Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement

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INFORMER
OCTOBER 2015
Little-known federal law enforcement agency
works within the United States Postal Service
By H. K. Petschel
Since the earliest days of the American republic, the argument has raged over
whether the Postal Inspection Service or the
United States Marshals Service deserves to
be regarded as the oldest federal law enforcement agency.
(The U.S. Customs Service, securing
borders and enforcing import duties beginning in July 1789, also has a claim to this
designation. In March 2003, that service was
merged into U.S. Customs and Border Protection.)
Both of these agencies have served
the public well. The U.S. Marshals Service,
established with the Judiciary Act in September 1789, has grown substantially
through the years and has been prominent in
the public eye. The service claims to be the
first federal agency assigned with the primary task of law enforcement. The Postal Inspection Service, the enforcement arm of the
United States Postal Service, may have had
a less specific mission but boasts a longer
pedigree that stretches back into the Colonial Period.
Serving under the English Crown, one
of the duties of Philadelphia-based PostmasBenjamin Franklin
ter General Benjamin Franklin was audit the
activities of regional postmasters and bring
to account any found to be mishandling the funds or mails entrusted to them. In 1772,
Franklin felt that he could no longer personally handle enforcement duties and created the
position of “surveyor” within the postal service.
Franklin’s postal enforcement arm continued through the Revolution and the founding of the new American nation. Soon after adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the position
of “surveyor” was renamed “special agent.” Congress retitled the role as “post office inspector” in 1880.
The duties of post office inspectors involved overseeing the operations of post offices
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set up by the federal government. Inspectors
established our postal routes, which evolved
into state highways; trained new postmasters
in their duties; and audited the accounts of
the various offices.
One postmaster who was reportedly
removed from office was Abraham Lincoln.
The young Lincoln took over as postmaster
of New Salem, Illinois, in May of 1833. He
was popular with patrons but somewhat casual in his duties. He was put out of his job
and the New Salem office was closed down
three years later. For a time, there was concern over an office balance of $248.63. According to biographers, Lincoln was approached for this sum late in 1837 and
turned it over.
Another responsibility placed upon
the postal inspector was criminal investigation. Originally this simply involved the
theft of valuables from the mails, as well as
embezzlement by postal employees. Over
time, inspectors were given responsibility
for enforcement of eighty-seven federal statutes. These covered theft of mail, mail fraud,
mailing of explosive devices, shipment of
narcotics and a multitude of other sins.
Preventing and punishing mail theft is
Abraham Lincoln
a colossal challenge. Willie Sutton had it
wrong. “The money” is very often in the
post office. Historically, currency, financial securities and other valuables were transported
using the mails. When you look at high dollar robberies in history, usually they involve a
post office or a mail train.
While they are among the least known of law enforcement agents, postal inspectors
have been among the most effective and the most dogged. Because they have federal authority, they have more freedom of movement and independence than personnel in other
agencies, and they are able to work cooperatively and creatively with agencies in multiple
jurisdictions. They can and do pursue wrongdoers beyond local and state boundaries. In the
movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the two famous “Wild Bunch” train bandits
repeatedly note the pursuit of a band of lawmen and ask, “Who are those guys?” Sometimes
“those guys” were privately hired agents of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. But
sometimes they were inspectors of the U.S. Postal Service.
Though the inspectors have been involved in many cases, it is not easy to point to
specific work in a specific case. The Inspection Service is notoriously press shy and well
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INFORMER
deserving of its nickname, “the Silent Service.” Working
behind the scenes, helps the service in its working relationships with other - perhaps more press-hungry - local
and federal agencies. An inspector who has taken an active role in an investigation, commonly will step aside
once the case is broken and allow the publicity to fall upon other enforcement officers - a pattern that benefits local sheriffs up for reelection.
Another problem with documenting individual
postal inspector cases stems from the service’s lack of
“institutional memory.” It does not centrally maintain historic records of its accomplishments. As a writer, I gave
up sending information requests to the service about ten
years ago. Research is far more easily accomplished
through court records and newspapers.
Still, many of the cases involved historically significant events. In the 1920s in one twelve-month period,
$6.2 million was lost to robberies. Two of the more famous robberies of that era were the Rondout, Illinois,
train robbery (by the Newton Boys gang in June 1924);
the “Great Post Office Robbery” on Leonard Street in
New York (by the Gerald Chapman and George Anderson
gang in 1921). There were also widely publicized robberies in Dallas and Toledo in this period.
