POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES.
If records are not now forthcoming of all the robberies which have been
committed upon the Post-office from the earliest times, we may be
assured that an institution such as it is, maintaining agencies all over
the country, and having to keep up communications between those
agencies, would be exposed at all times and at all points to the risk of
robbery, whether by the dashing boldness of the highwayman, or the less
pretentious doings of the town house-breaker. To us who live in an age
when the public roads are generally safe to travellers, it is difficult
to realise the dangers that lurked in the highways at no more remote a
period than last century; nor can we well realise a state of things
under which mail-coaches in this our quiet England had to be protected
by guards armed to the teeth. We have it handed down, however, as a
historical fact, that when, in 1720, Belsize House, Hampstead, was
opened as a place of public resort, the programme announcing its
attractions contained the following item:--"And for the security of its
guests, there are twelve stout fellows completely armed, to patrol
betwixt London and Belsize, to prevent the insults of highwaymen or
footpads which may infest the road." Yet that statement does not give
the whole truth, for the road between these two places became so much
more dangerous, that after a time "the patrol had to be increased from
twelve to thirty stout fellows completely armed, independently of two
tall grenadiers who mounted guard over the gate of the mansion."
The following is from the 'Annual Register' of 1761:--"Murders,
robberies--many of them attended with acts of cruelty and threatening
letters--were never perhaps so frequent about this city [London] as
during last month. One highwayman in particular, by the name of the
Flying Highwayman, engrosses the conversation of most of the towns
within twenty miles of London, as he has occasionally visited all the
public roads round this metropolis, and has collected several
considerable sums. He robs upon three different horses. He has leaped
over Colnbrook turnpike a dozen times within this fortnight, and is now
well known by most of the turnpike men in the different roads about
London."
Again, it is recorded that "even the toll-house keepers in London were
so liable to be robbed, that they had to be furnished with arms, and
enjoined to keep no money in their houses after eight o'clock at night.
The boldness with which street robberies still continued to be committed
was evinced so late as 1777, when the Neapolitan ambassador was robbed
in his coach in Grosvenor Square by four footpads armed with pistols."
But highway robbery had long been practised, even by individuals in the
higher stations; and it is recorded of Sir John Falstaff, one of
Shakespeare's heroes, that he was the terror of travellers on every road
for a hundred miles out of London. The place chiefly identified with his
exploits, however, was Gad's Hill, in Kent.
Thus it will be seen that the roads leading out of London were infested
by disorderly characters; and robberies of the mails proceeding to and
from London were of frequent occurrence, as appears from official
records referring to the close of last century and the commencement of
this.
In the coaching days very frequent robberies of the mails took place,
though they were protected by armed guards, and some of these robberies
have been described in the chapter relating to mail-coaches.
[Illustration: Falstaff as a Highwayman.]
The passengers who travelled in the mail-coaches, with the knowledge of
these molestations going on around them, must have been kept in a
constant state of alarm; and the circumstance could not fail materially
to discourage travelling in days when the facilities for exchanging
visits were few compared with what we now enjoy.
The state of things already described as regards the mail-coaches,
extended also to the horse-posts, the riders being attacked probably
more freely than the coaches; for while the plunder to be had would be
less, the postboys were not in a position to make so great a show of
defence. Nor did the severity of the laws restrain evil-doers, either in
England or Scotland, where sentences of execution were from time to time
carried out upon the delinquents.
On the 7th of July 1685, the post-rider who was proceeding through the
extreme north of England, on his way from London to the Scottish
metropolis, was known to have been twice stopped, and to have been
robbed of his mail, the scene of the occurrence being near Alnwick, in
Northumberland. In connection with this event, of which an account has
been handed down by Lauder of Fountainhall, a curious and romantic
anecdote has been told by Wilson in his 'Tales of the Borders,' and by
Chambers as one of his Scottish traditional stories.
Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, in Ayrshire, was one of Argyle's chief
associates in that unfortunate and abortive attempt, made by the exiles
in the year above named, to compass the overthrow of the reigning
monarch, James II., so far as Scotland was concerned, which attempt was
only part of the more general scheme of the exiles abroad--both English
and Scotch--and the disaffected at home, to drive the king from his
throne, and to place the Duke of Monmouth thereon in his stead. After a
variety of disasters experienced by the limited following which Argyle
and his party had been able to bring together, and when hope of a
successful issue could no longer secure cohesion, there ensued a general
break-up of the party, accompanied by what is to be looked for in
similar situations--a general flight and _sauve qui peut_. Sir John
Cochrane sought refuge in the house of a relative in Renfrewshire,
where, however, he was discovered by his pursuers at the end of June;
and on the 3d of July, Sir John, his son, and another traitor were
brought into Edinburgh, "bound and barefooted, by the hangman," and cast
into the Tolbooth to await their doom.
What daring enterprises may not flow from a woman's love and devotion,
when a parent's liberty is imperilled or his life is at stake! Sir John
had a daughter called Grizel, who fondly loved him, and who, on visiting
him in prison, had not failed to show the intensity of her filial
regard; nor was Sir John slow to reciprocate these feelings on his part.
