[Finny]

It's been quite a few years since I did any research on Travelers -- couldn't sell the stories because editors flat out didn't believe them (as you can imagine! You're familiar enough with them to know how unbelievably bizarre they are!) and also wanted more than a few distant law enforcement officers for quotes, and as you no doubt know, Travelers are rarely caught not because LEOs aren't doing their job, but because Travelers are experts at escaping prosecution, so few LEOs will say anything of substance to reporters about them.

Yes, the name McCaffreys, McCafferties, Stuarts, and a whole bunch of other names crop up (I've kept all my research files). I wasn't aware of the auto theft, but I do know that for ALL travelers, LEOs who were serious about getting them understood that the only way they could nail Travelers to any decent effect was by going after them via RICO laws. Might as well try to glue down water as to try to nail a Traveler.

I know that Travelers are NOTHING if not survivors. If they have to adapt their scams to the moment, they will, so the group that was primarily doing home improvement scams in the 90s may well be doing something else now! In that particular Scottish group, I didn't see that dental anomaly you mention. They were fair skinned, but mostly brunettes -- a few redheads and blonds, but mostly brunettes, and not a lot of freckling, which seemed odd. Round moon-shaped faces, ruddy skin. And quite ostentatiously Christian. The women had clean fetishes to the point that they washed their linens DAILY. The proceeds fron the apartment complex's laundry rooms went through the roof.

[muawiyah]

Sounds like the same crowd. They have begun sending the kids to college. In my youth there was one McCafferty who went but the others dropped out in their junior year and started driving stolen cars to Kentucky for re-registration.

The Lindners across the street were a tad different. They used to go to the Indy 500 and build viewing stands on the infield. Then one race they fell down and a bunch of people got hurt so they went into something else.

All winter long the kids would spend an hour or so in the evenings splitting $1 bills down the center between the two faces. The neighborhood kids (raises hand) got to help.

The adults would spend time splitting $20 bills the same way.

Come spring they'd use a little starch or something and iron on a $1 back to a $20 front until all the piles of $1s and $20s were gone. Then time to hit the carnivals and shows throughout the Midwest.

As far as I can tell Treasury dept has made the bill splitting deal obsolete.