker 2: to sell Wilson a copy of the very same letter
Speaker 2: Hurst had bought. Cozy also immediately recognized Hurst, and in
Speaker 2: seeing him, ripped the alleged Lincoln letter to shreds. Cozy
Speaker 2: was arrested at the police station. He first claimed he'd
Speaker 2: found both Lincoln letters, the one he sold to Hurst
Speaker 2: and the one he was trying to sell to Wilson
Speaker 2: while cleaning out the basement a house for a woman
Speaker 2: who lived in Jamaica.
Speaker 1: He did, though, drop that found it in a basement,
Speaker 1: excuse and confess to his forgery. This was his first
Speaker 1: and only conviction in the role of an archaeological forger.
Speaker 1: On February twenty fourth, nineteen thirty seven, in a Court
Speaker 1: of Special Sessions, he pleaded guilty to petty larceny and
Speaker 1: was sentenced to an indefinite term in the Riker's Island workhouse.
Speaker 1: About a year later, he appeared in Hurst's shop, reportedly
Speaker 1: to say quote, I just wanted to thank you again
Speaker 1: for not trying to cheat me while I was cheating you.
Speaker 1: It sounds like maybe he did read Hearst's letter after all,
Speaker 1: but none of this stopped him or his forgery career.
Speaker 2: In June of nineteen thirty eight, Cozy showed up at
Speaker 2: the offices of the Box Book Company located in Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: with three Lincoln items he wanted to sell. The documents
Speaker 2: were secured in an envelope address to William A. Hank Wheeler,
Speaker 2: Junior Educational Radio Projects Box one ninety one Station D,
Speaker 2: New York. Without actually saying so, Cozy gave the impression
Speaker 2: that he in fact was Wheeler, and to back that
Speaker 2: up inside the envelope with the Lincoln manuscripts was a letter,
Speaker 2: also forged by Cozy, explaining the provenance of the papers.
Speaker 2: It was directed to friend Hank and signed by A
Speaker 2: Walter Kahn. Fox Book Company paid him three dollars for
Speaker 2: the documents, thinking they were authentic.
Speaker 1: It's been said that Cozy was able to quote whip
Speaker 1: out forgeries with great ease, never resorting to the amateur
Speaker 1: device of tracery. He may have had a talent at hand,
Speaker 1: but many experts believe that much of his success should
Speaker 1: also be attributed to the materials that he used. For instance,
Speaker 1: at first, he used only Waterman's brand inc. Until he
Speaker 1: discovered that it didn't fade fast enough to look like
Speaker 1: one hundred year old ink should, so he worked at
Speaker 1: a formula of his own with ink from the local
Speaker 1: store mixed with rusted iron filings to replicate that dark
Speaker 1: brown look of age documents. And when it came to
Speaker 1: paper that depended for his more ambitious forgeries, historians note
Speaker 1: he preferred using title pages and fly leaves of old books,
Speaker 1: which he bought when he could afford them, and he
Speaker 1: stole them when he couldn't. When old book paper wasn't available.
Speaker 1: He used paper that he bought at his local stationary
Speaker 1: store and aged it himself. Originally, he used a weak
Speaker 1: solution of oxalic acid to give new paper an old appearance.
Speaker 1: But while the acid did give the desired yellowish brown
Speaker 1: tinge to the paper, there was also a problem. It
Speaker 1: kind of messed with the size of the individual sheets
Speaker 1: caused distortion. Cozy changed to a solution of potassium per manganate,
Speaker 1: which produced the same tinge but did not have that
Speaker 1: resizing side effect.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break for from our sponsor.
Speaker 2: When we return, we will meet g William Burkewist of
Speaker 2: the New York Public Library, and we'll talk about how
Speaker 2: he and Cosey found themselves in an ongoing game of
Speaker 2: cat and mouse. Then friendship.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminaliam. Let's talk about the day that
Speaker 1: Cozy was outed as a forger.
Speaker 2: Cozy was often quoted saying, I take pleasure in fooling
Speaker 2: the professionals. His works were so convincing they made it
Speaker 2: into the collections of some of the country's most renowned
Speaker 2: bibliophiles and esteemed autograph experts and collectors, including American industrialist
Speaker 2: John Gribble, as well as Emmanuel Hertz, who was an
Speaker 2: attorney and historians specializing in Lincoln auction houses too got
Speaker 2: caught up in his counterfeit. Among them was the Park
Speaker 2: Bernet Galleries, which once scheduled a Cozy forged Lincoln document
Speaker 2: it had appraised at fifteen thousand dollars for auction. That
Speaker 2: story ends well, actually, as the documents in authenticity was
Speaker 2: discovered before it was sold.