Being then but eighteen years of age, she nevertheless conceived the
daring thought of intercepting the mail-packet coming from the South,
which was supposed to contain a warrant for the execution of her father;
and with this object in view, she proceeded to Berwick-on-Tweed alone.
Here she habited herself in male attire; and being armed, and mounted on
a fleet horse, she set out upon her extraordinary and perilous
adventure.
[Illustration: Grizel Cochrane and Postboy.]
On Tweedmouth Moor, it is narrated, she fell in with the postboy, who,
under threats of immediate death, gave up his charge, Grizel riding off
with the mail-packet and the postboy's horse, from which he had been
unseated.
Under these circumstances, the warrant not reaching its destination, it
could not be put into execution, and the delay which took place before
another could be procured, was turned to account by Sir John's friends,
who exerted themselves on his behalf. Sir John was the younger son of a
rich family, from whom a ransom was to be had; and it is stated that a
bribe of L5000 by Lord Dundonald, Cochrane's father, to the priests of
the Royal household, was the means of securing a pardon. Sir John lived
to become Earl of Dundonald, while Grizel became the wife of John Kerr
of Morriston, in Berwickshire; and there can be little doubt that she
afterwards exhibited as a wife all the amiable and affectionate
qualities of which she proved herself possessed as a daughter.
Unfortunately for the authenticity of the story, so far as Grizel
Cochrane's connection with it is concerned, the dates hardly bear the
matter out; for if Sir John was lodged in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh on
the 3d of July, a warrant for his execution could barely have reached
Northumberland from London by the 7th: and again, while the story
relates that Sir John Cochrane was confined in the Tolbooth, Macaulay
states that he "was taken, and sent up to London."
The following story of the robbery of a mail carried by a postboy, is
taken from Chambers's 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,' under the date 16th
August 1690:--
"Andrew Cockburn, the postboy who carried the packet or letter-bag on
that part of the great line of communication which lies between
Cockburnspath and Haddington, had this day reached a point in his
journey between the Alms-house and Hedderwick Muir, when he was
assailed by two gentlemen in masks; one of them mounted on a blue-grey
horse, wearing a stone-grey coat with brown-silk buttons--the other
riding on a white horse, having a white English grey cloak-coat with
wrought silver-thread buttons. Holding pistols to his breast, they
threatened to kill him if he did not instantly deliver up the packet,
black box, and bag which he carried; and he had no choice but to yield.
They then bound him, and leaving him tied by the foot to his horse, rode
off with their spoil to Garlton House, near Haddington. As the packet
contained Government communications, besides the correspondence of
private individuals, this was a crime of a very high nature, albeit we
may well believe it was committed on political impulse only. Suspicion
seems immediately to have alighted on James Seton, youngest son of the
Viscount Kingston, and John Seton, brother of Sir George Seton of
Garlton; and Sir Robert Sinclair, the sheriff of the county, immediately
sought for these young gentlemen at their father's and brother's houses,
but found them not. With great hardihood, they came to Sir Robert's
house next morning to inquire, as innocent men, why they were searched
for; when Sir Robert, after a short examination in presence of the
postboy, saw fit to have them disarmed and sent off to Haddington. It
was Sunday, and Bailie Lauder, to whose house they came with their
escort, was about to go to church. If the worthy bailie is to be
believed, he thought their going to the sheriff's a great presumption of
their innocence. He admitted, too, that Lord Kingston had come and
spoken to him that morning. Anyhow, he concluded that it might be enough
in the meantime if he afforded them a room in his house, secured their
horses in his stable, and left them under charge of two of the
town-officers. Unluckily, however, he required the town-officers, as
usual, to walk before him and his brother magistrates to church--which,
it is obvious, interfered very considerably with their efficiency as a
guard over the two gentlemen. While things were in this posture, Messrs
Seton took the prudent course of making their escape. As soon as the
bailie heard of it he left church, and took after them with some
neighbours, but he did not succeed in overtaking them. The Privy Council
had an extraordinary meeting to take measures regarding this affair, and
their first step was to order Bailie Lauder and the two town-officers
into the Tolbooth of Edinburgh as close prisoners. A few days afterwards
the magistrate was condemned by the Council as guilty of plain fraud and
connivance, and declared incapable of any public employment. William
Kaim, the smith at Lord Kingston's house of Whittinghame, was also in
custody on some suspicion of a concern in this business; but he and the
town-officers were quickly liberated.
"John Seton was soon after seized by Captain James Denholm on board a
merchant vessel bound for Holland, and imprisoned in the castle of
Edinburgh. He underwent trial in July 1691, and by some means escaped
condemnation. A favourable verdict did not procure his immediate
liberation; but, after three days, he was dismissed on caution, to
return into custody if called upon. This final result was the more
remarkable, as his father was by that time under charge of having aided
in the betrayal of the Bass."
Other instances of such gentleman-like performances in waylaying the
post were not unknown in the primitive days of the Post-office, for
about the year 1658 the following notice was issued for the discovery of
a gentleman of the law who had taken to evil ways by intercepting the
mail:--"Whereas Mr Herbert Jones, attorney-at-law in the town of
Monmouth, well known by being several years together under-sheriff of
the same county, hath of late divers times robbed the mail coming from
that town to London, and taken out divers letters and writs, and is now
fled from justice," &c.
