---
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-09-23
relations:
- fn: 1
  role: agent
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[United States Secret Service]]'
- fn: 1
  start: 1974-12-10
  type: investigated
  with: '[[R.C. Horsch]]'
- fn: 1
  start: 1974-12-10
  type: investigated
  with: '[[Charles Griffith]]'
summary: United States Secret Service agent who announced the December 1974 counterfeiting
  arrests of Raymond Hoersch, later R.C. Horsch, and Charles Griffith in Bucks County.
tags:
- Person
- SecretService
- Counterfeiting
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

James D'Amelio was the United States Secret Service agent who announced the arrests in December 1974 of Raymond Hoersch, later [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), and [Charles Griffith](/people/charles-griffith/) on counterfeiting charges, and the seizure of 180,000 dollars in counterfeit ten-dollar notes.[^1][^2]

### The 1974 Case

"U.S. Secret Service Agent James D'Amelio identified the suspects as Raymond Hoersch, 31, of Chalfont and Charles Griffith, 39, of Wallingford," the Associated Press reported. D'Amelio said that Hatboro police had detained Hoersch on December 10, 1974, after the Hatboro Card Shop on Old York Road reported that he had passed a suspicious ten-dollar bill, and that Secret Service agents with a search warrant found 630 dollars in counterfeit notes in Hoersch's car. The agents seized printing equipment in a building on Taylor Street in Doylestown, where they arrested Griffith. Accounts of the face value of the notes seized ranged from 180,000 dollars to more than one million dollars.[^1][^2]

### Identity

A tribute published by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund describes a James R. D'Amelio, born in 1933 in Malden, Massachusetts, who joined the Secret Service in 1959, served among other posts as special agent in charge of its Pittsburgh and Philadelphia field offices, received the service's Valor Award in 1973, and retired in September 1985 to work on card security for MasterCard. The tribute does not give the dates of his Philadelphia posting.[^3]

[^1]: "Phony Bill Suspects Held," Associated Press, *Gloucester County Times* (Woodbury, N.J.), December 11, 1974, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1105967385/
[^2]: [Counterfeiting arrests], *The Morning Call* (Allentown), December 11, 1974, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/275702319/
[^3]: "37 Years of Fighting Crime in America," National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Stand With Honor series. https://nleomf.org/swh-story/37-years-of-fighting-crime-in-america/