Speaker 1: Another Cozy forged Lincoln document, a lengthy legal brief, was
Speaker 1: long held in an office safe in Brentano's on Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 1: Arthur Brentano owned what was at the time the largest
Speaker 1: retail bookselling business, not in New York but in the world,
Speaker 1: and his purchase of the forgery, it would seem in
Speaker 1: the historical record, is not a thing the officials of
Speaker 1: the company ever wanted to discuss.
Speaker 2: And then there's Mary Benjamin, whose renowned autograph firm in
Speaker 2: New York City was founded in eighteen eighty seven by
Speaker 2: Walter Benjamin, her father. According to Mary quote, practically everybody
Speaker 2: has been stung by Cozy. In fact, Walter was one
Speaker 2: of Cozy's victims. He paid twenty five dollars for what
Speaker 2: he thought was a genuine Lincoln Legal brief to be
Speaker 2: fair here. By this time in his career, Walter was
Speaker 2: retired and in his eighties and no longer at the
Speaker 2: top of his game. He'd always relied on his natural
Speaker 2: vision rather than a magnifying glass to evaluate works, but
Speaker 2: he didn't realize his eyesight had begun to fail due
Speaker 2: to a cataract. His daughter, however, knew he'd been taken
Speaker 2: by Cozy as soon as she saw the document it was.
Speaker 2: She explained an uncharacteristic sheen of the ink that gave
Speaker 2: it away. In her book Autographs Akida Collecting, published in
Speaker 2: nineteen forty six, Mary explained that quote Cozy, who had
Speaker 2: good reason to be proud of his Lincoln forgeries, had
Speaker 2: mastered Lincoln's writing in an astonishing manner.
Speaker 1: Book Detective G. William Bergquist, an authority on literary hoaxes
Speaker 1: of all kinds, got to know Cozy well while operating
Speaker 1: as a special investigator for the New York Public Library
Speaker 1: at its main building on forty second Street in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: Of him, he has stated, quote Cozy was the greatest
Speaker 1: forger of his kind in this century, and speaking about
Speaker 1: Cozy to an audience of bibliophiles, at the Grolier Club
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine, Burquist was quoted saying, decidedly there
Speaker 1: is something intriguing in the idea of a person sitting
Speaker 1: down and deliberately forging the handwriting of some well known person. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is not the work of any ordinary criminal. I
Speaker 1: am convinced that the person who does this is hardly
Speaker 1: ever motivated by the sole hope of monetary reward. Rarely
Speaker 1: do these forgers sell their goods to the unwary. No doubt,
Speaker 1: hunger or some other unsatisfied want forces them at times
Speaker 1: into the displeasing practice of selling a forgery to the ignorant.
Speaker 1: But certainly they get no pleasure in doing so, and
Speaker 1: must feel that they are prostituting their art, for it
Speaker 1: is an art rather than a profession. It is understandable
Speaker 1: how a man might learn to forge one hand, but
Speaker 1: marvelous to switch to others.
Speaker 2: At will Bergquist was really the first person to suspect
Speaker 2: that there was a talented forger at work in the
Speaker 2: autograph market. While investigating the theft of some valuable back
Speaker 2: issues of the Christian Science Journal from the New York
Speaker 2: Public Library, Birkwist visited the rare book company, a shop
Speaker 2: he knew specialized in Christian science publications. In conversation with
Speaker 2: the proprietor of the shop, Herman Zodec, Birkwist asked if,
Speaker 2: by any chance had anyone tried to sell the missing
Speaker 2: periodicals to him. Zodok reported no, but there was a butt.
Speaker 2: He went on to explain that his assistant had recently
Speaker 2: purchased for ten dollars a letter that was supposedly written
Speaker 2: by Mary Baker Eddie. He continued that he'd sent it
Speaker 2: for authentication to the archivist of the First Church of
Speaker 2: Christ Scientist in Boston, and he was informed that no,
Speaker 2: it actually was not genuine. His assistant described the seller
Speaker 2: as Birkwist had heard similarly from at least thirty other
Speaker 2: book dealers in the city, quote as a meek little man,
Speaker 2: but no one had the slightest idea who that neat
Speaker 2: little man was.
Speaker 1: Cozy was finally outed as a forger when he tried
Speaker 1: to sell a fraudulent legal petition drafted by Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 1: to a rare book and autograph dealer named Edward Lowell Dean.