In August 1692, the postboy riding the last stage towards Edinburgh with
the mail from England, was robbed on the 13th of that month, at a short
distance from Edinburgh. A record of the period relates that the robbery
was committed by "a person mounted on horseback with a sword about him,
and another person on foot with a pistol in his hand, upon the highway
from Haddington to Edinburgh, near that place thereof called Jock's
Lodge (a mile from town) about ten hours of the night." The robbers took
"the packet or common mail, with the horse whereon the boy rode." A
proclamation was issued by the Scottish Privy Council, offering a reward
of a hundred pounds for the apprehension of the offenders, with a free
pardon to any one of them who should inform upon the rest; but with what
result is not known.
On the 13th September 1786, the mail-rider from the North charged with
the conveyance of mails for Edinburgh, having reached Kinross about
midnight, proceeded to change horses as usual in a stable-yard at that
place. The mail-bags he deposited on the back of a chaise in the yard
until he should be ready to resume his journey. As was his custom, he
then went into the stable to give a feed of corn to his horse; but while
so engaged, the bags were abstracted and the contents stolen. Two
brothers, who were proved to have been in the neighbourhood at the time,
and to whom some of the stolen property was traced, were arraigned for
the crime before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, and being
found guilty, were sentenced to be executed.
The following is a somewhat fuller account of a post, robbery on the
public road, which occurred a few years later:--
In 1802, the mails between Edinburgh and Glasgow were still conveyed by
men travelling on horseback--the route taken being by way of
Falkirk--the hour of despatch from Glasgow being 9 P.M., and the hour of
arrival in Edinburgh about 6 A.M. or 7 A.M. The riders of this mail seem
to have had sections of the road apportioned to them--one rider covering
the road from Glasgow to Falkirk, the other taking the stage from
Falkirk to Edinburgh. On the morning of the 1st of August in that year,
the rider for the east stage--named William Wilson--received the Glasgow
mail-bag entire and duly sealed at Falkirk, and thereafter set out
towards Edinburgh. When he approached a rising ground called
Sighthill--probably a wooded knoll bearing that name, about three miles
from Linlithgow, on the road to Polmont--he observed two men coming down
towards him, and who, so soon as they got near him, placed themselves
one on each side of his horse, and immediately seized him. One of the
two men held something in his hand, and threatened Wilson that if he
offered to speak his brains would be blown out. Then he was led away
into a field of corn, where he was blindfolded by one of the men with
his own handkerchief, and his hands tied behind his back; thereupon he
was thrown down, and his legs bound together to prevent his getting
free. Meanwhile the other man led off the horse and rifled the mail. The
post-rider remained in his unhappy position for about an hour, when he
managed to extricate himself, and proceeding to the first house he could
reach, implored the inmates "for God's sake" to let him in, as he had
been robbed. Having been admitted and obtained assistance, he returned
to the scene of his adventure, and found the empty mail-bag at the foot
of a haystack, while the horse was recovered a little distance away. The
mail contained bills, &c., for something like L1300 or L1400.
The robbery of the mail caused great excitement in Edinburgh so soon as
it became known, and no long time elapsed before the perpetrators were
in the hands of the authorities. The two men concerned in it proved to
be James Clark _alias_ Alex. Stewart, and Robert Brown, formerly
privates in the Foot Guards. No sooner had they got back to
Edinburgh--where they had previously lodged--than they commenced to
change some of the bank-notes taken from the mail-bag, and got the worse
of drink; and being once suspected, the evidence soon accumulated and
became strong against them. They were tried for the offence before the
High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh in November following, and being
found guilty, were sentenced to be executed.
This robbery would appear to have had the effect of stirring up the
public mind to demand a means of conveying the mails between the two
cities affording greater security; for an agitation immediately followed
for the setting up of coaches or diligences to carry the mails between
those cities. Owing, however, to difficulties and disagreements between
the merchants and traders as to the hours of departure and arrival, and
to wranglings over the particular route to be journeyed, the idea was
abandoned, and the horse-post as of old was meanwhile continued. The
robbery seems not to have been soon forgotten, however; for we find that
towards the close of 1802 a proposal was made to enter into an agreement
for the service with "an officer of the Mid-Lothian Cavalry, and master
of the Riding Academy in Edinburgh," who offered to conduct and carry on
the service in a masterly and military manner for an allowance of L450
per annum--the riders to be employed being none other than able and
active dragoons. But in the nature of things such a mail service could
not continue, and negotiations still proceeded for the employment of
diligences--not resulting in success, however, until the year 1805, when
the first mail-coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow was put upon the
road.
A somewhat similar attack upon a postboy was made in Yorkshire in the
year 1798, when the rider's life was threatened by a highwayman
single-handed, and the mails stolen from him. The case is interesting
owing to the fact that traces of the robbery were obtained so recently
as 1876, though at the period of its occurrence no trace of the
highwayman or of his plunder could be discovered.
