Joseph Earnest Riley & Laura Riley & Walter H Simmers & Grace Simmers: Counterfeiting At It's Best

Joseph Earnest Riley was born 7 Nov 1890 in Palestine, TX to John Hardin Riley (1844-1944) & Mollie Cynthia Jennings (1859-1892).

Inmate: #22985 San Francisco Jail
Rec: 31 May 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 
Age: 27

Joseph was married to Laura, I found no other information on her.
She did file for divorce in 1919, we will discuss that later in the story.

Inmate: #25983 San Francisco Jail
Rec: 31 May 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 
Age: 25

I found these newspaper articles from 1916:

Some counterfeiting facts:
https://www.ngccoin.com/resources/counterfeit-detection/top/united-states/ 

Their accomplices:

Walter Harold Simmers was born 12 Apr 1880 in Cedar Rapids, IA to Jesse Wesley Simmers & Mary Iantha Kinney.
He married Maysel Odessa Grisby (Grace) 30 May 1907 in St. Anthony, ID. They would divorce and he would marry Wanda V Hallett (1893-1983) 3 Feb 1926 in Vancouver, WA. 

Inmate: #25986 San Francisco Jail
Rec: 31 May 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 
Age: 30

Grace may have been an Alias 





















Inmate: #25984 San Francisco Jail
Rec: 31 May 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 
Age: 29

The men were sent to McNeil Island Federal Prison off the coat of Washington. 

Inmate: #2729 McNeil Island Federal Prison
Rec: 17 Jun 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 

Walter Harold Simmers

Inmate: #2730 McNeil Island Federal Prison
Rec: 17 Jun 1916
Crime: Counterfeiting 

The gang of counterfeiters would meet a women named Mrs. Nora La Point, who would improve upon their method and make coins hard to detect unless you were an expert. Here are some wonderful newspaper clippings I found.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40683892/walter_simmers/

The San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco, California
01 Jun 1916, Thu  •  Page 19

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40683506/walter_simmers/

 They were sentenced for 15 months, but their story doesn't end there. They all get divorced at different times but first Joseph and Laura.

Aug 1919

Sep 1919



Joseph married the very young daughter of Nora La Point, Helen Kloise Tidd, or Dorothy Tidd.  (This is the spelling from newspaper). Here's a clippings.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40628273/joseph_e_riley/


Tulare Advance-Register
Tulare, California

26 Aug 1919, Tue  •  Page 7

So with his new wife he started up the counterfeiting gang once again.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40628476/joseph_e_riley/

So Joseph heads off to McNeil Island once again.

Inmate: #3453 McNeil Island Federal Prison
Rec 18 Nov 1919
Crime: Counterfeiting 

He would escape from prison:

I did not find any newspaper clippings they he was ever found. I did find a WWII registration form he filled out in 1942 he was back in Texas. Walter Simmers would die 12 Dec 1960 in Multnomah, OR. 

Here is another man that was involved:

I didn't find any of the others listed in the newspapers.

A very interesting story with lots of twists and drama. Life of crime ended and they all went their separate ways.