through his shrewd management with men and money, the lively koniacker went off "Scot free," always in cheerful spirits; and it is a commentary in no wise flattering to the organization and internal management of the Division (at that period) that when the residence of Biebusch was searched, upon one occasion of his being subsequently arrested, several letters from former members of the force were found, proposing to Biebusch, for a money consideration, to assist the counterfeiter again to escape the grasp of the law! Some of these letters might be published, but we have not space for them here. This fact is patent, however.
Upon the appointment of Col. Whitley as Chief, an immediate reorganization of the Division ensued. The faults of the old system of conduct, and the shortcomings in the former management were authoritatively brought to his notice upon his assuming the direction of affairs, and he at once set about reforming the crying abuses that had obtained in the Division in previous years. He resolved that such knaves as Biebusch, McCartney, Bill Gurney, John Hart, Tom Hale, and other notorious coney men should be vanquished, and the nefarious trade they were pursuing secretly, yet so perniciously, should be broken up. To this work he addressed all the energies of his own mind, and to this object he zealously directed the untiring vigilance of his subordinates.
Upon his final arrest, which was brought about through the persistent efforts of Col. Whitley and his aids, it came out that Biebusch was the possessor of a handsome fortune, accumulated through his unrighteous mode of business-life; for among other property that he owned, it was ascertained that he held notes of hand, upon call, for monies loaned to some of the most prominent citizens of St. Louis, to an aggregate of $60,000.