The official account of the robbery, when it happened, was as follows:--
"The postboy coming from Selby to York was robbed of his mail between
six and seven o'clock this evening. About three miles on this side of
Selby he was accosted by a man on foot, with a gun in his hand, who
asked him if he was the postboy, and at the same time seized hold of the
bridle. Without waiting for any answer, he told the boy he must
immediately unstrap the mail and give it him, pointing the muzzle of the
gun at him whilst he did it. When he had given up the mail, the boy
begged he would not hurt him; to which the man replied he need not be
afraid, and at the same time pulled the bridle from the horse's head.
The horse immediately galloped off with the boy, who had never
dismounted.
"He was a stout man, dressed in a drab jacket, and had the appearance of
being a heckler. The boy was too much frightened to make any other
remark on his person, and says he was totally unknown to him. The mail
contained the bags for Howden and London, Howden and York, and Selby and
York."
[Illustration: Selby Mail-Bag.]
Although a reward of L200 was offered for the discovery of the robber,
and a free pardon to any accessory who might turn accuser, nothing was
heard of the matter at the time, though suspicion, it is said, pointed
to some of the inhabitants of Selby. The robbery might perhaps have
remained forgotten, but that, upon a public-house situated on the
Churchhill, Selby, being pulled down in 1876, a suit of clothes, a
sou'-wester hat, and an old mail-bag marked "Selby" were found in the
roof. There is little doubt that these were the clothes worn by the
robber on the occasion under notice, and that the bag (which is a sort
of waterproof-pouch, furnished with two straps to pass over the
shoulders) is the identical bag which contained the mails stolen in
1798. When the foundations of this old public-house were turned up, the
discovery was made of several coffins containing bodies in a good state
of preservation--a circumstance, when taken in connection with the
traces of the mail-robbery and the public character of the house,
ominous in the extreme. The case is one which might be taken as somewhat
proving the suggestion put forward by Smollett in 'Roderick Random' as
to the intimate relations which existed between the _personnel_ of the
innkeepers and the common highwaymen--the former being well aware of the
profession followed by the latter, if not actually sharers in their
plunder.
The illustration of the Selby bag is from a photograph. The bag, when
folded for the postboy's back, measured about 17 inches broad by 15
inches deep.
On Wednesday the 23d October 1816, at half-past nine in the evening, the
postboy carrying the mail-bags from Teignmouth and neighbouring places
to Exeter, was assaulted "in a most desperate and inhuman manner" near
the village of Alphington, and plundered of the Teignmouth and Exminster
bags. The poor man was attacked with such fury that he was felled from
his horse, came to the ground on his head, which was fractured in two
places, and in consequence of his injuries, he remained insensible for
some time. When he regained consciousness in the Exeter Hospital,
whither he had been conveyed, he was able to explain that, at the time
of the attack, he was walking his horse up a hill, that the assailant
was a young man, and that he was mounted on a grey horse. This horse was
supposed afterwards to be traced, though the robber failed to be
discovered, notwithstanding that a reward of L50 was offered for his
discovery and conviction. "A horse exactly answering the description,"
says an official record, "was taken from a field near Dawlish on the
Wednesday night, and turned back to the same place before daybreak on
Thursday, having evidently been rode very fast, and gored very much in
the sides." The owner of the horse could give no assistance in the
matter, nor had he suspicions against any one; so that it would appear
the robber had taken the horse surreptitiously for his purpose. The
mail-bags were afterwards recovered, with some few of the letters
opened: but it did not appear that any property was missing. The
unfortunate rider, whose name was "Caddy," remained in hospital till the
January following, when he was discharged; but in the month of May his
wounds broke out afresh, and he had to return to hospital, being now
become subject to epileptic fits owing to his injuries. As he was no
longer able for service, he was granted a gratuity by the Post-office;
and it is not probable that he survived very long thereafter. With the
mere expectation of getting some little gain from the robbery, the
marauder had all but killed the poor postboy, who had a wife and two
children dependent on him; and he has in his evil-doing given a good
example of what Burns calls "man's inhumanity to man," that "makes
countless thousands mourn."
In the year 1797 the deputy-postmaster of the Orkneys and his son, a lad
of about sixteen years of age, were tried at the High Court of
Justiciary, Edinburgh, on a charge of breaking open certain post-letters
while in their custody in course of transit, and therefrom abstracting
money. The indictment contained a further charge of forgery against the
elder prisoner, the deputy having endorsed another person's name upon a
money-order contained in one of the stolen letters. The thefts were
committed at different times in 1794 and 1796, and the specific cases
upon which evidence was led were in respect of the following
letters--viz., two letters sent at different times to Orkney by a seaman
in the Royal Navy, one containing a guinea-note and half a guinea in
gold, the other containing either a guinea in gold or a note for that
amount; a letter from London for Orkney, containing a money-order for
L5 5s.; and a letter from Perth for Orkney, enclosing a note for a
guinea: the whole amount involved being under L9.
