Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1914-12-04
Mail Thief Captured. .


Lancaster, negro, 46 years old, and he
has admitted the crime. At one time he
lived at Washington Grove and while Iiv.
ing there acquired the name of notorious
thief. There he stole enough furniture tc
NIL a house, including piano, report says
FOR the commission of this offense he
served long term in the Maryland peni-
Tertiary. From this institution it has not
been long since he returned here. 1t is
said he still owns house and lot neal
washington Grove, but has lately made
his home near Wheaton, in the section OF
which he was captured by Sheriff Whalen
and several of his deputies on Saturday
last, while shocking corn on farm. He
states that $50 in all was what he DOT
from the mail robberies He has an uncle
living at Washington Grove. He robbed
this uncles house. Singularly enough il
was the papers that he obtained in this
robbery that led to his capture as the rob-
Der OF the mails. Some of them he careless
ly left in store which he robbed at night
and others he negligently mixed with mail
matter which got back into the Rockville
postoffice after it had been rified. Suspi-
clon fell upon the uncle, but he soon cleared
himself by relating circumstances which
pointed to Jesse Lancaster as the perpetra-
tor of the crimes of the store and mail rob-
berries. He was turned over to the United
States Government authorities soon after
he was captured and will be tried and
punished by the Federal Government.
He was arrested on warrant charging
him with breaking into and burelarizing
the store of Porter Ward, at Hunting Hill,
this county, some time ago. The clue to
the robbery was obtained through his
uncle's stolen papers.
! After long and steady search he was
found at work shucking corn on the farm
of Mr.. Ford, near Wheaton, this county,
and taken into custody by officers with
drawn revolvers. Stacks of checks, money
orders and other papers, rifled from mail
bags, recently missing at Rockville, were
discovered in his pockets when he was
/ searched, and he is also said to have con-
fessed in detail to having been the mail
bag thief
The arrest came about through curious
clue. Lancaster has an uncle of the same
name who lives near Washington Grove
He has good reputation, is deacon in
the church to which he belongs, and at
times transacts business for the church
which requires him to handle papers con-
tanning details of the business of the
church. Some of these papers were de-
posted in trunk at his home, recently,
when robbery was committed at the
house, and the papers were afterward
missing. Jesse Lancaster. the nephew,
had visited his uncles house about the
time of the robbery, and his uncle sus-
pected him.
The officials investigating the mail pouch
robberies knew nothing of the loss of the
church papers, but when they were assert
ing and cataloguing pieces of mail thrown
away by the unknown mailbag thief they
came across several church papers bear
ing the name of Lancasters uncle. When
they interviewed him he communicated to
them his suspicious as to his nephew, and
in this way they obtained for the first time
a clue as to who the thief might possibly
be. suspicion that grew stronger by rea-
son that the church papers were found
with the rifed mail, the supposition being
that the person who had rifled the mail
bags and thrown away some of their con-
tents had also rifled the uncles trunk and
thrown away, in the same pile, some of the
contents of the latter.
This was confirmed Saturday by Jesse
Lancaster's confession to the officers who
arrested him, they say. He told them that
he had taken half dozen or more mail
pouches from the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
road station at Rockville, picking them up
after the train which passes about 3 A.
M. had dropped them off, He committed the
first robbery last March, he said, and had
taken a number of other pouches and
sacked" them since. at intervals of few
weeks, having stolen the last one Thanks
giving Day morning.
Lancaster told the officials that he did
not get in a Il from the pouches more than
$25 or $50 in cash. This, however, is not
believed, as it is known that one of the
stolen pouches had contained letter in
closing a fifty-dollar note. and other in
stances Of letters having contained cash,
believed to have been in the stolen pouches,
were reported. One of the pouches, which
was stolen November /. contained between
$4,000 and $4,000 in checks, money
orders and cash, most of the sum. however
being in checks and money orders.
Lancaster also told the officials that he
had burned large quantity of the mail
stolen, and that the $50 bill may have
been in some of the letters burned. Satur-
day afternoon he showed the officials where
some packages of letters and the mail bags
were hidden. A considerable amount of
mail had already been recovered.
1t was believed that Lancaster might
have an accomplice, but he denies this,
and says he is ready to take his punish
ment.
Among the articles Of merchandise re-
covered from Lancaster are watch. suit
of clothes. chatting dish and sugar spoon.
Religious Notices.
l Rockville avarv SUNDAY tnornind and pyan-