The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-03-29
CONFESSION
OF THOMAS
LOVELADY
Tells How He Committed the
Crime for Which
GEORGE BOGGS SUFFERS
Statement Shows the Intrica-
cieS Of Crime.
GEORGE BOGGS SUFFERS

4
Lovelady, for whose crime George Boggs,
former postmaster at Shawnee, is under
a three years sentence in the beniten-
tiary, has made a confession, as follows:
In November Of 1897 the mail was be-
ing carried from and to Tecumseh on
trips per day each way. one in the even
ing and one in the morning. the even
ing train meeting the east bound Choe-
taw. The Tecumseh Office did not have
direct exchange of registered mail with
the Choctaw trains. but the mail at Te-
cumseh was made up in two pouches, one
| for the Wister and Fl. Reno postofffce,
I which contained ordinary mail only, and
one for Shawnee, which contained the
ordinary mail for that place and points
north that were supplied from there and
/ all the registered mail that left Tecun-
! sch office except that which went out
/ on the star routes. There being only one
/ train a day each way on the Choctaw
and the Tecumseh mail not arriving at
! Shawnee in time for the Office force there
/ to work the Tecumseh registered mail
! and get it out on the train the same
! evening, caused the Tecumseh registered
mail that was going west and which had
/ left Tecumseh in the evening to lay over
/ at Shawnee until the same hour the next
evening. On the said 4th day Of Novem-
Office $50 to remit to the depositng office
at Guthrie, 0. T.
Il prepared a remittance letter, as was
required giving a fel description of the
nine $50 bills that We're to be RENTED,
had the sam witnessed by Z. S. Shackle-
ford who was a real estate dealer at Te-
cumseh. The package was sealed and dis
patched with the evening mail. together
with the other registered mail that went
out that evening. On the evening of the
5th, the day following the dispatch Of the
| above mentioned package, Mr.. Moyle the
postmaster at Tecumseh and myself
were in the Office when the mai Twas
( brought In. I opened both pouches and
emptied the contents on the dumping
table. When I emptied the Shawnee
pouch I noticed that there were a num-
Der of registered packages and at the
same time remarked to Mr.. MoyIe that
Their eyre more than common, but as we
sometimes received large bundlese of
registered mail I did not think it extra
ordinary and pickd them up and tossed
them on lne desk without examination
and went to work on the ordinary mail,
as we did not deliver registered mail af-
ter the arrival of the evening mail.
There was some kind of meeting in
the town that night that Mr.. Moyle de-
sired to attend and as soon IS the mail
was assorted and put in the boxes he
took his hat and went out, remarking as
he die so that he guessed that I could
manage it.
Il worked the ordinary mail in transit
and then turned my attention to the reg
istered mail. noticed that the packages
were tied in two bundles and upon exam
nation found that one Of the bundles
had been missent and should have gone
west over the Chostaw. also noticed
that it contained the remittance letter
Of the evening before and one or two
others from the Tecumseh Office and
some others from other Offices and the
registry receipt for lie same was tied in
the bundle. The other bundle I noted was
in regular transit. There was nothin gex-
traordinary in the bundle being missent
as a postmaster viii sometimes missend
registered matter and as the blame did
not lie with US and I knw the remedy
] did not think much about the matter
while I was disposing Of the mail ad-
dressed to our Office. omeone came into
the Office and asked for the delivery of
some papers TO the window. 7 walked to
the window and when I had finished
returned and picked up the package that
7 thought I had been working on and cut
it open and instead of 1t being the enc
that / had been working on it was the
registered package that I had sent the
evening before. When 7 discovered my
mistake became confused and fright
ened about the matter. I had opened a
registered package out of transit that
contained $3.50.
Mr.. Moyle had often impressed me
with the strict instructions regarding
the registered matter and the necessity
of following the Instructions to the let
ter, but here was a case I knew without
precedent and no Instructions covering
the case I finally determined to destroy
al traces Of the package at once, so
gathered them up hastily and placed
them in the stove. and as there was no
fire there 7 was in the act Of placing a
match 70 them when it occurred to me
that I ought not 10 burn up the money. /
as it would be complete loss. Sc
looked through all the packages and
thought took out al the money. I sup
pose in my haste that I burned uP S.
as it was claimed by the authorities that
the cash was short that amount ard ]
afterwards forwarded 10 the department /
a IS and 81 bin to make this amount good. +
After taking out the money T placed the
1 had complied the destruction Of the
packages. envelopes. eceipt card. etc. iu
the stove and set fire 20 the lot When
packages ard thought about the matter
little began to see that the money
was an elephant on my hands and that
was going - have bad time getting is
back III The regular channel without de-
lection X l sent il 70 ire department at +
washington from Tecumseh. I knew that
an Inspector would can and try to ascer-
tain the facts iu the case and did net
know how 7 would staca under one ~
these investigations. was AFRAID g
stand the consequence. So after thinking
the matter over for awhile and net
reaching any decision and Being seized
with . desire "a get the money ont cf r1y
hsns1s / .aok il OR behind tas o-Hcs ara
burled Il n the ground untl coa44 Dee
eide what 70 do with H. AFTER huryins
The money returned 90 she af1ce ana
resumed my work 7 ecci5ed th&t the
best plan wd be "a get the money
back Ia s way that wound throw as dttle
sNerANe.neenNeNAsSg NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
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