In the course of the trial it was proved that the deputy was guilty,
certain of the missing letters having been found in his house, and the
son had already confessed to what was charged against him. The whole
cases were clearly made out to the satisfaction of the jury, who
returned a verdict accordingly against both prisoners, but with a
recommendation of mercy towards the son of the deputy, on the score of
his tender years. Sentence was pronounced on the 5th September, and the
date of execution fixed for the 18th October. By the exercise of the
Royal prerogative, George III. granted a free pardon to the deputy's
son, who was forthwith set at liberty; but it is a melancholy
reflection, that for delinquencies involving the loss of so small a sum
as L9, the deputy-postmaster should, on the date fixed for his
execution, have actually been led forth to his doom. In a report of the
circumstance written at the time, it is stated "that he was attended by
the Rev. Mr Black of Lady Yester's, and Mr Struthers of the Relief
congregation, and behaved in a manner suitable to his unhappy
situation!" God forbid that there should be a standard of deportment for
occasions like this, where, to our more humane notions, the punishment
so fearfully outweighs the offence.
Early in the year 1849 a sad blow fell upon the postmaster of a certain
town in Wales, on its being discovered that an assistant in his office,
a daughter of his own, had been stealing post-letters. In the course of
investigations made into her misdoings, it was discovered that the
thefts had been going on for a period of seven years, during which time
she had accumulated as much jewellery and haberdashery as would have
stocked a small shop--and besides, money to the amount of L95. The
letters from which the property had been taken were between two and
three hundred, and these she had kept, so that it was possible to
restore to the owners, in many cases, the stolen articles. On the 20th
March the unfortunate and misguided creature was tried, on the charge of
stealing a particular letter, and was convicted--the sentence passed
upon her being _transportation for ten years_.
It was afterwards ascertained that the motive underlying this long
career of thieving was a desire to amass such a dowry as would improve
her prospects in the matter of obtaining a husband.
_Hatton Garden Robbery._
On Thursday the 16th November 1881, the whole country was made aware,
through the daily papers, that a most daring Post-office robbery had
been committed in London the previous afternoon, the scene of the event
being the Hatton Garden Branch Office, situated in the busy district of
Holborn. The time and plan of carrying out the undertaking were not such
as are usually chosen for attempts of this kind, the hour at which the
robbery was effected being 5 P.M., when the office was thronged with the
public purchasing stamps, or doing other business in view of the
night-mail despatch. Nor was there any furtive mode of proceeding in the
ordinary sense, but a bold and dashing stroke for the chances of success
or failure.
On the afternoon of the day of the robbery, a murky fog, such as
Londoners know so well and heartily dislike, hung over the metropolis.
The street lamps afforded but a dull light in the thoroughfares; shops
and offices were lighted up for the evening's business; and the
afternoon's work in the Hatton Garden Post-office was at its height (the
registered-letter bag, containing some forty registered letters, having
just been deposited in an ordinary bag hanging from a peg in the
office), when suddenly, and without apparent cause, the whole of the
lights in the office went out, and the place was plunged in almost total
darkness. Consternation took possession of the female clerks behind the
counter, while young clerks and boys from warehouses and offices,
conceiving the occasion to be one for noise and merriment, helped to
increase the confusion by clamour and hubbub outside the counter. No
long time elapsed before matches were obtained and tapers lit, when it
was immediately discovered that the tap of the gas-meter in the basement
had been turned off; but on the tap being turned on again, the jets in
the office were relit, and the place resumed its wonted appearance. The
young ladies in the office being now able to see around them, soon
detected the absence of the bag, which had been left hanging on the peg,
and which they knew had not yet been despatched by them. It did not take
long to realise that the bag had vanished--in fact, had been stolen; and
to this day the property contained in the lost registered letters has
not been recovered, nor have the persons concerned in the theft been
traced.
It is believed that two or more individuals were engaged in the robbery,
the supposition being that one person got down into the basement without
attracting attention, and turned off the gas, while another, so soon as
darkness supervened, got by some means within the counter, and,
unobserved, took the bag from the peg--all concerned making good their
escape in the midst of the stir and noise by which they were surrounded.
The whole adventure bears the impress of having been carefully planned
and cleverly executed, and there is little doubt that the robbery was
carried out by men who were experts in their nefarious calling.
The value of the articles contained in the forty registered letters was
about L15,000; and as the scene of the robbery lay in the midst of
diamond merchants and jewellers, it is not surprising that precious
stones and jewellery were the principal contents of these letters.
Besides watches, bracelets set with pearls and diamonds, ear-rings,
rings, &c., the following articles were among the property stolen--viz.,
eight parcels of rough diamonds, 147 turquoises, a quantity of small
emeralds, 6000 drilled sapphires, 2000 pairs of garnet bores, 240 pairs
of sapphire bores, a quantity of sapphires weighing 695 carats, several
rubies and sapphires weighing 546 carats, &c., &c.
A reward of L200 was offered by the Postmaster-General, and a further
reward of L1000 by certain insurance companies who had insured the
valuable letters, for the conviction of the delinquents and the recovery
of the stolen property; but the robbery remains to this day one of those
which have baffled the skill of the Metropolitan police and the officers
of the Post-office to unravel or to bring home to the evil-doers.
_Cape Diamond Robbery._
The greater portion of the diamonds found in Griqualand West, in South
Africa, are sent weekly to England through the Post-office, made up in
packets, which are forwarded as registered letters--the value of these
remittances being collectively from L60,000 to L100,000. In April 1880,
the sailing of the mail-steamer from Cape Town having been delayed until
the day after the arrival of the up-country mails, the bag containing
the registered correspondence was left in the registered-letter office
of the Cape Town Post-office; not, however, locked up in the safe, where
it ought to have been, but carelessly left underneath one of the tables.
