SUMMARY
Press:
Print
TV/Radio
Excerpt
FAQ
Photos
International
editions
Contacting
Art Williams
The Soundtrack:
Art Williams III
How to Detect Counterfeit Money
Press:
TV/Radio
Excerpt
FAQ
Photos
International
editions
Contacting
Art Williams
The Soundtrack:
Art Williams III
How to Detect Counterfeit Money
The Art of Making Money
The Story of a Master Counterfeiter
The Story of a Master Counterfeiter
There were two
things Art Williams never had enough of
growing up poor on Chicago’s South Side: his father, who left the
family when he was 11, and money. His quest for both would merge at the
age of 16, when his mom’s boyfriend—a master counterfeiter—instructed
him in the age-old criminal craft. Art would go on to become one of the
most skilled counterfeiters of the last 25 years, creating a
near-perfect replica of the most secure US bill ever made: the 1996
New Note. The success brought him a lifestyle he had only dreamed about
as a child, but he risked everything in an attempt to reconnect
with
the father who had left him long ago.In the tradition of propulsive true-crime narratives like Bruce Porter’s Blow and Frank Abagnale Jr’s Catch Me if You Can, The Art of Making Money takes the reader on a wild, fascinating ride through the rarefied world of a master criminal. At the same time it is an emotionally compelling look at the relationships between crime and family, and the destructiveness of greed. Williams's interior journey—that of a damaged man searching for an idyllic family that never really existed—will be familiar to many.