Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-10
rs Criminal MUeShgato,y These
H,r Feared BY E0eyy Shatua|
Years and n Million DoIla,|
Stamp, and They'll Ne0er

fences, inspire in would-be hodoup men
healthy fear Of the post ONCE dragnet.
In che instance perfume was used to trace
mail robber but this is merely one method,
classic in the history of the service An in
spector investigating thefts Of registered mail,
had narrowed suspicion down TO six post of1ces,
but the questicn-which one Of the six-was
far from solution.
P,Izzling over the case he made a mental
note of the fact that in each instance re-
ported, the envelope had been steamed open
and then reseaIed after the money had been
extracted He hit upon bright idea, fantastic
for all its simplicity
To drug store he hled and bought SIX
kinds of perfume-rose, lilac, heliotrope, violet,
mignonette and lily Of the valley These he
mixed with six bottles OF mucilage which he
then planted in the offices under suspicion.
When the next letter came to his hands, he
moistened the flap, shifted it and knew just
where to go TO get his man.
In any enterprise as huge as the post office
system, safeguards against employees who are
tempted to indulge in thefts must be provided.
Perhaps sorter fiips letter into an unused
pigeonhole, then later takes another and an
other. The thefts are small, but the efficiency
of the service is given setback with each COM
plant and every one is investigated
Post Offices designed to facilitate the trac-
ing of such thefts. From secret points of OBJ
servation, the eagle eye Of inspector is likely
TO be focused upon dishonest employe, max
ing it easy to catch him red-handed.
Clever ruses are useful in unraveling crimes
against the mails. but in the long run, they
DO play minor part, as Chief Inspector Mili-
gan has pointed out and it is only by following
through some of the big that insight
may be had into the usual methods employed
by the inspectors.
Take, for instance, the Roundout Ill, mail
train affair-from the standpoint Of loot, the
outstanding case in the history OF the mail
service. From a single clue small patch of
blood-scaked earth, built up that
finally sent eight to jail, including an
inspector.
JADE up exclusively of mail cars, Chicago
W. and Minneapolis train, No. 81, left Union
Station. Chicago, at about am. Twenty miles
out. with q screech or airbrakes 1t came to .
sudden standstill, upSetting the equilibrium Of
rs railway mail clerks, busy at their sorting
racks. Out from the blind vestibule of the
first car and over the coal tender had crawled
two masked men. From their point of van
tage they were leveling guns at the engineer
and fireman.
Details had been carefully rehearsed and
from this point everything went like clock
work. except fer one deplorable error. Three
bandits went through the train, marshaling
all abroad into q line the right-of-way.
The mail cars, lights out and doors locked,
were forced open by means of gas bombs.
A fourth man stood in the highway, rife
alert, to take care of any passersby who might
be seeing too much. It was he who committed
the faux pas that served the inspectors in such
good stead little later
The train had stopped several hundred feet
ahead Of three automobiles, parked on q road
running parallel TO the tracks This lookout
man ran forward TO make the engineer back up.
One Of his confederates mstook him for mem
Der of the crew and opened fire with grizzly
rife Kidding his body with bullets.
Covered by guns, the mail clerks stood In q
helpless line, while the bandits quickly seized
80 registered pouches containing $4,000, 900 In
negotiable paper, jewelry and currency These
were loaded into the waiting motor cars, the
wounded man was put into one of them, and
the band sped out OF sight.
For week not clue was found except the
blood-soaked earth and a gas mask, part OF
the robbers very complete equipment.
Meanwhile newspaper headlines screamed
the story and rewards were posted for in
formation. Even in Chicago 1t is not easy TO
hide a badly wounded man, and finally IN
formation was Surreptitiously gwen Lhat
certain apartment might be looked over.
The inspectors went to what they might
see and found one Wiley Newton and, at the
bedside, his brother, joe Both were placed
under arrest, and the inspectors settled down
at the apartment to wait. Three hours later
two others walked into the trap. They were
Willis Newton, a third brother, and Jimmy
Murray, small-time politician and former
policeman, who hastened to explain that he
had come to collect the rent. Both were
arrested.
from this juncture the cleanup seemed to
Il lag and to the Chicago force, without the
knowledge of the rank and file Of investigators,
were added two undercoyer men from wash
ington There had been suspicion from the
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