The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-12-17
THIRD DEGREE MAKES CRIME CONFESS.

4
is called the third degree" said
veteran postofice inspector. 9TH
great majority of them go to piece
when any piece of apparent evidencs
against them, manufactured or other
wise, is put before them and fall owe
themselves in confessing.
| ''I worked on two cases involvin,
such confessions last year, and in on'
the guilty man could never by an.
possibility have been convicted in {
court of law had he possessed as much
spine as he did ingenuity.
He was railway postal clerk will
a long run on the other side of the
Mississippi river. One day he saw a
chance to make big haul, and. being
a poker player, and consequently in
steady need of ofchange, he promptly ac-
cepted the chance.
"At city station along his run he
received two well-stuffed pouches o.
registered mail. He hastily scrawled
receipt, but the receipt didn tread fol
two pouches of registered mail, but
for only one. Therefore he found
himself in possession of a nice, fat,
| tightly packed pouch of registered
mail, for which he had given no re-
ceipt and which he could do just as he
liked with.
He had lot of time before the next
stop, and the whole car to himself
So he went through the bag that look
ed the more promising, and rihed its
contents at his leisure.
''It was almost exclusively cash
pouch. There was some jewelry, but
this he tossed away as being liable to
get him into trouble. The clean up
that he made was something handsome
only few hundreds short of $I8,
900.
"He burned all the envelopes and
other papers in the little stove at one
end of the car, and tossed the pouch
and the plunder that he didn elect to
keep into river which the train cross
~@4esa4 .. .k<~skl.s A<>l-:->s .>s-Ae.s<*sei.s=
weight to the pouch so that it would
be sure to sink. He attended to the
delivery of the other pouch all right
the only pouch for which he was
responsible-and at the windup of his
out trip he found himself in posses
sion of the tidy $4,000 in currency.
81 went out on the case. The man
who had accepted the receipt for the
one pouch remembered that he had
really delivered two pouches to the car
and his statement put it up to the
railway postal clerk, although the lat
ter had a fine edge on the situation,
owing to the fact that he had only re-
ceipted for the one pouch.
II knew that it would be useless
to ask him whether he had received
one or two pouches, and I did not
present myself to him at first at all.
Instead, dug around and located the
girl with whom he was on confidential
terms.
ST had only been on the case three
days when I learned that the girl
she lived in Cheyenne-had given q
one hundred dollar bill to Cheyenne
tradesman in payment of a small debt
When 1 found this out I got a United
States officer to accompany me, and
we found the railway postal clerk il
his room at a hotel in the town at the
end of his run. When he had admit
ted us went at him at once.
"'I've got you dead to rights,
told him, and the best thing you car
do to save yourself long sentence
is to own up quick. Here, went OF
suddenly hauling out my wallet and
producing one hundred dollar bill
is one hundred dollar note that youl
| girl spent in Cheyenne day before yes
terday afternoon. The number of the
note has been identified by the sende
OF it through the registered mail
and
It's all off, I guess, he interrupt
ed me, with a gray face. You've
snagged me, all right. I'll tell yot
where the dough is and he did.
"That same night the money, al
but about $500, was found stuffed be
hind the tar paper lining of a chickei
coop back of deserted house on th'
outskirts of Cheyenne.
1.-The cave-in of that railway posta
clerk was wholly unnecessary. The
one hundred dollar bill that l fashe'
upon him was, of course, not the on
that had been expended in Chey
enne by his girl. 1t was bill that
had borrowed from a bank just fo
the purpose.
"But the bluff went through easil.
and caught a man who could neve
have been convicted of his crime in
court of law, since there wasn't th
slightest existing evidence that he hat
ever had possession of the registers
mail pouch which he had rihed.
"The other quick acknowledgment
of theft, under pressure, was that of
postmaster of good-sized far West
ern town. This man had possessed
reputation for sterling integrity, AM
the case had to be handled with XII
gloves.
"His method was ingeniously sin
pie. He made up package of cur
rency to be remitted to Washington
The package contained $2,o in bill
of various denominations.
"The postmaster made up the pack
age, carefully sealing it, in the pres
ence of two or three employees of th
postofice. Then he placed it in th
pouch and fastened the pouch. H