Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-05-20
BIG ?. 0. H0LD-UP ).
PLOT N|PPED IN BUD
Bearded Gent" Forestatls
Attempt to Rob Wall Street
Station Today.
BY the Associated Press.


NEW YORK. May 20.-A gigantic
post office hold-up. SURPRISING In spec
tacularity and daring any Of the re-
cent registered mail thefts of the
million dbllar-and-up class, would
have been perpetrated at the city
hall post Office TODAY but for the keen
work of a post Office inspector who
with the plotters and uncovered their
scheme.
This was the statement Of Post
Office Inspector Doran, in making
public the details Of the arrest OF
seven men. six Of them present or
past post Office employees. He asserted
that their capture would clear up the
registered mail theft of July 10, when
i.477, 900 in liberty bonds bound Tor
Washington were stolen from the
mails; would aid in solving here
tofore undisclosed theft of $4,000 in
securities addressed to Watertown.
n. Y, and might go far toward clear
ing up the s2.oOo,ooo mail truck hold
up in lower Broadway last October.
Plans had been laid-and were to
have been carried out in broad day
light-for the hold-up and robbery of
the entire registered mail section OF
the city hall station, through which
millions in securities flow daily from
the Wall street financial zone, In
spector Doran said. Orders had been
issued to shoot any employe who re-
sisted.
Scared on by Inspectors.
The plotters had visited the city hall
station several times made a careful
survey Of the Layout" and planned
their raid in great detail. Indeed, In
spector Doran said, they had gone to
TO pull the hold-up. but had been
deferred by the accidental presence
Of several inspectors. which led them
to fear their plot had been discov-
cred. 1t was the imminence of the
new date set for the hold-up that sent
police and post Office inspectors on a
roundup campaign last night.
The name of the inspector who I'M
covered the plot with his bad man
beard and his plausible manner was
withheld. He was one of sixteen in
spectors, it was said. who have been
working their way for weeks into
the confidence of the accused men
posing as boastful fellow mail
bandits.
The bearded man, it was said. sue
ceeded in getting himself counted
in" on the proposed city hall sta
ton hold-up, and talked it over in
detail with the others in his sup
posed den" which he had wired with
telephone devices. The seven cap
tives taken last night were con-
fronted with transcripts of the tele-
phonic record early today in the pres
ence of the bearded Inspector and
some Of them are alleged to have
confessed.
Boosting TESTS Recorded.
Much data on their earlier opera
tions already had been gathered
and recorded by the telephone de-
vice-at boasting tests set in. mo-
ton by the thrilling stories of mail
gent" as his robber friends called him.
So completely were the mail robbers
taken in by their new-found pal
! that Inspector Doran said today he
could recount almost every step taken
| in the July Is liberty bond theft.
The chief actor in this theft, he
, said, was Morris Steinberg. a nine
teen-year-old clerk in the registry
department. Steinberg. according 70
the inspector, had some means. as
yet undiscovered. of ascertainine
! when valuable packages were to come
| to the post office from the Federal
Reserve Bank
He knew an advance of the big
shipment of liberty bonds. which was
made on July IS. and laid the pouch
aside when it was delivered.
A few minutes later. it is alleged. hi
took the pouch to small closet or
the third floor, where Edward Fosel
confederate. had been hiding Col
several hours. Tossing the pouch into
the closet. he strolled nonchalantl!
back to this post, leaving Fogel tc
rip it open. extract the package oil
! bonds and slip quietly out of the
building.
Takes East Side Room.
Steinberg was suspected al the time
but care was taken to make him think
he was not. and a short time later oc-
casion was found to drop him from
the service for a minor infraction OF
the rules. The inspectors continued &c
watch him and four months ago the
bearded gent" managed to scrape al
acquaintance at the confectionery
store he and Fogel had opened.
Taking a room in the lower East
Side as his "hang out" the insNector
installed speech recording instru-
ment and invited them to visit him
1t was not long until he had met the
other five men alleged to be members
Of the gang, and was swapping stories
exploits-while fellow inspectors re-
corded the conversations in an ad-
joining room. Finally the gangsters
let the bearded gent" in on the city
hall station plot-and the swoop came.
Arraigned before United States Com
noon. the seven prisoners were held
in bail ranging from $4,000 to $4,000
each. Steinberg, Fogel. Abraham
Goldsmith and Gustav Gales were
held in $4,000: Irving Weinstein in
$4,000 and Gustav Feldman and
Harry Shapiro in $4,000 each.
pARr7,ETT INVESTIGATES