Big Chicago Post Office Heist- 1901

Interesting article.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archiv...415B818CF1D3


-IBFS

Wowzers! How awesome would it be to have one of the 1,2,& 5 dollar denomination stamps from that heist and the documentation to prove it!It may never be worth fortune but the history behind it would make it a very interesting conversation piece!

What puzzles me about this article though, is the numbers of stamps they are claiming were stolen. They said the robbers took well over 2 million stamps by their calculations! You just don't carry 2 million stamps out a little tunnel and why would you want that many small denomination stamps anyways?

It says:
1,776,000 -1¢ stamps, 1,662,900 -2¢ stamps, 150 -$1.00 stamps, 307 -$2.00 stamps, 105 -$5.00 stamps.

Just goes to show that you can't always believe what you initially read in newspaper articles. It was alleged the theft took more than a month of work to accomplish. Further, the audit the USPOD did after the theft was later adjusted, noting that no $2 or $5 stamps were part of the theft. The actual accounting of stamps stolen was as follows:



More reading on the subject, including many of the details surrounding the theft, can be found in the first 14 pages at this link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=QA...heft&f=false

And here I was thinking how much more interesting and detailed this article is than the sloppy junk I read currently.

Now for the "whodunit" part of the story.

Did anyone research the outcome of this case? It was Eddie Fay and Little Dick Harris. Here's a newspaper picture of Eddie Fay:



The criminals were part of a large post office theft ring back in the day and -- believe it or not -- they were responsible for an even larger post office theft of $86,000 in Richmond, Virginia ... known as "The Case of the Awkward Haul" (sound like an old Perry Mason re-run):



Here's what links it to the Chicago theft of 1901:

wt, It never ceases to amaze me how you find some of the things you post. My compliments on your gifted talent!



-IBFS

The arrest...

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archiv...405B808DF1D3


-IBFS