The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and RomanceHyde, James Wilson
History
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
Hyde, James Wilson
Postal service -- Great Britain
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 £1500. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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