The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-14
PerpIexes Federal Officers Since
$4,000 Mail Robbery.
KEPT AN EYE ON SWEETHEART
Every Cent She Spent Was In
spected for Clue.
Cyclone Blew Away House In
covering Big Bills.

of seven sacks of registered mail at
Kansas City and who lived in North
Topeka nearly all summer, has been
source of perplexity to federal secret
service men ever since the S9o,uoo
mail robbery at Armourdale for whicn
stevens served time in the federal
prison. Secret service men admit that
If Savage took the $4,000 from the
mail sacks at Kansas City, his hldlng
of it and it's distribution has been one
of the cleverest bits of criminal work
ever brought to the notice OF 1eoeral
authorities in America.
1t has been believed that Stevens's
sweetheart, now his wife, who lived in
Denver, or his grandmother who lived
in Leavenworth had the money hldoen
near their premises during Stevenss
incarceration in the federal prison at
Leavenworth. No negro girl dressed
better than Stevens's sweetheart and
no negro washerwoman, as Stevenss
grandmother had been, had so fine a
home as did the old woman in Leaven-
worth.
Searched on Denver Streets.
Time and again secret service men
stopped Stevens's sweetheart on the
streets of Denver, took her off trains
en- route to Leavenworth for Denver
and had a woman search her. Never
did the girl have any extraordinary
amount of money on her person or
bills whose serial numbers correspond
ed with the serial numbers of the bills
stolen from the mail sack on the depot
platform at Armourdale.
Time and again secret service men
have entered the home of Stevens's
grandmother and searched it from
garnet to cellar. Trenches dug around
her home would make one believe
that a German army had been in camp
in the yard. But the same unsatisfac-
tory result greeted their efforts.
Attorney Purchased a Farm.
Yet Stevenss sweetheart prospered,
his grandmother prospered and
negro attorney who finally got him
sout OF prison on habeas corpus pro-
cecdirgs purchased a big farm on the
the clever negro stepped from the
prison free man, number of years
before the sentence imposed by the
judge had expired.
On the day of his release from
prison Stevens went Immediately to
the home of his grandmother in south
Leavenworth and married the girl
who had visited him nearly every
month in prison. 1t was announced
that he had purchased a truck garden
near Denver.
A Peculiar Mystery.
Convict SWITCHES were placed lin the
same cell with Stevens during his
probe into the hiding place of the
robbery. Stevens was pleasant always
but he refused to talk about the rois-
berry to convicts the same as he did
to government officials.
While Stevens was in the federal
prison mystery never eQualed in the
Strangeness of circumstances sur
rounding it, came to light in Leaven-
worth. More than $4,000 in $40 gold
certificates was found within two
III r. IL
err The story went all over the coun-
try and hundreds of people from Kan
sas City ard Leavenworth went wild
in search for money in the south
end of the CITY, Many believed the
story to be fake but it was true.
The Stevens Money.
The theory that it was the Stevens
money was the ore given as solution
OF the mystery. 1t was believed that
the money had been hidden in a gully
near his grandmother's home, that
heavy rain had washed away the dirt
and that the wind was blowing the
bills thru the city. Men, women and
children began digging in the gully.
secret service men called at the banks
and by comparing the serial numbers
on bills found and turned over to
them, discovered that more than S.
900 in $40 gold certificates found, had
been turned into the banks of Leaven-
citizens in Leavenworth found some
of the bills.
Federal authorities who flocked into
Leavenworth took the serial numbers
of the bills which ran in close rota-
ton and telegraphed them to a Chi
cago bank where the $4,000 in bills
stolen were routed. The numbers on
the bills found in Leavenworth were
not the same as those stolen This
forced them to discard the Stevens
theory.
Another Theory Exploded.
A year later a J4eavenworth mai.
clerk living in the vicinity of the place
where the bills were found was arrest
ed for a mail robbery. This caused
another theory to be advanced for the
finding of the money. A cyclone had
struck the clerks home and a portion
of the roof was blown off shortly be-
fore the bills were found. Only two
weeks ago the government dismissed
the case against the clerk on the
ground that it had not sufficient evil
dence to convict him.
Stevens was seen in the Armourda1e
station on the night of the robbery.
Several days later the police picked
him up, suspicious of a negro wearing
as many big diamonds as Stevens had
on Then he was identified as the
man seen at the station that night
and other discriminating evidence was
brought against him. 1t was brought
out at the trial that Stevens went to
Leavenworth between the day of the
| robbery and the day of his arrest The
supposition is that he either secreted
the money in Leavenworth or trans
| ferred it to his sweetheart who lived
| in Kansas City.
| Stevens received sentence of seven
| years on various counts, a certain
number of years for stealing a mail
| sack, certain number of years for
| hre al
employed a negro attorney. who got
| him out at the end of two years on
| habeas corpus proceedings, charging
| that all the counts constituted just one
| crime, stealing a mail sack, and that
| he should serve sentence for the COM
mis- sion of only one crime.
| Specimens of almost every precious min
i larsI "A IN ralfz t.ar<