Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-11-11
RUN DOWN AT LAST
Capture of a Clever Gang of
 Letter-bOX Thieves.
THEY HAVE STOLEN $1oo.oco.
Bankers swindled Out of Large Amounts
 by "Raissd" Checks

Cities of the Country-One of Their
 Number an Expert Penman Hard
 Work of the Authorities in FerretinG
 Out the Robbers.
 NEW YORK, Nov. 11.-After months of diligent search and patient watching the Postoffice authorities have at last succeeded in capturing one of the boldest gangs of mail robbers that has ever operated in the cities of this country.
 They have successfully pillaged mail boxes of their valuable contents for near ly a year in every prominent city of the Union. In this city they operated in May last by breaking open several let ter boxes and stealing their contents. The prompt action of Postmaster Van Cott, who had every box in the city watched for several days, soon caused the gang to abandon New York.
 Harry Armstrong, alias ''Sheeney," who was caught here by Postoffice De. partment Inspector J. E. Jacobs, is the last of the gang to be captured. The others of the gang are: Charles Hub. bard, alias "Charles Diamond" who is the leader of the gang; T. c. Boalan, alias ''T Clayton," and J. K. Stratton.
 The latter three were caught a week ago in Atlanta, Ga. Stratton and Hub. bard were then taken to St. Louis for trial, and Boalan to Nashville, Tenn.
 These four thieves have been operat ing since August, 1890, and have robbed the mails of more than $100, 900. The postoffice inspectors have checks for amounts aggregating $25, 900 which the robbers stole and had cashed at banks all over the country. These checks were taken from letter boxes in Washington, kA-l, apolis, Baltimore, Denver, San Fran cisco, Louisville, Cincinnati, Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta, St. Paul, Koch. ester, Syracuse, Kansas City and many other places.
 Post Office Inspectors J. E. Jacobs and R. Morrison, of this city; A. M. Sproes- ser of Washington; Paul A. Williams of St. Louis, and A. R. Holmes, of Gin cinnati, who hunted down the gang, travelled thousands of miles to capture the thieves. They followed the gang from city to city for months and were led merry chase.
 The members of the gang never stopped more than a few days in one city. They would open the letter boxes with false keys, abstract the letters and take them to their lodgings. They opened the letters by steaming. Those that contained cash or checks were de- stroyed and those that had neither were resealed and remailed.
 The checks were altered where they were payable Ito order" so as to read Ito bearer," and in many instances were ''raised.'' The writing was re- moved by means of acids. One of the thieves was not only an expert penman, but also an artist. Where checks were tinted of course the tint was removed by the acids. He had all kinds of crayon pencils, and with these he first retinted the checks and concealed the discolora- | tion made by the acid before filling lem in again.
 As soon as the thieves got their checks cashed they always went to some city remote from the scene of their last rob | bery.
 The members of the gang did not al- ways travel together. Sometimes they would separate and each thief would "work" a town. They would then come together again in one of the large | cities.
 The inspectors could have arrested certain members of the gang sooner, but they wanted to get them all, and for that reason they delayed the capture. Gen. E. G. Rathbone of Washing gton, formerly Chief Postoffice Inspector, put | the inspectors on the case last February. | The inspectors first visited the banks | that had been swindled and got 8 de- scription of the men who presented the checks for payment. The descriptions varied greatly, showing that the thieves were in the habit of disgusting them | selves.
 Inspector Jacobs managed to get hold | of some correspondence between Hub bard and Prentiss Filler, who is serving a five years' sentence at Jackson, Mich, for robbing the Iron Mountain Railroad of $116, 900.
 The letters that Filler wrote to Hub bard showed he had formerly belonged to the ang of letter box thieves. The gang made their headquarters at 8 saloon kept by J. Carrero, in Louisville, Ky. The inspectors followed Hubbard about and after a time got to know other members of the gang by sight. Three weeks ago the inspectors fol lowed Hubbard, Boalan and Stratton to Denver. The thieves went from there to Dallas, Texas. A fair was in progress and the Dallas police refused to allow them to leave the train, as they sus- pected them of being crooks. They then proceeded to New Orleans and from there travelled to Atlanta.
 The inspectors arrested the trio at tn @ Folsome House. In their room and on their persons were found 65 letter box keys, 15 mail pouch keys, three saws, Il files, two boxes of crayon pencils and several bottles of acids. The thieves were locked up in the Atlanta jail, and on the following day Inspector Jac obs had himself committed as counter feter. He was put in cell between Boalan and Stratton. He overheard them calling out to each other that tn ey must swear that they were strangers to one another, and also learned of tn @ whereabouts of Armstrong and of the fact that Stratton had shipped a satchel | to hini elf at Atlanta.
 Iks satchel was seizei at Louisville.
 It Hs i, und to contain 8 full set of burglar tools, several geld watches and a great lot of jewelry. Inside the case of one of the watches was engraved
 "Clarence k. Stedman."
 Hubbard is Q well-known thief and is No. $40 in Inspector Byrnes' Rogues' Gallery. He was sentenced to Sing Sing in this city in 1884 for four years for highway robbery. Armstrong is the son of a once wealthy gambler of Louis vile. He is we'll educated and & good penman. He did the ''check raising'' for the gang. Nothing Is known of the others, but it is believed they have