Emerich Juettner (January 1876 – January 4, 1955), also known as Edward Mueller or Mister 880, was an

Austrian-American Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...

immigrant known for counterfeiting United States $1 bills and eluding the

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...

for a decade, from 1938 to 1948. When caught, he openly admitted his actions, adding that he had never given more than one bill to anyone, so no person had lost more than one dollar. He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and a one-dollar fine, and he later sold the rights to his story, which was made into the 1950 film ''

Mister 880 ''Mister 880'' is a 1950 American light-hearted romantic drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire and Edmund Gwenn, about an amateurish counterfeiter who counterfeits only one dollar bills, and manages ...

''.

Early and personal life

Emerich Juettner was born in January 1876 in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

to a working-class family. He was the eldest of four siblings, having two brothers and a sister. On June 21, 1890, at the age of 14, he arrived in New York. He found work as a picture frame gilder before marrying Florence LeMein in 1902 at the age of 26. His wife gave birth to a son, Walter, in 1903 and a daughter, Florence, in 1918. To support his family, he began working as a maintenance man and building superintendent in New York's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

. His job allowed him and his family to live rent free in the basement of the building where he worked. His wife died in the 1918

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

pandemic, shortly after giving birth to their daughter Florence. He then became a junk collector.

Counterfeiting scheme

After his wife's death, Juettner had limited financial means. In 1938, Juettner began using ten to twelve homemade counterfeited bills a week in select stores in the neighborhoods of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Over the following ten years, Juettner continued to use his counterfeited bills sparingly, never repeating storefronts or tenders. The bills were always poorly made on cheap paper and included details such as Washington being misspelled "Wahsington." After Juettner used his first bill at a local cigar shop, the Secret Service opened Case File 880 in what began a decade-long search. He became impossible to track down, since the bills were low profile and were used so rarely in new places each time. In 1948, the counterfeiting came to an end. After a fire in his apartment building, Juettner decided to throw out his destroyed counterfeiting materials into the street. Once snowfall came, the materials were effectively hidden. Later on, a group of children found several of Juettner's $1 bills and took them to their parents. The parents subsequently reported the found bills to the Secret Service. Upon arrival at his apartment, Juettner was arrested. Juettner was later sentenced to one year and one day in prison, plus a one-dollar fine that elicited laughter from those inside the courtroom.

Response from the media

In 1949, American journalist

St. Clair McKelway St. Clair McKelway (February 13, 1905 – January 10, 1980) was a writer and editor for ''The New Yorker'' magazine beginning in 1933. Childhood McKelway was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Alexander McKelway, a Presbyterian minister, ...

wrote a series in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' about several different crimes. McKelway covered Juettner's story in a three-part series detailing counterfeiting in America and Juettner's life and scheme, later developing his story into a book. Entitled ''Annals of Crime'', the series was combined with several comics and illustrations.

Legacy

Former Secret Service Director James Maloney blamed Juettner for the rise in counterfeiting incidents in the United States.

In popular culture

''Mister 880''

The life of Emerich Juettner inspired the 1950 comedy-drama film ''

'', directed by

Edmund Goulding Edmund Goulding (20 March 1891 – 24 December 1959) was a British screenwriter and film director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 silent film '' Three Live Ghosts'' alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwi ...

and starring Burt Lancaster as the Secret Service agent in charge of the investigation and

Edmund Gwenn Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), for which he won t ...

(in a supporting role) as the character based on Juettner. The film was based on St. Clair McKelway's article on Juettner. Juettner attended the premier of the film. Gwenn won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for his performance in ''Mister 880.'' Ultimately, Juettner made more money from the release of ''Mister 880'' than he had made by counterfeiting.

''The 20th Century Fox Hour -'' "The Moneymaker"

An episode of ''

The 20th Century Fox Hour ''The 20th Century Fox Hour'' is an American drama anthology series televised in the United States on CBS from 1955 to 1957. Some of the shows in this series were restored, remastered and shown on the Fox Movie Channel in 2002 under the title ' ...

'', titled "The Moneymaker", was based on the movie and first aired on October 31, 1956. Here, the counterfeiter was an elderly lady, played by

Spring Byington Spring Dell Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971) was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of '' December Bride''. She was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player who appeared in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Juettner, Emerich 1876 births 1955 deaths American counterfeiters Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States