Speaker 1: Several years later, Dean recalled of the event quote it
Speaker 1: was around noon and I was trying to interest a
Speaker 1: collector in a first edition of Alice in Wonderland when
Speaker 1: a kind of shy, apologetic looking stranger poked his head
Speaker 1: through the door. He said that he had something to
Speaker 1: sell and that another dealer had told him it might
Speaker 1: be in my line. I asked him to wait, since
Speaker 1: I was busy with a customer, and I left him
Speaker 1: to browse after the Alice in Wonderland customer had gone cozy,
Speaker 1: according to Dean, pulled out of his overcoat pocket a
Speaker 1: legal petition written on three pages of age stained, creased lined,
Speaker 1: legal sized paper and said quote, I drive a moving
Speaker 1: van between Baltimore and Boston, and I found this in
Speaker 1: an old crate we were packing stuff in.
Speaker 2: Dean continued that upon reading the inscription on the first
Speaker 2: page of the document, quote, I felt that here was
Speaker 2: possibly a major discovery. The paper unquestionably belonged to the
Speaker 2: right period. The handwriting had that occasional thickening of line
Speaker 2: typical of Lincoln. The terminology, the nature of the case,
Speaker 2: the names all called to mind other Lincoln legal documents
Speaker 2: that I had seen. There was nothing unlikely about the
Speaker 2: little man's story of how he found it. Either a
Speaker 2: lot of Lincoln material has been recovered from old packing
Speaker 2: trunks and whatnot. I was very excited. When he asked
Speaker 2: its price, Cozy replied, quote, I look it to the
Speaker 2: Philadelphia Public Library on my way up here. They told
Speaker 2: me it was worth maybe seventy five dollars. When Dean
Speaker 2: asked to keep it a few days to study it,
Speaker 2: Cozy refused him, but he did give the okay for
Speaker 2: Dean to keep it until after lunch, about two hours,
Speaker 2: with an advance of twenty five dollars. Dean recalled of
Speaker 2: meeting Cozy, quote, such a mild, pleasant little man. I
Speaker 2: took quite a liking to him.
Speaker 1: Dean later stated he was concerned that the document had
Speaker 1: been stolen, rather than the possibility it might be a forgery.
Speaker 1: Many in the profession had respect for Bergquist, and Dean
Speaker 1: saw his opinion on the potential Lincoln fine. The story
Speaker 1: goes that Bergquist examined the handwriting and then sighed. Dean
Speaker 1: replied by pointing out all of the things about it
Speaker 1: that looked right, but Dean's document was a fake. Of Dean,
Speaker 1: Bergquist asked, quote, I think I can describe the man
Speaker 1: who sold it to you short slight about fifty quiet.
Speaker 1: He then added, don't feel too bad. This man, whoever
Speaker 1: he is, is a genius.
Speaker 2: It was through the sale of that Lincoln letter that
Speaker 2: Birkwist met Cozy almost accidentally, when associates of Dean found
Speaker 2: him at Grand Central Station on a hunt to somehow
Speaker 2: avenge Dean's poor purchase. They brought him to Burkwist. Described
Speaker 2: as a large, white haired man with a cheerful disposition,
Speaker 2: Burkwist is said to have immediately put Cozy at ease.
Speaker 2: It did not take long before he admitted he was
Speaker 2: responsible for the recent archaeological forgeries fast friends or not.
Speaker 2: Cozy also clearly stated quote, I haven't violated any law.
Speaker 2: Birkwist agreed, and he also went on to compliment Cozy
Speaker 2: on his skills, and Cozy began sharing with him certain
Speaker 2: technical difficulties he found himself up against in forging. In fact,
Speaker 2: he shared all sorts of things about techniques before Birkwish
Speaker 2: sent him on his way, advising him to do something
Speaker 2: more constructive with his life. Cozy replied, believe me, I
Speaker 2: work hard to earn a dollar.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty four, just a few years after Cosey's
Speaker 1: forging career took off. The New York Public Library, under
Speaker 1: Bergquist supervision, set up a special file that they called
Speaker 1: the Cozy Collection. It was their attempt to educate both
Speaker 1: experts and the public about these fakes on the market
Speaker 1: and removed from circulation as many pieces of Cozy's work
Speaker 1: as possible and people help them. Arthur Swan, a vice
Speaker 1: president of Park Burnet Galleries, contributed to Franklin pay warrants,
Speaker 1: including the one that had almost gone to auction within
Speaker 1: just twenty years. That collection contained seventy eight documents, including
Speaker 1: this amazing list of names thirty one Abraham Lincoln's, eight
Speaker 1: At Garrellan Poe's five, David Rittenhouses, four, Mary Baker eddies
Speaker 1: for George Way Washington's two, Edwin M. Stanton's two, Thomas
Speaker 1: Jefferson's two, John Marshall's and two James Madison's, plus at
Speaker 1: least one John Adams one, Samuel Adams one, Button Gwinett,
Speaker 1: Lyman Hall, Benjamin Rush, Richard, Henry Lee, Patrick, Henry Alexander Hamilton,
Speaker 1: Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain also known as Samuel L. Clemens.
