The Amateur Sleuths Who Caught the Richland Post Office Robbers
A year after the mail was stolen, five men finally split a $600 federal reward — and the one now somewhere in the Atlantic on a hospital ship has no idea.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A number of Richland people are rejoicing in a little hand-out this week which came in the nature of a surprise. Last year when the post office was robbed and the government offered a reward of $600 for the capture of the criminals there were a great many amateur sleuths in this vicinity. However, the honors for the capture of the robbers were divided between E. P. Chellis, Jack Martin and W. Shephard of Richland and Sheriff C. E. Duffy and his deputy, J. C. McClellan, of Prosser. These men are now in receipt of a voucher from the government calling for $120 as an equal share of the reward and are more than jubilant over the remittance. Jack Martin, who is on his way to France on a government hospital ship, does not know of his good fortune, but his mother is looking out for his interests at this end. It takes a long time to get money from the government under circumstances of this kind, but it will come in pretty handy now with the increasing cost of living.
“It takes a long time to get money from the government under circumstances of this kind, but it will come in pretty handy now with the increasing cost of living.”
A small-town mail robbery, a pack of self-appointed detectives, and a federal bounty paid out a year late — the machinery of a true-crime story, minus the podcast. The closing line lands hardest: a windfall measured against the rising cost of living, and a young man crossing the Atlantic toward the war while his mother collects his share.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.