Connecticut western news., 1884-10-01
REMARKABLE TRIALS.
THE SOUTH DANvERs POSTMASTER.


 We now present the remarkable case of postmaster Woodbury, who came near being ruined by circumstantial evi- dence, but who was saved from conyic- ton by an obstinate iuryman, and whose innocence was afterward made entirely clear. For a report of this case, we are indebted to the Hon. William D. North end, an able member of the Essex bar, who prepared it originally for the American Lake ReUietc.
 There is upon record perhaps no more remarkable instance of the possibility of mistake from reliance upon purely circumstantial evidence than occurred at trial which was had in the United States Circuit Court at Boston, Justice Clifford presiding, in June, 1862.
 In the spring of 1862, numerous com plaints were made that letters delivere from the post-office in Peabody, then South Danvers, in the State of Massa- chusetts, had been opened and money abstracted from them. The complaints reached the department at Washington, when an efficient detective ill the post office service was detailed to make an examination into the facts The officer attended to the duty, and ascertained the complaints were we'll founded. He conferred with the postmaster on the hsa fonk ksNN For dispute, but the postmaster protested tL at he had no knowledge as to how or by whom the offences had been commit ted. In the mean time, the postmaster had caused 8 new lock to be placed up on the door leading to the post office, aand was intending to place a night wRtchmaR in the room; but the detec- tive desired to take entire charge of the case, and omitted to perform this inn portant duty. probably from convic- ton that the postmaster or his son was the culprit. Acting upon this convic- tion, the detective proceeded to collect evidence, and in the last of April made complaints before commissioner Hallett against both for opening seven letters at different times. Upon the examination before the Commissioner, it appeared that in each instance complained of en- velopes had been delivered to the parties to whom they were directed, from which money had been abstracted; the en- velepes in each instance had been care fully opened, generally at one end, and as carefully closed, strips of gluten paper usually being used to conceal the opening, showing great deliberation in the work. It also appeared that all these letters were registered, and in each instance that they Srriyed at the post office in the mail that was due about three o'clock p. m., and remained in the office over night before delivery. Both defendants were bound over to await the action of the grand jury. So general was the opinion of the guilt of the parties. or one of them, that, al though they had sustained the best character up to the time of the com plaints, the son, the assistant postmas- ter, was committed to the jail in Suffolk. The grand jury, at its session in May following, presented six indictments against tho postmaster and seven against the assis ant postmaster. In June, the assistant postmaster was tried upon one of the indictments. Only eleven jurors being present, tue panel was completed by the selection from the bystanders of talesman by the marshal. The indiet- ment charged the opening of and ab- stractiDg money from letter mailed to very respectable aged gentleman of Peabody. The person to whom the let ter was directed testified that on cer- tain day he took from the post-office an envelope addressed to him, sealed with gluten and with wax; that he cut open one end of the envelope, and found en- closed only clean sheet of small bluish- colored note-paper, folded. The letter WAS registered. The envelope was pro- duced at the trial, and there was no ap. pearance of Its having been open except when opened by the recipient. The en- yelope was directed by a gentleman in Boston, who testified that the forenoon before it was taken from the office he enclosed in it letter written on white note-paper, and some twenty dollars in money; that after sealing it, as above stated, he took it personally to the Bos- ton post-office and caused it to be regis tered. A clerk in the post office testi- fed that be recoIlected the fact, and that ihe letter was registered by him and put into the mail for Peabody; the officers in charge of the mail testified to the mail being taken to Salem, and from there to Peabody, where it WAS delivered to the postmaster about three o'clock p. m. A Peabody lady testified that she had a son in the army, and that at the request of the detective she went to the post office and asked for sheet of note. paper, as she wished to write a line tc her son, and she had not time to procure one elsewhere. A sheet of note-pape was given her by the assistant postmas. ter, which was produced at the trial. Il a was the same color, size, and by the
 ne maker as the one found in the en