The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-05-10
Catching Thief Who Steals From Mails
Frank MoM office Inspector
Tells is Processes

| C3SS 1xOW
Did you ever put q five dollar bill
in letter and mail it to a friend YOU
had touched during the vacation sea-
son, or to your wife as penance money
when you had overstayed on an al
legged business trip, or to a mail order
firm for q stropless razor. and then
wonder why you never heard from it !?
Well. the bill went into the pocket of
dishonest employe of the postoffice.
Thousands of them do severy year,
writes William Anterior Du Puy.
You eventually made a complaint
about it, and we're asked the details
as to the time and place the lette..
was mailed. The facts you were able
to give eventually entered into the
calculation to determine who stole
the money. Combined with othe..
similar facts from people who had sus-
tanned similar losses. they in the end
indicated the thief. They were a link
In the system OF detecting crime by
mathematics that is being employed
BY the governments postoffice in
spectors with surprising results
Frank E. McMillin. chief of these,
the dean Of the worlds detectives,
tells of the manner in which the cal
culations are made. The story and
the man telling 1t indicate the char
acter of the work these inspectors
constantly perform and the plan of it.
They show the carefulness OF detail
necessary and the exactness of exc
cution. given an idea Of the reasons
that lie back of the success Of these
men, and show how they get their
regulations for always reaching re-
suits.
Chief McMillin-who began life in
a postoffice in Montant, worked
through every detail Of it and OF larg-
er offices, ran for years as q railway
mail clerk, became inspector, and fin
ally assistant postmaster at Boston-is
a type of the men who are making
q violation of postal laws a thing most
unsafe for the criminal. There is the
knowledge Of detail In postoffice work
that, when a crime is committed. i'm
mediately unfolds every possible
done. The men have this knowledge
as have their chief. There is plenty
of thrill and danger from personal
adventure in many Of the cases
handled by the inspectors: but this
present one is a matter of mathemat-
les.
Thinks They Have . Sure System.
The theft Of money from letters -
said Chief McMillin, is one Of the
commonest crimes with which We
have to deal. 1t is the ever present
temptation to employees of the se;'-
vice, and a man here and there is 60
ing to fall now and then. These
clerks or carriers are prone to get
the idea that they have originated a
system that will outwit the govern
ment. They do not realize that all
the clerks and all the carriers with a
possible turn toward dishonesty who
have worked during the last hundred
years have been originating plans of
this sort and coming to grief through
them with wonderful regularity. They
forget that all these experiences
have been handed down to the in
spectors, and that in addition they
have worked on the original plans of
hundreds of others of their class,
have compared notes with hundreds
of other inspectors. know the service
much better than the inventor of the
scheme, and all the possibilities 1t
offers for fraud.
IF one of these men should steal a
letter once and let it go at that. We
should have only the ordinary posi-
bility of getting him: but the employ.
ee who opens one letter and gets the
easy money can no more stop than the
man who has fallen under the spell OF
the opium pipe can give it up. Hav-
Ing opened one. he will open others.
Once started, he works assiduously.
with every offense the ease Of de,
lection through the mathematical sys-
ter is increased. The system illus
no r;acc for the personal equation; j.