The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-31
a SERIOUS MAIL ROBBERY.
Cash, Bonds and Drafts to the Amount
OF 100000 Mysteriously Disappear.
Seventy Registered Packages Stolen from
Postal Car-Government Detectives at
Work Nearly Three Weeks on the Case.
st. Louis Republican.

tween here and Washington are now looking for
the author of the first important mail robbery
which has taken place on the postal route be-
tween st. Louis and New York. The robbery
| occurred nearly month ago. but the amount of
money lost was so large and it was committed
with such skill that the postoffice inspectors
made unusual efforts to prevent the occurrence
| from becoming generally known. in order that
the thief or party of thieves might not be no.
titled OF the detective plans being laid. The in
spectors succeeded in preventing the facts OF the
robbery from getting beyond the postal circles
| nearest concerned until yesterday, when Re-
| publican reporter obtained hint from an In
dianapolis postal clerk visiting the city, which
| led to discovery of the facts of the robbery.
| There are three divisions on the fastmail run
| from New York to ST. Louis The first is from
| New York to Pittsburg; the second from Pitts
| burg to indianapolis, and the third from Indian
| apoiis to st. Louis. At Pittsburg and Indian
apolis tho force of railway postal clerks IN the
| mailcars change. and turn over their mail
| pouches to other crews. The trains stop only an
instant for this; there are no transfers of bag
| gage or passengers to delay them and the chief
! clerks of the mail cars must go through the
formai1tles of transferring to each other the val
| liable mail in their charge in hurry. Tne mail
! is always heavy on this through run and the
clerks are tired when they reach the end of their
| divisions. They sometimes neglect, through this
necessary haste of transfer to check the pouches
| OF through mail they receive from each other,
and frequently receipt for the mum Der the clerks.
whose car they take, tell them there are in il,
without counting them. Then, while on their
way to the other end of their division, they check
up the pouches in the car and see that they have
given correct receipt
From the time mail pouch leaves New York
- - =. - NJ
prevent this being done by thief the postal au-
| thorities have neat device. When the pouch
| is locked certain number appears on the out
| side of the lock. Every time the pouch is
| opened the number increases by one. The lock
cannot be jugged by anything short of an eX-
| pert locksmith's ingenuity, and no instance of
| this being done has ever been known. When
| the pouch is closed at New York it contains in
| side a description of its contents, for the re-
| ceiver in st. Louis and the description has
| it the number which appears on the lock when
| it is snapped. If the two numbers do not CORE
| spond when the pouch is opened in ST. Louis the
| clerk here can know that something is wrong,
| and it is his duty to report the matter immedi-
| ately. Each pouch, besides this changing num-
Der. has letter and another number which is
| permanent at the side of the lock-
The postal car that left New York for st. Louis
on june 20 had in its mail pouch for ST. Louis.
On the check list of the chief clerk it was en-
| tereal as pouch r, 1853. The changing number
| was Is In the pouch were seventy one regis
tered packages containing, according to the best
estimate of the postal inspectors, which is made
| from their knowledge of the average contents of
such packages, between $40, 900 and $l5, 900 in
money and a large amount of bonds, drafts,
checks and other valuable paper. Among these
were 1872, 600 worth of bonds for a Third-street
broker of St Louis, draft of 81 500 for Francis.
Whitaker s. Sons, Seventh and Carr streets;
two letters of advice for the Fourth National
Bank, mailed by European correspondents on
June Is, and letters of advice for the Fifth Ma
tional Bank here This much of the contents of
the pouch has become known, and number of
other st. Louis business men are supposed to
have had mail in it. At Pittsburg the New York
mail for st. Louis passed into the hands of
Chief.Clerk James Ferald AS usual, there was
no time for caution, and he receipted for nearly
score of pouches to the New York man with
out counting them. With the rest he receipted
for pouch R, 1853 When he got to Indianapolis
he reported to the chief postal clerk Of the
division that the pouch was missing. He was
frightened and anxious, andshe had reason to be,
| as he was responsible for the pouch He could
| give no information about it, and said he could
| not tell even whether or not it had been put
| into his at Pittsburg. His chief clerk re-
| ported the loss to Railway Mail Superintendent
Jameson in Washington and he reported it to
| Third Assistant Postmaster A. w. Hazen, in
whose jurisdiction such cases come. Mr.. Hazen
put the case into the hands of the postoffce in
spectors of that division, and they went to work
| quietly on it.
| The bonds should have reached St Louis June
| 80 July 8, John Whitaker called at the post
Office here and said to the officials there that he
| would like to know why he had not received
draft for 81 500, sent to him June 10 by Liver
| pool correspondent. A telegram was sent to
Postmaster Pearson, of New York, inquiring
about the registered package, and his answer
/ gave the postal authorities here the information
| that it had left New York June %. The inves-
| tigation here was continued until the officials
| discovered tho ROBBERY. and found out that the
inspectors had it in their hands already The
merchants who had complained at the postoffice
| of missing valuable packages were notified of the
| theft, and all Of them saved themselves from
loss by stopping payment on the missing bank
paper.
This robbery has especially chagrined the post
office authorities and put the inspectors on their
mettle, as it has been their boast for long time
that the registered mail system was an absolute
ly safe one for the patron. In fact, the sta
tistcs of the postoffice show the loss of but one
letter in $500 from all causes, and claim that
but one In $4,000 is lost by robbery. The in
spectors believe that the arrest of the thief, or
Of the clique who planned the robbery is certain.
Their past success warrants this belief. Among
| railway mail clerks who know of the robbery it
is thought the theft was committed by postal
clerk or number of clerks who have since left
the service, and that this being so the work of
the inspectors will be harder.
What indianapolis Knows of the Robbery.
The mail clerk on the Pittsburg and st. Louis
division who receipted for the missing pouch
and failed to find it in his possession when he
checked off the pouches that had been delivered
to him, was Mr.. FidIer who resides at
Terre Haute. 1t is claimed that
the supposed robbery occurred only
about two weeks ago, instead of on
the 26th of June. The officials here express
hope that the missing pouch will yet be found
as it is quite probable that there might have been
some mistake in the direction, or that it may
have been misplaced, and will yet turn up ali
right 1t is claimed that there is really no means
of knowing the value of the contents, but it is
doubted if it is as great as stated.
EDUCATIONAL.