El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-29


Of money representing postal funds
/ may be expected to yield anywher,
/ from q few hundred TO several thOuS'
and dollars Not long ago the post
office at South Bend, Ind, was bur
glarized, and S1S,653 in stamps and
/ cash was taken. During the same
I twelvemOnth the postOffice at Day
! tena. Fla. yielded loot to the extent
of S5.136; and S5,240 was stolen from
the pOstOffice at Santa Cruz, Cal
z The rOobing Of pOstoffices is today q
! well-OrsaniZed industry, conducted by
tramp-thieves Of desperate character
Z who call themselves ''yegSmen.' These
yeggmen have practically suppressed ed
the old-time safe-blOwers. Formerly
the blowing of safes was done by a
few skillful, expert mechanics, who
carried high-class tools and knew just
where 10 drill into the lock in order
to break it. or where TO insert an eX-
: plOsiye- But the yeggmen practice
I much simpler methods Provided with
Z no apparatus, except a bottle of nitro
{ glycerin, a coil of fuse, and caps they
I enter the pOstoffice through a door or
( window, with the help Of tools stolen
perhaps from a nearby blacksmith's
Blowing Open Safe.
Meanwhile, two or three men are sta
toned outside as pickets, TO give an
/ alarm in case anybody approaches, or
{ to shoot If there is occasion Common
J bar soap is used to fill the joints Of
/ the safe door and enough nitro-glycer-
/ in IS allowed 20 percOlate in behind
I this ''tamping" to furnish the reQui-
! site explosion. Then the fuse is lighted
and, at a safe distance, results are
! When the safe has been torn open.
/ its contents are hastily thrown into
/ sack. All registered and ordinary
mail that happens to be on the prem
1 Uses is rifled and the thieves make off.
Should they be interrupted, they are
always ready to kill, and usually they
escape Now and then they have pitched
battles with citizens, and the latter,
. being unprepared, are apt TO get the
worst of it.
Recently there has been a new and
rather startling development OF this
kind Of industry. The postoffice rob
bers have taken to practicing their
profession in automobiles. Upstate in
New York they are going from town
course), and pilIaging postOffice after
pOstoffice. in some instances several Of
them in night In this way a ing
Of yeggmen can easily rifle the postal
safes in half a dozen OF more towns
between midnight and daybreak,
speeding away thereupOn to a distance
Of 100 miles or more from the scene
Of operations and scattering. The car
is left behind. il is easy to steal an
other one when they want it
Stamp Brokers Useful.
The stamps stolen by the robbers are
easily disposed Of through fence IN
some city. who converts them into
money by selling them at a discount.
It is astonishing (say the detectives Of
the postal serVice) how few questions
are asked, and how little 1t takes TO
satisfy business people Of the highest
stamps which are at least under sus-
piciOn of having been stolen. All
stamps look alike, and are current
everywhere at face value They cannot
be identified as stolen goods in the
hands of either thief or receiver.
Only the other day indictments were
Hezanr 10 Of al in
Vesdgation, by postal detectives,
against 20 sOcalled stamp brokers" in
New York City, who were doing a
business IN the purchase and sale OF
postage stamps that ran up into mil
lions Of dollars annually. Much of
their stock in trade was derived from
office boys and confidential employees /
Of mercantile houses who, having ac-
cess to the firms supply OF stamps,
stole them at will But large part
OF the plumber was unquestiOnably the !
loot Of robbed postOffices.
It was ascertained that the brokers'
paid all the way from 80 cents to 80 T,
cents on the dollar for the stamps they 4
bought (and which, of course, they I
knew TO have been stolen), and that 1
they sold them, mostly to supposedly I
respectable merchants, at IS to 90 4
cents Traffic Of the kind is against 4
the law, which Furnishes by imprison- /
ment the selling Of stamps at less than I
and the postal authorities are deter
mined to break it up.
A Remarkable Robbery
One Of the most remarkable robber-
mOnd, Va, where the postoffice was
entered some time between Saturday
evening and the following Monday
the vault blown open. and
s6b,2S5 IN stamps and money stolen
Two suspicious strangers left the city
with several trunks soon after the
burglary, and by clever work the gov
eminent detectives traced these trunks
through several cities to New York.
There they arrested Eddie Fay and !
nlcnarQ Harris notorious yeggmen. I
when they called at the railroad sta Z
ton for the trunks, which contained
tools and a large part of the
prison.
There was a few years ago, in Okla
1oma and Indian Territory, a little
OF deBperadOeS known as the
Bill Cook gang, which operated with
great frankneSS. They would walk I
nto pOstOffices in the daytime, take
walk out again. As a mode Of max
nE a living. nothing could be more
simple But they did this sort Of thing
20 frequently as TO eXasperate the
postal authorities, and, as a result,
.pecial prices were put on their heads.
every one Of them was finally killed
" captured, and Bin got 45 years in
what is colloquialiy known as the
stone Jug" Z
Letter Boxes Robbed.
Street letter boxes are robbed from [
lime TO time, but this species Of depre-
-ation is no longer practiced with the
uccess Of former days. The boxes now
n use are so ingeniOusIy cOntrived /
nat II IS hardly possible to fish let /
ers out Of them, either with a crooked l
'lece Of wire, or by means Of a string I
With sticky disc of leather on the I
nd-bOth of these being methods an I
lently employed There remains. how I
yer, the expedient Of opening the box
With a false key.
Fifteen years ago there was much
ODplnE OF letter boxes by thieves who Z
worked IN gangs. covering up their
racks with remarkable c1everness.
heir operations were so extensive that I
he pOstOffice department made trial |
4 many kinds Of locks. some OF which Z
ost as much as IS each. Those now
n use cost only 40 cents apiece, whole
ale; for the authorities have made up
heir minds that a burglar proof mail I
OK IS an impOssibilty.
One gang, which operated in New
-Ork and a number of other cities
hanging the scene Of its activities as
ften as seemed expedient-did bust
ess on wholesale scale. One of its /
MEMBERS, wearing a regular carriers I
inform and provided with a key.
would go from box to box in broad I
aylight, emDtying their contents into
leather sack of the conventional pat
eEn- The letters were then carried to /
room (rented for the Durnose in a /
ouse conveniently near where they