Omaha daily bee., 1920-11-21
Details Of Mail Theft
!. Finally Made Public

kept attention of the investigators
Supon Omaha and Omaha men for the
Solution of the mystery and the re-
Scovery of the loot. Their tales were
identical, because of the fact they
had rehearsed them before >the rob-
f!bery. Then Orville Phillips, the
younger deserter, gave himself up
i,xoluntarily in an effort oprotect his
older brother.
The next important development
III the case came when Bluffs police
1nen, Ed Barrett and Elmer Lane, re-
fceived tip that much loot was con-
Beealed at the Daily home, 2753
Seventh avenue. Poffenbarger re-
:peatedly had refused to divulge the
location of this stuff. 1t was. re-
covered when the place was searched.
One Link Missing.
I. +. A. Daily and H. A. Reed both
We're arrested and the next day Mrs.
5Daly also was taken into custody.
They are not suspected Of completely
iii the actual robbery, but merely
with being accessories after the TACT,
/, by cQNCealln2 the IOOt.
Final solution to the only missing
link in the chain was Offered to fed
eral investigators by Ella Peterson,
f20,< 1906 South Tenth street, Omaha,
whose suspicious were aroused by
tthe sudden rise in wealth on the part
sof her fiance, Keith Collins, a for
inner aviator, living At 1889 Seventh
avenue, Council Bluffs.
Miss Peterson said her sweetheart
showed her about $25,000 in currency
and stated that he had received it
from the sale of a patent to the
government. In order to confirm
her suspicious she postponed her
wedding to Collins, which was to
have taken place Wednesday, and
notified federal officials. A search
for Collins was made. but he has
not been located. Postal inspectors
say that he may be the driver Of
,sthc automobile in the mail robbery
and, if so. has left town with his
share of the loot, about S2s,0OO in
currency.
{f Six Persons Held.
All of the persons implicated in
s the case, five men and one woman.
/ are being held at the county jau in
Council Bluffs. They will have
their preliminary hearings the latter
part of this week. The Phillips
brothers and Poffenbarger are
charged with breaking and entering
a United States mail car and with
taking away registered mail and the
pouches in which it was contained.
t& Mr.. and Mrs. Daily and Reed will
be charged with concealing proper
ii which they knew to be stolen
from the government.
The penalties in all six of these
cases are maximum sentences of Is
years imprisonment and $1,000 fine.
The statutes provide the same PEN
altes on both charges.
Officers Solve Mystery.
Five postal inspectors investigated
ythc case and brought about the ar
rest OF the culprits and recovery OF
the loot. They are w. L. Noah OF
Scdaiia. No.; Claude Glenn of Coun-
ell Bluffs; w. NJ. Coble of Omaha
u. NJ. Diedrich of Des Moines, and
r.. c. Munroe of Fort Dodge.
They were assisted by Sumner J.
Knox, internal revenue agent;
George L. German, assistant chief
sof the Burlington secret service, and
his agents, Lee, Matthews and
johnson; w. A, Byers, United States
commissioner; George F. Hughes,
bluffs postmaster; Fred Shoemaker
deputy marshal, and several other
federal operatives, railroad detec-
,fiyes and members of the Bluffs po.
ice departnent.