During the night the office was broken into, and the whole of the
diamonds stolen, valued at L60,000. Who the robbers were appears never
to have been discovered, and they have doubtless since been in the
enjoyment of the fruits of their villainous enterprise. As it is the
practice of people in the diamond trade to insure packets of diamonds
sent by them, the senders did not suffer anything beyond inconvenience
by this robbery; but the insurance companies were involved in the loss,
and had to pay claims amounting to L60,000.
The following is an account of a robbery attempted upon a postman in
London in July 1847, as officially reported at the time:--
"An attempt was this morning made to murder or seriously to maim
Bradley, the Lombard Street letter-carrier, with a view of obtaining
possession of the letters for his district. He was passing through Mitre
Court, a narrow passage between Wood Street and Milk Street, when the
gate of the Court was closed and locked behind him with a skeleton key
by, it is believed, three men, who followed him a few yards farther on
in the passage. On Bradley getting to a wider part of the Court, one of
them felled him to the ground by a heavy blow from a life-preserver; he
attempted to rise, but was again knocked down in a similar manner. He
then felt that they tried to force from him his letter-bags, but
fortunately the mouths of them were, for security, twisted round his
arm. They continued their blows; but Bradley retained sufficient
consciousness to call out 'Murder!' so as to be heard by some of the
porters in the adjoining warehouses, who ran to see what was the matter,
but unluckily the villains escaped. Poor Bradley is most seriously
injured--so much so that he may be considered in some danger."
An idea of the amount of property the thieves would have obtained had
Bradley not held the bags tightly (even under such circumstances), may
be formed from the fact that he had in his possession thirty-seven
registered letters containing property, besides all the other letters
for Messrs Overend, Gurney, & Co., Robarts, Curtis, & Co., Glynn & Co.,
the London and County Bank, as well as those for thirty-four other
houses in Lombard Street. It was believed at the time that the value of
the property in Bradley's possession amounted to hundreds of thousands
of pounds.
A daring robbery of a Berlin postman occurred not very long ago, when
the outrage was accompanied by a still more atrocious crime--the murder
of the postman. The man was one of a class who deliver money remittances
at the addresses of the persons to whom they are sent, under a system
which prevails in some countries of the Continent, and he had with him
cash and notes to the amount of some L1500. The robber and murderer, a
man of great bodily strength, had so arranged that a small remittance
would fall to be delivered at his address on Monday morning--an occasion
when a large number of remittances are received; and on the postman
reaching the place, and proceeding to pay the requisite sum, the
occupier of the premises felled him with a hammer, and with repeated
blows killed him outright. It was evident from the circumstances that
the murderer had duly planned the outrage, for the room rented was near
to the starting-point of the postman, so that he should not have paid
away any portion of his charge when he reached the room. The body of the
poor postman was found afterwards cold and stiff, lying in a pool of
blood, with his empty and rifled bag beside him; and the weapon with
which the perpetrator had achieved the murder, remained there as a
witness of the crime. The murderer was said to have previously served in
a cuirassier regiment. Before decamping, he had turned the key in the
door of his room; and the discovery was only made after a search by the
Post-office authorities at the addresses at which the postman had to
call, on his failing to return later in the day.
Some years ago the following extensive robbery of letters occurred in
London. An unusually large number of complaints were found to be
reaching the General Post-office, of the non-receipt by merchants,
bankers, and others carrying on business in Lombard Street and its
neighbourhood, of letters containing bank-notes, cheques, advices, and
important correspondence, sent to them from all parts of the kingdom.
The circumstance naturally gave rise to careful inquiry on the part of
the Post-office authorities, with the result that suspicion fell upon a
young postman of nineteen years of age, through whose hands many of the
missing letters would in ordinary course have to pass. Certain Bank of
England notes, which had been contained in some of the letters, were
found to have been cashed; and the names endorsed upon them, though
fictitious, were in a handwriting resembling that of the young man
suspected. Thereupon he was arrested and searched, when in a pocketbook
on his person were found two L5 notes, which had been forwarded from
Norfolk to a banking-house in London, but had failed to reach their
destination. In a pocket in his official coat were found also some
thirty-five letters of various dates, which he had neglected to deliver,
to the inconvenience or loss no doubt of the persons addressed; but the
most astonishing part of the business is, that when his locker or
cupboard at the General Post-office was examined, about 1500 letters
were found there which he had stopped, the dates upon the envelopes
showing that his delinquencies had extended over several months. This
young man, upon being tried for the offences named, was convicted, and
with the usual severity observed in similar circumstances, the judge
passed upon the prisoner a sentence of six years' penal servitude.
