Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1899 — DETECT BOLD MAIL THEFT. [ARTICLE]

DETECT BOLD MAIL THEFT.

Wholesale Robbery of Sacks Discovered by phicago Authorities. What is regarded by Postofflce Inspector James Stuart as one of the largest and boldest mail robberies in the history of the Chicago postoffice was detected Tuesday, and the arrests of Walter Porter and John Newman, drivers of mail wagons at the postoffice, followed. Porter made a full confession of the crime and implicated Newman. After a brief hearing before United States Commissioner Humphrey the men were bound over to the Federal grand jury. Porter’s bonds were fixed at SIO,OOO and Newman’s at $5,000, and in lieu of bail both men were taken to joil. A large amount of the letters, money orders and packages taken by the men was found in their lodging house. In the collection were letters, money orders and checks directed to all parts of the country and Europe. One check found in the pile was for $20,000. The fact that the robbers had been in the employ of the Chicago postoffice since June 1 and that all the thefts were committed after that time while the prisoners were driving their wagons makes the scheme one of the boldest in the recollection of the postofflce inspectors. The mail was all taken in pouches while being carried in the wagons from the postofflce to the railroad stations and back, and it has been admitted that three sacks were taken in one day.