1860.               Address Unknown, New York, New York.

John M. Parker was recorded in one article that appeared on May 25, 1860 in The New York Times (New York, New York).  Law Report.  General Sessions.  The Court of General Sessions, Judge Russell presiding, commenced to try cases yesterday, at 11 A. M., and did not adjourn till some minutes after 6 P. M.  Yet only three cases were tried, and but one disposed of. 

John M. Parker, alias King, was charged with the manufacture of counterfeit bills on the Exchange Bank of Hartford, Conn.  He was a young man of respectable appearance, and a daguerreotypist by profession.  The principal evidence against him, perhaps, was a large box in his apartment in Fifty-second-street, containing about twenty bottles of chemicals, such as are used in the photographing process; several sheets of paper, resembling that on which bank bills are printed, but of inferior quality; and a newspaper, on which test had been made of the color and force of the stamp, in red designed for the denomination of the bills.  The bills exhibited in Court were evidently photographs, and were not good specimens of the craft of the artist.

A Man named Thomas Newell was detected in Fifty-first-street, on March 29, attempting to pass some of these bills.  He was a co-mate of Parker’s, residing in the same house, and his arrest led to that of Parker.  He will probably be tried to-day.  The defence yesterday set up for Parker was, that he was a daguerreotypist and photographer by profession, and that in taking photographic impressions of these bills he was only practicing, just as a young artist would sketch anywhere and everywhere, to give him facility and skill.  The jury, however, took another view of his photographing propensities and found him guilty of the offence charged.  Where-upon Judge Russell thought that a residence of five years in the State Prison would be beneficial to him, and he goes there, and for that time, accordingly.

John M. Parker is not recorded in other photographic directories, he is also not listed in the New York City Directories.