The Art of Making Money - the Story of a Master Counterfeiter Hardcover - 2009

by Jason Kersten

The true story of a brilliantcounterfeiter who "made"millions, outwitted the SecretService, and was finally undonewhen he went in search of theone thing his forged moneycouldn't buy him: family.

Art Williams spent his boyhood in a comfortable middle-class existencein 1970s Chicago, but his idyll was shattered when, in shortorder, his father abandoned the family, his bipolar mother lost herwits, and Williams found himself living in one of Chicago's worsthousing projects. He took to crime almost immediately, starting withpetty theft before graduating to robbing drug dealers. Eventually aman nicknamed "DaVinci" taught him the centuries-old art of counterfeiting.After a stint in jail, Williams emerged todiscover that the Treasury Department had issuedthe most secure hundred-dollar bill ever created:the 1996 New Note. Williams spent months tryingto defeat various security features before arrivingat a bill so perfect that even law enforcement haddifficulty distinguishing it from the real thing. Williamswent on to print millions in counterfeit bills,selling them to criminal organizations and usingthem to fund cross-country spending sprees. Stillunsatisfied, he went off in search of his long-lostfather, setting in motion a chain of betrayals thatwould be his undoing.

In The Art of Making Money, journalist Jason Kerstendetails how Williams painstakingly defeatedthe anti-forging features of the New Note, how Williamsand his partner-in-crime wife converted fakebills into legitimate tender at shopping malls all over America, andhow they stayed one step ahead of the Secret Service until trustingthe wrong person brought them all down. A compulsively readablestory of how having it all is never enough, The Art of Making Moneyis a stirring portrait of the rise and inevitable fall of a modern-daycriminal mastermind.

An Interview with Jason Kersten, author ofTHE ART OF MAKING MONEY