The following curious instance of the wholesale misappropriation of
post-letters also came under the notice of the Post-office authorities
in London a few years ago:--
A man was observed one day carrying off some boards from a building in
course of erection in the Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, and being
pursued by a constable, he dropped the timber and made off. The man was,
however, captured and taken to the police-station, whereupon the place
where he lived was searched for other stolen property. His habitation
was situated upon a waste piece of ground on the banks of the Thames,
the erection being of wood built upon piles, and so placed as to be
almost entirely surrounded by water. Here this man, who was a
barge-owner, and who was passing under an assumed name, had lived in
isolation for about a year; the position selected for his home being one
calculated to afford him that complete seclusion from social intercourse
which would seem to have been his aim. In the course of their
examination of the contents of the hut, the police found not only more
stolen timber, but various other articles, the chief of which, in the
present connection, were a large lot of post-letters, mail-bags, and
articles of postmen's clothing, besides milk-cans and a case of forty
rifles. As the inquiry proceeded, it became known that the prisoner was
a Post-office pensioner, having been superannuated from his office of
postman some three years previously, after having served in that
capacity a period of fifteen years. It would seem that his official
delinquencies had extended over some six or eight years; but so far as
the letters showed, theft in the ordinary sense could hardly have been
the man's purpose, inasmuch as the letters had not been opened, with one
exception, and in this instance the person for whom the letter was
intended could not be found. The motive underlying this free departure
from the ways of honesty seems to have had its root in simple
acquisitiveness; the hundredweight of letters, book-packets, &c., the
old mail-bags, discarded uniforms, and waste official papers (not to
mention the thirty milk-cans, supposed to have been picked up when going
his rounds as a postman, and the case of rifles), having been turned to
no profitable account. Had the superannuated postman opened the letters
found in his premises, the punishment which would have followed would
necessarily have been severe. As the case stood, however, he was merely
charged under the Post-office Acts with their unlawful detention, and
sentence was passed upon him of eighteen months' imprisonment with hard
labour. It seems astonishing that this postman should have had the folly
to retain about him so long the evidences of his errors, which might at
any time have been brought up against him; but, perhaps, the feeling
prompting this may be akin to that which leads criminals to visit the
scenes of former iniquities, even when incurring the risk of discovery,
and if discovered, of certain punishment.
The following is a case of robbery which occurred in 1883, as reported
by the newspapers of the day, the culprit being quite a young person:--
"The most destructive and important case of robbery in connection with
Mr Fawcett's plan, introduced some two or three years ago, for
facilitating the placing of small sums, by means of postage-stamps, in
the Post-office Savings Bank, came before the Bristol magistrates
to-day, when Ellen Hunt, a domestic servant, about sixteen years of age,
was charged with stealing a large number of letters, some of them
containing cheques, the property of the Postmaster-General. Mr Clifton,
who prosecuted, said the robberies were of a very extensive character,
and might have been fraught with the direst consequences. They had been
discovered in a singular manner, no money having been missed: but a
large number of circular letters, addressed by the Bristol clerk to
officials requiring to be sworn in connection with the School Board
election this week, miscarried. Inquiries were made by the Postal
authorities, when it was found that all these circulars had been posted
at the Redcliffe district office, where the prisoner was the servant of
the postmaster, Mr Devine. It was the custom of Mr Devine to place the
key of the letter-box in a secret place for the use of himself and his
assistants; but the prisoner discovered it, and the circular letters
were found in her possession with the postage-stamps off them. They had
been removed for payment into the Post-office Savings Bank on the forms
by which a shilling's worth of postage-stamps saved up by
school-children and others is now accepted by the Savings Bank
department of the Post-office; but the most serious part of the case was
the fact that in the prisoner's box were discovered the bundles of
opened letters now produced by Detective Short, and containing cheques
already discovered to the amount of L74, 16s., all of which had been
sent through the same post-office. The charge was laid under the 27th
section of the Act, but formerly a prisoner would have been liable for
such an offence to transportation for life. Some evidence having been
given, the girl, who was hysterical throughout the hearing, was
remanded. Apparently no effort had been made to deal with the cheques,
but the detective stated that the numerous letters had been opened."
_Tale of a Banker's Letter._
Towards the close of last century, or early in the present century, a
tradesman of the better class carrying on business in a certain town of
the west of England, which we shall here call X----, and who also added
to his ordinary business that of the agency of a bank, posted a bulky
letter containing heavy remittances in notes, addressed to the Bank of
England. This letter never reached its destination, and the loss, being
of a most serious kind, was soon bruited about, and became the theme,
locally, of general conversation. As it happened, the sender was a man
of strong political opinions, and having courage to express them, there
were many persons holding opposite views who not only regarded him with
feelings akin to dislike, but were ready to take up any missile which
chance might place in their way to damage their adversary's fair name.
While, therefore, the bank agent maintained that he had posted the
letter in question, insinuations were set afloat to the effect that he
had not done so, and that the object of his allegations was to fend off
pressing calls in matters of account. He suffered greatly in reputation
from these unsupported stories, though there was nothing else in his
circumstances to create suspicion. Time, the great anodyne of scandal,
had somewhat assuaged the sufferings of the unfortunate banker, and
probably softened the unkind feelings of those who had been disposed to
think hardly of him; the loss of the letter itself had ceased to attract
attention; and as yet nothing was heard of the letter, or the valuable
enclosures which it had contained.
