Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-24
Which Criminal Has Overlooked and Eventual Records Completed enmy
National undm@

a deputy sheriff who attempted to
halt his flight, and got away.
I'VE traced him through the num-
Der on the engine of the automobile
left in the garage. and by taxi
driver who had picked him up after
the gun fight with the deputy in
which he was wounded by flying glass,
and abandoned his stolen car.
"Got the money, confession also,
and in Federal Court the judge gave
him 25 years. He fought the killing
case, and escaped therein State
court-with the same identical SEN
tence. The judge bitterly criticized
the jury for such a verdict, but 1t
stood. There are the comparative
values; 25 years in d Federal court
for robbery in which he was forced
to give up the loot; the same in
State court for a killing"
A MOTHER thing made clear in this
"A connection by Miller is that the
postal inspectors must build up their
own wall of evidence; at least, to the
extent of corroborating, personally,
other words, in establishing a case
of informers or "stool pigeons
Again, the inevitable "Why?"
Because, as Chief Miller explains,
those who today war on crime are
confronted with the most desperate,
ruthless class in the memory Of man,
and this is particularly true, he
emphasizes, where the stakes are
large. When the underworld stalks
abroad, every avenue is watched.
The chief brought out that postal
inspectors are not hampered by
boundary lines. either national or in
ternational, when they are on the
trail of a criminal. Not only do they
get unstinted cooperation from other
Federal officers and from State peace
officials, but also, when it becomes
necessary to step across the lines
which limit the United States and Its
territories in which they work
Alaska and Porto Rico-they find
ready assistance from the authorities
| there.
| 1t often happens, as Miller makes
clear, that the inspectors are not I'm
on the death in a chase, but there is
never a time when they're not first
on the scene or so near first that there
is no room for quibbling, and every
scrap of evidence they are able to
muster is broadcast to every policing
agency in a concerted effort to block
al avenues of escape to the quarry.
The capture of the De Autremonts,
for instance, was not made by postal
inspectors. Hugh, the youngest, was
picked up in the Philippines, where
he was serving as a private in the
ARMAND where there is an indie
pendent postal service-When another
soldier noticed the resemblance, upon
seeing one of the 100000 circulars,
bearing pictures and descriptions or
the De Autremonts, the Post ONCE
Department had sent over the world.
Ray and Roy, the twin older broth
ers, were found in Steubenville, Ohio,
shortly afterward through the same
medium, when they thought their
identity was carefully shielded as
they went about their daily tasks in
one of the large industrial establish
ments there, the Department of JUS
tice having q hand in their unmask-
ing.
IT was a strange quirk of fate, too.
that the De Autremonts should have
been trapped in Steubenville just a
! few months after the theft of an au.
tomobile in that Ohio city had put
officers on the trail Of another super
bandit" Gerald Chapman. who finally
was tracked to Muncie. Ind, and
started on his way to doom in Con-
necticut State Prison.
X X
| THE De Autremont case will always
stand out in the history OF the
| postal service as a perfect example
| of the painstaking care and persist
ence of the inspectors.
| On the night of October II. 1928,
| Southern Pacific train No. - was
stopped in a tunnel just beyond
| Siskiyou, Greg, in the southernmost
part Of the State. f. E. Dougherty,
| the clerk, alone in the mail car. was
shot down as he opened the door to
| ascertain the cause of the halt.