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294 NATIONAL POLITICS I918-I922
in New York City this gang was responsible for a metropolitan theft of $3,000,000 in Sinclair Oil stock; in a Toledo robbery, the same group stole $1,000,000 early in February; they had conducted the Dearborn Street, Chicago, robbery and many other "jobs." Indictments were issued against eighteen men and one woman. The evidence against them had been accumulated over a six-month period. An agent running a "business school" on East Seventy-second Street in New York was also indicted on charges of trading in Liberty Bonds and savings stamps. A New York "real estate" dealer was picked up on similar charges. The group was responsible, too, for a "securities" outfit in the financial district of Chicago, an enterprise whose fraudulent dealings could be traced back to 1902! Their source of income in this association had come from dealings in stolen securities, illegally "washed" revenue stamps, and war savings securities. Judge Kenesaw M. Landis was the man who sentenced the group. During this same month we closed this case by picking up the remnants of the ring in Cleveland.
Another success involved our frustration of a mail-robbery attempt in Fort Worth. The robbers' plans were uncovered by FBI agents and postal inspectors working together, and were known also to an assistant chief clerk of the railway mail service in that district. He volunteered to act on the night of the proposed robbery as the messenger of mail car "X," accompanied by the regular clerks, who concealed themselves in the car. The train left Fort Worth at n 140 p.m., ten minutes late. One minute later the expected robber entered mail car "X," covered the "messenger," and ordered him to open the door near the place where the mail was to be thrown off the train. At this point, according to plans, the robber was to kill the messenger— a thing that the assistant chief clerk knew. The mail was thrown off at the appointed place, where FBI agents and postal inspectors were readv to receive it. One robber who was waiting at the spot was killed trying to escape with the pouches. The one on the train was himself covered and disarmed before he could do more damage. The train backed up and picked up the mail, including a quantitv of stage money, which had been substituted in registeredmail sacks. The reward was given shortly afterward to the clerk who, through his alertness, aroused the help of the FBI, the postal inspectors, and local police.
The department could announce in September that mail robberies had been greatly reduced. From April 8, 1920, to April 8, 1921, $6,346,407 had been stolen in 36 major robberies, of which $3,286,017 was recovered. But from April 9, 1921, to September 7 of that year, a total amount of only $88,580 had been stolen with a recovery of $78,555. The Inspection Department considered that the cut-down was due to the drastic measures taken in April, and newspapers were generous in their praise: