#369 - Printing $10M In Fake Cash, Satan’s Disciples & Chicago Gang Wars | Art Williams Jr

February 6, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Art Williams Jr. grew up amid severe hardship on Chicago’s South Side and became one of the most technically skilled counterfeiters of modern U.S. currency before serving multiple prison terms. In this conversation he recounts the specific conditions that shaped his path, the precise methods he used to defeat new security features on the 1996 hundred-dollar note, and the gradual shift that led him to a legitimate career as a painter whose work now sells through his own galleries.

Childhood in Chicago Projects

Williams was raised in public housing by a single mother who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. She experienced frequent hospitalizations and vivid hallucinations that included seeing demons and angels. The neighborhood belonged to the Satan Disciples, a Hispanic and white gang aligned with the “Folks” coalition that competed with Latin Kings and Vice Lords. By age eighteen he had already lost six friends to homicide and had been shot himself during a gang-related incident. His father abandoned the family early, briefly returned to kidnap the children, then left them again at a Salvation Army shelter before they were placed in the projects. These experiences produced lasting anger and a strong drive for self-reliance, yet also instilled a residual sense of morality rooted in the religious routines his mother enforced.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:52) **Introduction as the world's most notorious counterfeiter** - Art describes his reputation for breaking the 1996 hundred-dollar bill and transitioning to art
2 (01:19) **Childhood on Chicago's South Side** - Growing up in projects with a single mother suffering severe mental illness
3 (03:16) **Gangs and neighborhood violence** - Life with Satan Disciples and Chicago gang dynamics
4 (05:22) **Jail experience and quitting the gang** - Becoming a section leader in Cook County Jail and the church-based gang meetings
5 (10:34) **Father's abandonment** - Dad leaving at age nine, brief kidnapping to Oregon, and return to homeless mother
6 (15:14) **Introduction to counterfeiting at age 15** - Meeting the old printer "DaVinci" through mother's friend
7 (22:25) **Mentorship and early printing lessons** - Watching plate burning and color mixing without touching the press

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Watch every episode ad-free & uncensored on Patreon: https://patreon.com/dannyjones

At age 15, Arthur Williams Jr. (Art) was taught the secrets of money counterfeiting by his mother’s boyfriend. What started as a skill quickly turned into a global operation and continued to print over $10 million in fake money, earning the reputation as the world’s most notorious counterfeiter. This is the insane true story of a teenager who built a million dollar empire of designing fake money.

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OUTLINE

00:00 - Counterfeiting the 1996 $100 bill

02:20 - The Satan Disciples of Chicago

04:37 - Gang politics in county jail

07:20 - Worst prison punishment

09:47 - What happened to Art's dad

14:25 - How Art started counterfeiting

16:45 - How the banks take old bills out of circulation

21:28 - Working for "da Vinci"

31:28 - How counterfeit money is made

37:43 - The paper used for counterfeit money

43:38 - The $100 bill that can't be counterfeit

46:20 - Best paper for fake money

50:04 - Why Art BURNED his money

51:21 - Using superglue to remove fingerprints

57:06 - Helping others with counterfeit money

01:02:42 - How to spend fake money

01:08:16 - Printing $250k per week

01:10:26 - getting shot by a rival gang

01:16:52 - Scalise & the Marlborough diamond robbery

01:23:52 - Donating to kids with fake money

01:30:15 - When Art reunited with his dad

01:37:08 - Art's dad's secret underground grow room

01:43:16 - Meeting the president of the Hell's Angels

01:45:38 - How Art got caught

01:53:12 - The day Art got released from prison

01:59:05 - Counterfeiting is harder to quit than heroin

02:01