At length, however, the agent received intimation that one of the
missing notes--a Bank of England note for L50--which was _stopped_ at
that establishment, had been presented in London. As the result of
inquiries which were made, it was now traced to an old-established
silversmith somewhere in the city of London; but beyond this point the
search failed, for all the account the silversmith could give was, that
he had received the note some time previously from a man of respectable
appearance, who had the exterior and conversation of what might be a
well-to-do west-country farmer. This man was accompanied to his shop by
a young woman of the flash type, to whom the stranger presented two or
three rings; purchasing for himself some heavy gold seals, such as were
in vogue at the period, a silver tankard or two, and several
punch-ladles. In payment of these articles the L50 note was passed, but
the silversmith could give no further help; though hope was not yet
extinct, for he added that he should certainly recognise his customers,
were they ever to come under his observation again.
The man of X---- was a man of determination, and, still smarting under
the loss of means and honour, he resolved that, sooner or later, he
should discover by whom his letter had been stolen. The silversmith,
readily entering into these views, cordially offered his personal
services, and it was arranged between the banker and himself that they
should ransack London, visiting the Ranelahs, the Vauxhalls, the Parks,
the theatres--indeed every place where gay women and men of pleasure
might be found together. This was an arduous task; but in the end their
perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of the young woman to whom
the farmer had presented the rings. On being questioned, this young
person, while frankly stating what she knew, had little to tell. She
had, she said, been in Snow Hill or Holborn one morning at the hour of
the arrival of the west of England mail-coach. Among the passengers who
got down was a youngish, fresh-looking farmer, whose acquaintance she
then made, and whose constant companion she was for several days
thereafter. She still wore the articles of jewellery which had been
presented to her; but she declared that she had never seen the man
since, nor did she know his name. And here the inquiry again seemed to
exhaust itself, in the vague discovery of a _west-country farmer_.
The acquaintance between the banker and the silversmith, which had come
about in the way already stated, soon ripened into friendship. They had,
in a greater or less degree, a common interest in the matter of the
stolen note, but they soon found out that there was other common ground
for the growth of amity between them--they were both disciples of Izaak
Walton. It became the custom of the silversmith to visit at the house of
his friend in the west every season, when the two men would go out
fishing together in the neighbouring streams, enjoying each other's
society, and frequently, no doubt, going over again the old story of the
lost letter. One day, during such a visit, the silversmith went out
alone to try a stream not many miles distant from his friend's
residence, and while so engaged a heavy shower swept across the scene.
The angler sought shelter in a roadside inn, from which, as it happened,
he was not far distant. The house was well known, and the proprietor was
of the half-farmer, half-publican type, the business of innkeeper in
such a situation not affording a sufficient living by itself. Feeling
somewhat peckish, the visitor called for lunch. He was waited upon by
the landlord in person. While the bread and cheese and cider were being
carried in, the landlord apologised for the absence of the female folks,
who were for the moment engaged elsewhere; and during this brief
conversation, the silversmith (still instinct with professional taste)
studied a bunch of heavy seals hanging from a watch in the landlord's
fob. The landlord perceived that these articles had attracted the
stranger's notice, and when he again came into the room the fact was
observed by the other that they had been left aside or placed out of
sight.
This incident set the stranger thinking; and while so engaged, his eye
fell upon an old-fashioned glass-fronted cupboard occupying a corner of
the room, in which were exhibited the inn treasures--old crystal
vessels, china bowls, and the like--together with the plate of the
establishment. A sudden thought struck him. He proceeded to examine the
contents of the repository; and, standing upon a chair to explore the
upper shelves, what was his amazement when he there recognised the
silver tankards and the silver punch-ladles which he had sold to the
west-country farmer many years before! Then, eagerly turning over the
whole matter in his mind, the features of the landlord came back upon
him, and in this man he recognised the person who in London had
purchased these articles and paid to him the stolen L50 Bank of England
note. The silversmith lost no time in communicating the facts to the
banker, who at once obtained a warrant, and, with two constables,
proceeded the same evening to the inn to put it into execution. The
landlord was called into a room, there and then he was charged with
having stolen the note, and was forthwith conveyed into X---- a
prisoner.
It transpired in the course of inquiries that in his early days--before
the period of the robbery--this man had been employed as a servant or
assistant by the postmaster at X----. He left that situation, however,
and became coachman to one of the neighbouring gentry. While in this
service it was very frequently his duty to drive the family into town,
where they would rest some portion of the day in their town house, and
return to the country seat in the evening. In these intervals it
sometimes happened that the coachman would go to the post-office, and
there chat and gossip with his old fellow-servants. He visited the
post-office on the day when the stolen letter was posted; he and his
former comrades smoked and drank together; and in the end he volunteered
to assist with the letters. He did so; and while thus engaged he managed
to abstract the banker's letter, which, owing to its bulky nature and
the address which it bore, he suspected to contain value. His visit on
that particular day was verified by circumstances in the recollection of
the persons at the post-office, and other evidence of his guilt
accumulated against him; but this testimony was not really necessary,
for the farmer-publican himself confessed to the theft of the letter,
and explained how he had obtained possession of it.
The course usual in such circumstances followed. The offence was visited
with the severity which characterised the period--the man suffered the
extreme penalty of the law.