Big Bad Billy Flynn, the ‘Blickensderfer Typewriter Salesman’ Who Busted a Buck-Making Gang at Big Brokenstraw Creek, Pennsylvania

The 355-pound secret service detective and the 5lb typewriter

William James Flynn was a Pittsburgh-based agent for the United States Treasury Department’s Secret Service when he went on the hunt for counterfeiting mastermind and explosives expert Johnny Henderson at Big Brokenstraw Creek in Warren County, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1900. As cover, Flynn elected to chose the subterfuge of pretending to be a Blickensderfer typewriter salesman. Flynn, recalling the raid in the last episode of a newspaper series called “Great Criminals I Have Known”, published 100 years ago this month, explained, “The Blickensderfer typewriter was just coming upon the market about that time and selling it was a pretty good money making proposition.” Eerily, Big Brokenstraw Creek is a mere 39 miles inland from Erie, where George Canfield Blickensderfer was born in 1850.

Flynn said he bought himself a Blickensderfer and “set forth as a typewriter salesman for the abode of the tough Mr [George] Black”. There was, however, no Mr Black; for legal reasons, Flynn changed the names of some of the people involved in his story, which was otherwise pretty close to what really happened. I know this because the actual court case which ensued from Flynn’s sortie into Warren County is detailed online as part of the Caselaw Access Project: “United States ex relatione Flynn v Fuellhart, 106 F. 911 (1901), February 14, 1901, United States Circuit Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.” “George Black” was actually a Kalamazoo, Michigan-born farmer called John Byron Bennett (1848-1917). Johnny Henderson was the counterfeit mastermind’s real name, and he stayed one step ahead of the law throughout Flynn’s story, his expertise with explosives on oil fields allowing himself to do so. Flynn also changed the name of the agent who joined him from Washington DC to arrest Henderson, calling Thomas F. Berriman “McGlore”. The Warren County deputy marshal who assisted Flynn at Bennett’s property was W.S. Blair. Bennett’s accomplice was given the colourful moniker of “Nicolo Pelestrina” when his real name was plain old Hyde.

Mary and John Bennett.The pugnatious Mary put up a fierce fight with Flynn.

In his 1922 article, Flynn rightly described “United States ex relatione Flynn v Fuellhart” as an important test case. “For a long while we had longed for a test case such as this promised to be,” wrote Flynn. “There had been some trouble between local and Federal authorities about the right of the Secret Service men to search and arrest without procuring warrants therefor. The Department of Justice considered the case and on December 24 [it was actually December 18, 1900] McGlone [Berriman] and I were ordered to proceed forthwith to Warren [the county seat] and stand trial on the charges.” The case was head by Marcus Wilson Acheson (1828-1906) of Pittsburgh, Judge of US Circuit Court for the Third Circuit, who found in favour of Flynn and Berriman. Nonetheless, Flynn wrote in 1922 that “George Black” [Bennett] and “Nicolo Pelestrina” [Hyde] were later acquitted of counterfeiting charges. “I do not know how the jury came to the decision,” Flynn commented.

Naturally, Flynn’s 1922 article is far longer and much more dramatic than the summary on the Caselaw Access Project website. Whether his memory had faded, or he simply wanted to embellish the story for his newspaper readers, Flynn gave a rather different and more elaborate version of events than were outlined to Judge Acheson. The John H. Fuellhart mentioned in the case title, by the way, was the Warren County sheriff who issued warrants on Flynn and Berriman for the assault and battery of Bennett and his wife Mary Elizabeth Bennett (1859-1932), and “with malicious mischief with respect to [Bennett’s] property”. The way Flynn described Mrs Bennett, and his handling of her, is likely to be one reason why Flynn changed in his story the surname from Bennett to Black (she was, after still alive when the article appeared; her husband had died exactly five years earlier).

The Blickensderfer typewriter subterfuge is not mentioned in the court case, but in his 1922 story Flynn recalled, “I talked typewriter to George [Bennett] for half an hour. Invariably his reply would be: ‘What in the hell would I do with a typewriter. Do you think I write for the papers of something?’ George let it known that he would welcome our departure. Now and then he all but ordered me off the place. But I kept talking and urging, taking care to keep one hand in my coat pocket, where the gun lay. Maybe a typewriter salesman should use both hands while talking to a prospect. Certainly he ought to use both if he demonstrates the machine. At any rate, I sold no typewriter to George.”

Judge Acheson

The court heard on February 14, 1901, that Bennett was caught trying to either dispose of or conceal cyanide of potassium and nitric acid, molds of dry plaster of Paris and copperas in crystal form, all items used to make counterfeit coins, as well as counterfeit 25¢, half-dollar and dollar coins. Judge Acheson found, “The secret-service division of the United States treasury department lawfully exists. One of its authorized purposes is the detection and bringing to trial and punishment of makers of and dealers in counterfeit money. The rules and regulations for the government of its agents in the discharge of their duties, promulgated by the authority of the secretary of the treasury, are to be regarded, I think, as laws of the United States … The petitioners [Flynn and Berriman], it seems to me, in what they did here, kept within the spirit and letter of these rules, and I am of opinion that they did not exceed their duty. The case of Bennett was very exceptional, and prompt action on the part of the United States officers was imperative. All the circumstances indicated strongly, if not conclusively, that Bennett was engaged at that time and place in making counterfeit coin, and had such coin in his possession. He was seen by the officers in the very act of putting out of reach the visible evidences of his guilt.”  

William James Flynn was born in New York City on November 18, 1867, and began his government career in 1897. He spent many years combating counterfeiting, which led to his investigation and arrests of Black Hand extortionists and members of the American mafia, many of them associated with the Morello crime family. Flynn collaborated with New York Police Department Detective Giuseppe “Joe” Petrosino, who was murdered in 1909 in Palermo, Sicily, where he was tracing the backgrounds of the gangsters plaguing New York City. Flynn and his operatives built the case that culminated in the 1910 convictions of Morello and his associates and their imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Prison. In 1911 Flynn successfully reorganised the New York City detective force. He later returned to the Secret Service as Chief (1912-17). In 1915 he investigated espionage involving a German-owned wireless station on the coast of Long Island in Sayville, New York. In 1919 Flynn was named director of the Bureau of Investigation, and re-appointed in 1921, when he gave J. Edgar Hoover a job. Flynn founded a New York detective agency but the bulk of his income came from being a crime novelist and scenario writer for the motion picture industry. He edited a magazine called Flynn's Weekly Detective Fiction, which became the longest-running, most successful journal of its genre., The periodical published 703 issues. Flynn died in Larchmont, New York, on October 14, 1928, aged 60, of heart disease.

A typewritten letter commending Flynn.