Evening star., 1935-05-05

Gutter VI d NOIIldIl ltNSIlSt,
"A a piece of gauze or a charge
4 A of dynamite-theSe are among
the strange and obvious tell
tales which prove the undoing of mail
bandits. But whatever the Nemesis,
and whether apprehension comes
swiftly or on leaden feet, justice is in
evitable to those engaged in the peril
Gus undertaking of wrecking and pill
Laying the United States mails.
No Sherlock Holmes mystery ever
bore witness to more curious clues or
more fantastic man hunts than do the
actual and official records of the Post
Office Department, wherein are writ
ten the histories of all mail robberies
Few OF us, fortunately, ever have
cause to think of our daily sending
and receiving of mail except as reg
ular routine. If, however, you were
just to leaf through some of these
nnail-robbery cases and read that in
six cases alone loot to the amount of
S4,533,000 in currency, securities, Lib
erty bonds and registered mail had
been taken, and that Is persons were
murdered, you could easily imagine
that each Letter the mail brought trav-
eled IN the wake of a dramatic story.
Read how the bandits give months to
planning of details and working out
contacts and portray cunning in de-
vices they conceive to perfect the car
rying out of the plans.
Against the mechanical devices,
simple of complex, stand the mental
mechanics of the postal service, en-
ploying psychology, logic, co-ordina-
ton and sheer courage. There are,
too,' such peculiarly thwarting meth
ods as the use of the truth drug" lie
detector machine, flngerprinting,
graphology, enlarged photographs, de-
scriptive circulars and the far-reach-
ing power of built-up contacts, plain
horse sense" and indomitable stick
to-it-iveness.
THE mental mechanics of detecting
and apprehending mail bandits
this psychology, added to courage and
the supreme determination to exact
justice for the public who universally
use the mails, has bolstered the back
bone of the Nation, for mail is the
life Of business as well as the bulwark
of society. Our postal service preserves
the spinal column of the Nations body
and plays vital part in maintaining
the country's health. Chief Inspector
K. P. Aldrich presides in Washington
over this important function of the
Nations business.
Included in civ
IS murders, with convictions and sem
tences in every case. Many of the
criminals have been hanged or other
wise executed for their crimes. In
each case justice has been admins
tered. though the task required pa
tience over long term, during which
our officials never relaxed vigilance.
The challenging fact is that the Gov
ernment never gives up. A study of
cases proves this and should be
factor gravely considered by young or
old who contemplate crime. A glance
at the pictured wreckage of bandits
car. with its fatal significance, should
powerfully influence any young per-
son against the risks and dangers in
volved in this nefarious undertaking
Women have played an annoying
and revealing part in nearly every
crime of major Importance. Their
presence invariably leads to the detec-
ton or conviction of the criminal
with whom they consort, either from
innocent "dumbness" or from the less
innocent spirit of revenge, born of
the will to defeat their men for past
personal abuses. They usually prove
q menace to the gangster in some
odd, unforeseen way.
In one unusual incident two women
in an automobile stopped at grocery
store with three rolls of Scent pieces
which they wished changed to larger
coinage. That night the grocer was
held up and robbed of all but the
Scent pieces. He associated this in
cident with the woinen's visit and
notified the police, who traced the
automobile and arrested two men.
They were Sherwood and Carlton,
bandits in the latest major case, the
Nobel Station robbery, Richmond,
Calf. This case involved $4,000 in
currency and $4700 in silver. Two
bandits were killed, three convicted
and sentenced to long terms and an
other Is awaiting trial.
DICTURES taken at the scene Of
= the Nobel Station mail robbery
show the cunning of the bandits in
planning the hold-up at point In
the railroad where Q nearby right OF
way provided an accessible spot in
which to park car to receive the
loot. Pictorially beautiful, with trees
shrouding the landscape, rural SIM
plicity everywhere, this scene of ap-
parent innocence was the integral
point at which crime was once ram
pant.
Mail bandits will go to fiendishly
vicious extremes in perpetrating their
schemes, as shown in the F1eagle case.
But fiendish in design as this case may
have been, 1t also revealed the heroism
demanded of officials whose dangerous
duty 1t Is to apprehend criminals. It
demonstrates the relentless, tireless ad-