John Wilson Murray

John Wilson Murray (25 June, 1840 – 12 June, 1906) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and came to North America as a young boy. He joined the United States Navy on 5 June 1857 and became a crew member of the USS Michigan. This ship operated out of Erie, PA, and carried out patrols on the Great Lakes as well as supervising the prison camp for Confederate officers at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie.

As the source for Murray’s early life is his own writings, little reliance should be given them for details of his own participation in events aboard the "Michigan". It is confirmed that he was an acting gunner on the ship in 1864. In that year, two attempts were made to capture the ship and free the Confederate officers at Johnson's Island. It is unlikely that he played any significant role in these events.

Murray left the navy on 31 January 1866 with an honourable discharge and 1868 became a detective with the Erie police force and in 1873, joined the Canada Southern Railway as a detective.

The "Million Dollar Counterfeiting" case

In 1875, after Murray became Ontario's first full-time criminal detective, he was assigned to investigate the forgery of Canadian bills. The forgeries were identified by an expert at the Treasury Department in Washington when he noticed the bills were suspiciously beautiful. Murray consulted with former counterfeiters; they were impressed by the forgeries, which they declared could only be the work of master engraver Edwin Johnson, the "king of counterfeiting". In 1880, five years after the first forged bill was found, Johnson was arrested for using a fake bill to buy a necktie. He had printed one million dollars worth of counterfeit bills using 21 exceptionally engraved copper plates. [ [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/forgery/002035-600-e.html?PHPSESSID=appf7u97bavb4m0ahr76h5qna4 Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery] , a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada ]

References

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6951 Biography at "the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
* [http://www.opp.ca/Community/Museum/index.htm The OPP Museum]
* [http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/murymenu.htm Memoirs of a Great Detective]
* [http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/exhibits/johnsonCounterfeit.php Bank of Canada Currency Museum]