Speaker 1: It's reported the collection also contained a Sir Francis Bacon
Speaker 1: and Earl of Essex, and a Rudyard Kipling, But experts
Speaker 1: note that these last three are really unusual examples, because
Speaker 1: as far as it's known, Cozy made very few foreign forgeries.
Speaker 1: His forged army discharge paperwork is also included in the
Speaker 1: Cozy Collection.
Speaker 2: It's said that over the years, Cozy would drop in
Speaker 2: to visit brook West And to check on the progress
Speaker 2: of the Cozy Collection, and that he was also happy
Speaker 2: to help clear up any confusion about his work and
Speaker 2: the real deals. Cozy, as Brookwist had understood, saw his
Speaker 2: forgery as an art and each piece was important to him.
Speaker 2: Years later, in nineteen forty one, The New York Sun
Speaker 2: reported in a story about the Cozy Collection that it
Speaker 2: had been a Lincoln letter that Cozy had stolen from
Speaker 2: the Library of Congress during his nineteen twenty nine visit
Speaker 2: to Cozy. This type of inaccuracy just couldn't stand. He
Speaker 2: visited the editor's office protesting that quote. I didn't steal
Speaker 2: a Lincoln letter from the Library of Congress. It was
Speaker 2: a pay warrant signed by Benjamin Franklin. And you said
Speaker 2: I got as high as thirty dollars for some of
Speaker 2: my fakes. That's wrong too.
Speaker 1: Joseph Cosey aka Martin Kaneely and all of his aliases
Speaker 1: died in nineteen fifty. The New Yorker reported in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty six that it appeared Cozy had disappeared from his
Speaker 1: former known haunts in the city, going quiet perhaps, They
Speaker 1: estimated as far back as nineteen forty three. They theorize
Speaker 1: that his alcoholism had perhaps become insurmountable, but also noted
Speaker 1: that there had been intermittent reports over the last decade
Speaker 1: or so suggesting that he had continued to forge on
Speaker 1: a small scale, at least for a little while. Bergquist,
Speaker 1: some versions of this story suggest had urged him to
Speaker 1: write his memoirs, though Cozy never got beyond a few
Speaker 1: opening paragraphs, which is frankly too bad for all of us.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for a bogus bevy?
Speaker 2: I am, I am okay.
Speaker 1: I thought the great idea would be to find out
Speaker 1: what Abraham Lincoln's favorite drink was and try to make
Speaker 1: a version of that something that looks like it. Do
Speaker 1: you know what Abraham Lincoln's favorite drink was?
Speaker 2: I actually thought that Abraham Lincoln didn't drink, so I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: He didn't it was water. Otherwise, No, it's stupid juice.
Speaker 2: So I'm kicking back with my glass of water and
Speaker 2: my not written memoir from Crozy.
Speaker 1: Right Water, Abe, I admire you in many ways, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to party with you. He never really
Speaker 1: gave the vibe of the guy you want to roll
Speaker 1: with for a long weekend of wild adventure. But I
Speaker 1: did think it would still be fun to make a
Speaker 1: drink that looks like water. So this, of course, is
Speaker 1: a pretty obvious one, or it could be, but we
Speaker 1: didn't go the obvious choice, right, Like, obviously you could
Speaker 1: do something very simple, like.
Speaker 2: Here's a glass of vodka.
Speaker 1: We're not going to do that. We're not gonna do that.
Speaker 1: And then it's like the clear spirits like vodka or
Speaker 1: jin are the obvious choices. We're not going to do
Speaker 1: that either, So we're gonna use the spirit. I don't
Speaker 1: think we have been voked on the show before. Oh
Speaker 1: I love it, and I wanted to make a drink
Speaker 1: too that was.
Speaker 2: Yummy and not just a glass of vodka.
Speaker 1: A vodka soda, which anybody can make, and there's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with those. I love a simple, too ingredient drink,
Speaker 1: and I did think about something like ranchwater, which has
Speaker 1: gotten very popular in the last few years, which is
Speaker 1: just tequila and usually Topo Chico sparkling because it's vera bubbly,
Speaker 1: But I want to do something just a hair different
Speaker 1: that still tastes like another drink, but is also a
Speaker 1: little lighter and more refreshing, maybe than most versions of this.
