Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude

What It's About

This is the autobiography of an American who drifted from a strict, religious upbringing and a poor education into speculation and then outright crime. Bidwell describes a childhood that left him unprepared for the world, and traces how ambition and impulsiveness drew him into the moral grey areas of Wall Street. The story then moves to London and the 1873 Bank of England forgeries, in which he and his accomplices defrauded the bank of just over £100,000 with forged bills of exchange. It ends with his conviction for forgery, a life sentence, and the long years he spent in English prisons.

Key Concepts

The book is built around moral failure and its consequences: how a man with early advantages and good intentions ends up trading ethics for the promise of wealth. It also gives a first-hand view of the Victorian penal system and of solitary confinement, and shows how easily a major financial institution could be deceived. Like most criminal memoirs, it is told from the author's own point of view and presents him sympathetically, so it is best read as testimony rather than neutral history.

About the Author

George Bidwell (1833–1899) was an American businessman turned confidence man. He grew up in a strict Methodist family in New York State and Michigan, and worked as a merchant and grocery agent before turning to fraud. In 1873 he was the leading figure in the Bank of England forgeries and was convicted at the Old Bailey alongside his brother and two accomplices. He was released on grounds of ill health in 1887, returned to America, and died in Butte, Montana, in 1899.