St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-07
Twenty-Seven Decoy Letters
Stolen by Him on a Sin
gle Trip.
Clever Scheme by Which He
Directed Suspicion Toward
His Colleagues.
Stout's Thi ewing Operations
Cover a Period Of Over a
Year.

on the route between st. Paul and
Council Blnffs, and residing in this city
at All st. Peter street, was arrested by
Postoffice Inspector G. M. Flemming
and Deputy United States Marshal Dag
gett at 6i30 o'clock last night. Stout is
charged with robbing the mails be-
tween st. Paul and Minneapolis, and 1t
is supposed has been very successful in
his operations during the past year. The
story of Stout's crime is startling
and bears with it shock to
many of st. Paul's best citizens, who
knew him Immediately. his family and
his record as an employe of the railway
mail service. Several times since Jan.
1 the inspector of the division, the Of
ficer who figured in the arrest, has been
notified of the repeated loss Of letters
sent from st. Paul to New Orleans, par
ticularly those directed to the Louis
lana state lottery and its agents in New
Orleans. Inspector Flemming, Sleuth
on such work, left green fields in Wis
consin and took up his residence in
this city, expressly to determine who
was tampering with the mail on the
road upon which it was reported last.
"a
was discovered and it was
learned that the letters were being
stolen by some one in the mail car on
the run from st. Paul to Council Bluffs,
and generally, if not always, upon the
train leaving st. Paul at AS in the
evening. Last Tuesday package of
letters, prepared by the inspector, and
designed as decOys, was mailed to
Louisiana, in which there had been
placed marked money. The package
was placed in the mail pouch made up
at this Office, and to be assorted by the
car clerks between here and Minneapo-
lis. 1nsthat way the authorities hoped
to
DETECT THE GUILTY MAN.
The mail went on unmolested, and
the officers who had planned the decoys
were compelled TO return to st. Paul
after waiting for their man at Mime
apolis, where the train stops about
fifteen minutes. Thep supposed that
the thief was stealing the letters while
engaged in distributing them in the
mail car between here and Minneapolis.
Stout had not gone up on Tuesdays
train, and the mail reaching
Minneapolis all right, suspicion
was directed toward him until the
officers prepared batch of twenty-five
Sulting in Stout'S arrest. Stout is en-
ployed on his run from Friday until
Monday, on which day he returns and
lays over in st. Paul until his next trip.
To cover up the tracks of his stealings.
it seems, he designed to do it on an
others run, While laying over at st.
Paul, and when the other cars left
st. Paul over the same line in
which he was not a clerk. he
would offer to help the clerks
on the run in order to deadhead his way
to Minneapolis, whittier he went osten-
sibly on business for his family. AS he
was general favorite with the post
office employees and respected by the
mail car. He then assisted the clerk
in distributing the mail from the
pouches. 1t was was while so engaged
that he succeeded in finding the letters
supposed to contain money, which
he stole not one at time
but by the bundle as tied up at the office
and marked. Those packages marked
for New Orleans he stole. concealing
them in his overcoat pocket, which he
always wore while in the car. Yester-
day afternoon he went down to the
depot, and, boarding the train, as usual,
offered to assist III the distribution of
his Self-imposed task he came across
the
PACKAGE OF DEcoY LETTERS
marked for New Orleans, some of the
letters being addressed to the lottery
company and containing the marked
money. This package he gobbled and
went on with his work until about $50,
when he left the car and came up town,
as it proved. to open his plunder. He
went through this whole package,
found money in some and in others
blotters, which had been enclosed as
blind, though what to Stout, should
ing this alarm he went back to
the car and worked away until
it reached Minneapolis. Then Postal
Agent WeStcott, who had charge of the
car, and who was acting with the of
ficers who were on the same train, and
seated in the smoker, told Stout that he
(WeStcOtD wanted to go into one of the
passenger coaches to see lady friend,
and told him he might distribute the
MADAM pouch, which was put on the
train at Minneapolis upon its arrival.
Stout graSped the opportunity for fur
ther theft, and at once set to work dis
tributing the Mandan pouch. Westcott
went into the smoker and Informed
the officers what Stout was doing, and
after waiting few minutes, Inspector
Fleming stepped into the car and taking
Stout by the lapel of the coat told him
that he was prisoner. Opening his
coat out OH both sides, revealing two
large packages in his inside pocket,
Stout cried: "There they are." mean
ing the letters, "take me-" Twenty
seven letters in all were found to have
been stolen by him on this single trip.
Stout having thus confessed, grew pale
and nervous and accompanied the
officers to the Southern Pacific
train on which they came to
st. Paul, arriving here at 7:30
last night. He was taken to the Jail
where, Sheriff Bean happening to be
out for a moment, his wife sat in the
office. As Stout saw the yawning cell
doors he turned pitiful glance at Mrs.
Bean and the jailer and said: ''If Cap
was only here, l would not be locked
up" Stout's remark is due to most
intimate acquaintance between him
and Sheriff Bean. A pitiful
scene occurred when the sheriff
returned and the prisoner and he
came face to face. 1t was a most try.
ing moment for the sheriff. Stout owes
his position in the service to his devoted
friend, Sheriff Bean, while the latter
was chief clerk in 1854. Stout thus
worked directly under Capt. Bean for
many years, having been appointed in
1883. When they came together, Capt.
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