St. Stephen's Day Massacre
The decline of the NAPR may have begun several years prior but December 26, 1933 truly marked the beginning of the end for the National Association of Postal Riflemen. On this date in Boston, MA occured the most troubling account of brother against brother since the civil war just some 70 years ago.
It started out like any other St Stephen's Day for those of Irish decent who worked at the Main Annex several blocks from the harbour. As normal, some 63 Post Office Department employees were brough in to sort the accumulation of mail as a result of no mail delivery on Christmas Day. As was custom on St Stephens's Day, at least custom prior to Prohibition, each employee scheduled to work that day was required to bring in a bottle. Since this was the first wet St Stephen's Day since the ending of Prohibition, some celebration was in order.
Not only did each employee bring in a bottle but employee after employee brought in 2, 3, 5 bottles and in fact a few brought in several cases of beer each. Seamus McWayne later recalled, "It was truly going to be a day to remember." "We had no idea at the beginning how prophetic a thought that was."
Indeed. The men started out with good intentions and actually got some work done....initially. It seems from postal logs that only Boston's 1st Ward and parts of the 8th and 12th actually received mail the following day.
Things started going awry about noontime as the men took a break for lunch. Already in high spirits from the imbibing of the overabundance of various types of alcohol the men broke open the room used as the armory and took to the streets for their lunch. It seems as though a little lunch, some beverage and some target practice became the plan of action for the afternoon.
Under normal circumstances a little target practice at the larger of the post office facilities was not uncommon as a room was set aside next to the armory for the employees to use during breaks and lunch. The activity was used as seen by management as a way for the employees to let off some steam during the course of the day. Never in the course of Post Office Department history had the arms room been raided by a bunch of celebratory intoxicated postal workers and taken into the streets.
The men took to the back dock and shot upon the wearhouses nearby using the windows for target practice. This was not the best of ideas but essentially the men were left to their drunken devices for at least an hour. As complaint after comlaint was called in to the local police magistrate something had to be done as it appeared that the men would not stop on their own.
more to come....
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Going Postal - The NAPR Part III
Pretty much through the second half of the nineteenth century the course remained the same. The visions of the old west continued with the high visability of the postal riflemen acting as a deterrant. In larger communities the weapons the "postal police" as they were starting to be called we more concealed.
The Post Office Department and those who worked for it changed along with the times. Taking it's cue from Samuel Gompers who organized The American Federation of Labor, those employees of the Post Office Department whose sole job was to safegurad the american mail system organized a union. In the mid 1890's The National Association of Postal Riflemen was born.
Skirmishes between these "postal police" and those who wanted to do harm to the public good were uncommon or perhaps uncommonly unreported. Only those instances that were grand in design made it to the front pages of the local press.
THE TRAIN ROBBERY
July 5th in 1919 was unarguably the finest hour of the Riflemen of the US Postal Police. A train bound for New York City from Boston via Albany was primarily transporting a transfer of some 5.3 million in gold bullion destined for the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. It was unknown then but the country moved its money from bank to bank under the guard of postal police.
5 desparate men planned for months to hijack one of the express trains as the government made its reserve transfers. The plans was originally scheduled for May but was changed to July 5th, the day following Independance Day to take advantage of the banking holiday. The culprits reasons, and rightly so, that there would be an overabundance of both mail and money on the train. As it turned out in the end, none of the five men saw the light of the next dawn much less the glimmering sheen of any of the gold.
These five "hooligans" as the Albany Herald-Disseminator called them in their July 6, 1919 edition intercepted at routine stop at Albany where the train picked up passengers, mail, cargo and more money before it resumed its trip to NY City. The gang was lead by a former employee Franklin J. Beuttenmueler. A nationalized German citizen who lost his job two years prior as a result of Woodrow Wilson's "Americans First Act" which prohibited employment of expatriots of hostile countries during the "Great Patriotic War" from being employed in occupations deemded "sensitive to war industry". It was said that on his last day of work, Beuttenmueler threatened he would get even but considering his good natured jovial personality no one took him seriously. He was heard exclaiming "The devil with you all!!" as he left the building for the last time.