While many of the cases were solved and much of
the stolen money returned, stealing from post offices remained fairly widespread during the Depression Era. The
robbers relented during World War II, but returned with a
vengeance in the postwar period. were interrupted The
only thing that slowed down or stopped the major robbery problem was World War 2. The “Great Plymouth
Mail Truck Robbery,” then the largest cash theft of all
time, was in newspaper headlines in 1962.
Despite the persistence of the criminals, postal inspectors still ensured that millions in currency, securities,
stamp stock and other valuables flowed through the mails
on a daily basis.
A lesser known crime was stamp counterfeiting.
The first case was discovered in 1894 and things went
downhill from there. This illicit industry started out with
what I like to call “Mom and Pop” counterfeiting operations. Never slow to sense a business opportunity, organized criminals soon entered the action. Is there any money in this criminal endeavor? Only about $140 million
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Butch Cassidy
Gerald Chapman
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each year. Stamp counterfeiting is probably the greatest unrecognized crime out there.
(A final note on counterfeit stamps: There is reason to believe that, in at least recent years, our friends in China and
North Korea have been major sources of phony stamps.)
Before electronic banking caught on, a major preoccupation
of inspectors involved check and credit card theft and fraud.
Bank fraud gangs would run hundreds of stolen or fraudulent
checks through bank accounts. This was also the beginning
of identity theft investigations which ultimately were taken
over by the U.S. Secret Service.
A defense attorney once defined mail fraud as walking by a
mail box with evil intent. There is more than a kernel of
truth in that statement. If you cause the mail to be used in the
commission or furtherance of a crime, this is mail fraud. When you think about it, at least in
the past it was hard to commit any kind of sophisticated criminal activity without causing
something to pass through the mail. The majority of Wall Street prosecutions in the last
hundred years were the product of postal investigation.
Bombs sent through the mail have earned considerable attention from public and
press, as well as the postal inspectors who combat the outrage. In the late spring of 1919, a
violent anarchist organization sent mail-bombs to twenty-nine public officials and prominent American capitalists. The bombs all were scheduled to arrive at their destinations on or
around May 1. One arrived early, exploding April 28 at
the home of Sen. Thomas Hardwick. Inspectors managed
to halt all the other packages.
In the late-1970s to mid-1990s, the “Unabomber,”
anarchist-inclined Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, puzzled
authorities with a series of seemingly random attacks with
homemade explosive devices. The FBI took over the Unabomber investigation after a bomb was placed on an interstate American Airlines flight in 1979. Postal inspectors were not mentioned in the FBI press releases in the
case, but if you look at FBI press conferences, postal inspectors can be spotted in the background.
A number of narcotics racketeers have tried to use
the mails to distribute their products. It probably has
seemed less risky than putting kilos of drugs in the trunk
of a car and driving to a distant city. A simple visit to the
local post office and shipment with express mail provides
security from theft and speedy delivery. Of course, it also
exposes illegal activities to the postal inspectors.
Postal inspectors have quietly built their reputation
as a highly efficient enforcement agency. As a result, the
Ted Kaczynski
United States Postal Service is widely recognized as the
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OCTOBER 2015
most secure national postal operaH. K. Petschel is a
tion and one of the most secure
retired U.S. postal
businesses in the world.
inspector who has
This writer spent twenty-five
written numerous
years as an inspector. It was an inarticles and several
teresting trip, and I noted the
books on the
changes in job-related responsibilicounterfeiting of U.S.
ties, methods and hazards over the
postage stamps. He
years. When I started with the
also
has written The
agency, I was armed with a Model
Rondout Train
10 Smith & Wesson .38-caliber reRobbery. Mr. Petschel
volver. When I retired, I handed in
resides in Idaho.
a MP-5 9mm submachine gun and
a bullet-proof vest.
Under current financial constraints at the United States Postal Service, its Inspection Service has been dramatically cut
back. But the inspectors remain hard at work, quietly putting their lives on the line to protect the mails, enforce the laws and serve the American public.
Still, as at least one of the oldest law enforcement services, if not the oldest, few outsiders have any understanding of the postal inspectors’ role.
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