Speaker 1: Well we haven't used on this show before. Is pisco.
Speaker 2: We have not.
Speaker 1: That is, of course like a grapey brandy thing. So
Speaker 1: this is like a diluted pisco sour without the egg white.
Speaker 1: It's very easy to put together, and we're making the
Speaker 1: mixer part of it do a little bit of the
Speaker 1: flavor lifting, because you don't want to put lemon juice
Speaker 1: in because that will clout it. You want to keep
Speaker 1: it clear. So it's two ounces of pisco, one ounce
Speaker 1: of simple syrup. Most simple syrup is clear, but occasionally
Speaker 1: you'll see it look a little cloudy. If it's cloudy,
Speaker 1: that's not the one.
Speaker 2: To use this time.
Speaker 1: You're just gonna shake those together or mix them together
Speaker 1: and then pour them. I did a dirty dump. I
Speaker 1: used them with the ice that I had shaken them
Speaker 1: with because you want to dilute it anyway, and then
Speaker 1: you just top it with three to four ounces of
Speaker 1: lemon sparkling water. So you've made like a bubbly, very
Speaker 1: soft touch pisco soary.
Speaker 2: That drink sounds so refreshing and delicious.
Speaker 1: It is very refreshing, and it's almost a little dangerous
Speaker 1: because it softens the flavor so much that it almost
Speaker 1: doesn't taste like an alcoholic beverage. You want to be careful,
Speaker 1: It's all I'm saying. Don't chug a bunch of them,
Speaker 1: because two ounces of pisco is not and two ounces
Speaker 1: of anything is not a small amount. So you don't
Speaker 1: want to chug back too many. Drink responsibly always, and
Speaker 1: we're calling this the yours truly after that first document
Speaker 1: that he sold of Lincoln's of Lincoln some here quoting also,
Speaker 1: don't use beverages like this to trick people who do
Speaker 1: not drink into drinking alcohol, because that's not cool at all.
Speaker 1: Speaking of which, let's make an easy, peasy mail, easy
Speaker 1: pcy little mocktail. Here's what I did for this, because
Speaker 1: pisco is actually a little bit tricky to replicate the
Speaker 1: flavor of. But here is what I ended up doing.
Speaker 1: And this may involve searching for some ingredients, but you
Speaker 1: can do it. They're not impossible. So I did the
Speaker 1: trick that we've done when we do a mocktail to
Speaker 1: try to do a sub out for gin, where I
Speaker 1: used a flat tonic water. You can let it sit
Speaker 1: and get flat, but also if you stir it a
Speaker 1: little bit, the bubbles are gonna dissipate pretty quickly. And
Speaker 1: then I found it was a bitters that I just
Speaker 1: happened to have that has a grape and it has
Speaker 1: a citrus note in it, and it's a clear bitters.
Speaker 1: You got to look for bitters that are clear because
Speaker 1: sometimes they do have a color. A lot of them
Speaker 1: are like brown, so you just have to be careful
Speaker 1: with that. You can also, if you want to dress
Speaker 1: up your flat tonic water, use any clear flavor extract
Speaker 1: right like I have some clear pumpkin extract that I
Speaker 1: want to try in a version of this because I
Speaker 1: think it would just be yummy and like the lightest
Speaker 1: little pumpkin water. And then you do the same thing
Speaker 1: an ounce of simple syrup three to four ounces of
Speaker 1: lemon sparkling water and it's still like this bright, yummy delicious.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, this is very much a hot
Speaker 2: day kind of a drink, and I got no problem
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 1: Listen. I got in my vehicle yesterday and it was
Speaker 1: one hundred and four degrees, so there might be some
Speaker 1: reasons why I was like, what will be very icy
Speaker 1: and refreshing, But that is the yours truly, which I
Speaker 1: realize is sort of a cheat. Instead of replicating a cocktail,
Speaker 1: we're replicating a non cocktail.
Speaker 2: But you replicated water.
Speaker 1: Lincoln with just taking ale somewhere in there.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's possible that he may have had a drink at
Speaker 1: some point in his life, but he did not. By nature,
Speaker 1: he was not a drinker. So we hope that you
Speaker 1: don't get taken by any forgeries and that you will
Speaker 1: spend some more time with us again. Next week, we'll
Speaker 1: be right back here with another fakey fake and some
Speaker 1: more bogus beverige. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio
Speaker 1: in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.