Not much is known of the the plans the group had. All that is left is an account as reported in the Herald-Disseminator of the aftermath from the attempted hijacking and a few testimonies from passengers. The men boarded the train in Albany with 2 of them men dressed as postal police. Several miles outside of Albany the men struck. Apparently as they made their way to the cargo area of the train, their cover being blown shots were exchanged with one motality amongst the Postal Police. These "hooligans" were gunned down like fish in a barrel but only after 3 inocent passengers had been injured. All agreed the carnage could have been much worse. It was further agreed upon close examination that these men were ill equiped to even penetrate the postal car as it was sealed by combination lock, from the inside. A security change that was implimented only in the previous 6 months and definately non a feature Beuttenmueler and his crew would have been aware of. The Post Office Depatement during the middle of the war switched to a postal car that was more like highly secure vault on wheels. Testing in developement revealed it would take a rather large amount of dynamite....from the bottom. Essentially the train car would have to be taken off its track, rolled on its side and then dynamited at the bottom to even breach the interior. Such a daunting task for would be robbers.
more to come....
The Post Office Department and those who worked for it changed along with the times. Taking it's cue from Samuel Gompers who organized The American Federation of Labor, those employees of the Post Office Department whose sole job was to safegurad the american mail system organized a union. In the mid 1890's The National Association of Postal Riflemen was born.
Skirmishes between these "postal police" and those who wanted to do harm to the public good were uncommon or perhaps uncommonly unreported. Only those instances that were grand in design made it to the front pages of the local press.
THE TRAIN ROBBERY
July 5th in 1919 was unarguably the finest hour of the Riflemen of the US Postal Police. A train bound for New York City from Boston via Albany was primarily transporting a transfer of some 5.3 million in gold bullion destined for the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. It was unknown then but the country moved its money from bank to bank under the guard of postal police.
5 desparate men planned for months to hijack one of the express trains as the government made its reserve transfers. The plans was originally scheduled for May but was changed to July 5th, the day following Independance Day to take advantage of the banking holiday. The culprits reasons, and rightly so, that there would be an overabundance of both mail and money on the train. As it turned out in the end, none of the five men saw the light of the next dawn much less the glimmering sheen of any of the gold.
These five "hooligans" as the Albany Herald-Disseminator called them in their July 6, 1919 edition intercepted at routine stop at Albany where the train picked up passengers, mail, cargo and more money before it resumed its trip to NY City. The gang was lead by a former employee Franklin J. Beuttenmueler. A nationalized German citizen who lost his job two years prior as a result of Woodrow Wilson's "Americans First Act" which prohibited employment of expatriots of hostile countries during the "Great Patriotic War" from being employed in occupations deemded "sensitive to war industry". It was said that on his last day of work, Beuttenmueler threatened he would get even but considering his good natured jovial personality no one took him seriously. He was heard exclaiming "The devil with you all!!" as he left the building for the last time.
Not much is known of the the plans the group had. All that is left is an account as reported in the Herald-Disseminator of the aftermath from the attempted hijacking and a few testimonies from passengers. The men boarded the train in Albany with 2 of them men dressed as postal police. Several miles outside of Albany the men struck. Apparently as they made their way to the cargo area of the train, their cover being blown shots were exchanged with one motality amongst the Postal Police. These "hooligans" were gunned down like fish in a barrel but only after 3 inocent passengers had been injured. All agreed the carnage could have been much worse. It was further agreed upon close examination that these men were ill equiped to even penetrate the postal car as it was sealed by combination lock, from the inside. A security change that was implimented only in the previous 6 months and definately non a feature Beuttenmueler and his crew would have been aware of. The Post Office Depatement during the middle of the war switched to a postal car that was more like highly secure vault on wheels. Testing in developement revealed it would take a rather large amount of dynamite....from the bottom. Essentially the train car would have to be taken off its track, rolled on its side and then dynamited at the bottom to even breach the interior. Such a daunting task for would be robbers.
more to come....
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