Crime as Art Form

THE ART OF MAKING MONEY

The Story of a Master Counterfeiter

By Jason Kersten

Penguin, 304 pages, $26

Art Williams really wants to tell his story. The skillful counterfeiter ignored his mentor's rule to tell no one and showed one of his freshly minted bills to a close friend and fellow Chicago public housing resident.

Following his first arrest for counterfeiting (the charges were dropped on a technicality), Williams boasted to the police that he had created the bills that had thwarted the security implemented by the U.S. Treasury Department. "He was very arrogant," said arresting officer Marty O'Flaherty. "He told [the Secret Service] that they had …