Post by Rab on Mar 5, 2006 8:36:56 GMT -5
[First posted on LindyKidnap June 11 2004].
It started many moons ago with Michael Melsky. I was insistent - in my usual way - that the sleeping suit had been mailed from Station E, 2581 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. After all, that's what the FBI said and I couldn't see how they could manage to get that kind of basic information wrong. The suit had been promised to Condon on Saturday March 12 by CJ during their meeting at Woodlawn and had apparently arrived at Condon's house on Wednesday March 16. According to the FBI it was not only from Brooklyn, but had been mailed that very same day.
Michael chipped away at me. He was referring to an obscure (or so it seemed at the time) opinion from handwriting expert John F. Tyrell that the sleeping suit had actually been mailed from Stamford, Connecticut and not Brooklyn. I knew from images of the postmark that STA was clearly visible and I jumped to the conclusion that Tyrell was engaging in fantasy and that STA clearly meant STAtion rather than STAmford.
But then a thought began to fester. If someone went to Brooklyn in order to mail the suit, then that person presumably went there for a reason. Perhaps because it was necessary to weigh the suit to get the correct postage and to do so one would have needed to approach the post office counter. One of the earlier ransom notes had been mailed from Brooklyn, so it didn't seem too unusual that someone had travelled there to mail the suit. But what was unusual was that there didn't appear to any investigation whatsoever of this mailing. We had a very important piece of evidence apparently mailed from Brooklyn under circumstances where perhaps the person needed to enter the post office and yet there didn't seem to be any investigation of it. Given the effort put into other avenues of investigation, often of a bizarre tangential nature, it seemed unbelievable that there was nothing on the suit mailing.
I asked the inestimable Mark Falzini if he knew of any investigative reports regarding the mailing. He didn't. I found out from Michael more about the Tyrell quote. Apparently the prosecution had sent out a series of handwriting evidence pieces to the various QDEs prior to the trial. The sleeping suit wrapper was listed thusly:
"On March 16, 1932, the sleeping suit was received by mail in a brown wrapper. The postmark cannot be identified. Addressed to Dr. John E. Condon, 2974 Decatur Avenue, New York."
This prompted Tyrell to write back with his opinion that the stamp (actually the postmark) "appears" to be Stamford, Conn. But it seemed that in 1934/5, it wasn't possible to see the postmark, the postmark that the FBI had been so sure was from Station E, Brooklyn. I started to argue that the postmark had just faded or been damaged. But I didn't really believe it. Enter the tireless Mark, who supplied a new image of the postmark:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/stamp.JPG
The STA was still clear, but for the life of me I couldn't see what Tyrell was talking about. Neither could Michael. All we had to go on was the STA and a complete ignorance of postmarks. So I stared at it. I turned it round and upside down, I played with PhotoShop. And then it began to emerge:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/stamp2.JPG
Now I could - I thought - finally see what Tyrell had seen. I sent it to a number of trusted researchers. We all thought it interesting. But we couldn't be sure. So I embarked on some research on postmarks and post offices and so on, sometimes interesting, sometimes tedious. This is what I found.
There was indeed a Station E at 2581 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. And it was in operation in March 1932. In fact it remained as Station E until July 1, 1947 when it was renamed East New York Station (New York Postal History: The Post Offices and First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980" by John L. Kay and Chester M. Smith, Jr. (1981)).
So how could the FBI have got it wrong? What were they basing their opinion on, not just in saying that the suit was mailed from that location but was mailed on that date?
In the NJSP files, Michael had found a list of post offices. It is undated. And it is incomplete. Here's page 1 of the list:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/postoffices.JPG
As we can see, this list of Manhattan post offices is missing a Station E. And in the place where one would expect to find a Station E, there is the Annex Parcel Post. And, of course, the sleeping suit package was a parcel. So is there some connection between this list and the designation of the sleeping suit package as Station E? It seems unlikely but perhaps can't be ruled out.
The type of postmark on the package is a hand cancel. This is a type of cancel that every post office in the US had. It's called a double-oval or sometimes a double-violet (because of the hue of ink used). Sometimes - as it appears with the sleeping suit package - the double-oval contained the name of the post office and sometimes the double-oval was blank, in which case it is known as a mute oval. Here's an example of a double-oval with the post office name, in this case New York's City Hall Station:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/Registered.jpg
And here's an example of a mute oval:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/DoubleOval.jpg
Now what is noticeable about both of these examples is that they are registered mail. And it is this that makes the use of the double-oval interesting. Because remember that the FBI said that the package was mailed on March 16. But no date can be seen on the postmark. And that's because there never was a date on it. The sleeping suit package does not show any registered stamp but the only way that the package could have contained a date stamp is if it had been registered. I have been advised by a number of postal historians that double-ovals had a very specific use and that such use was controlled by the postal regulations of the day. A double-oval hand cancel could only be used for 2nd, 3rd and 4th class mail and for registered mail. The reason why they were used was that for non-1st class mail, the post office simply didn't want people to know how long it took for the mail to arrive. So the regulations prohibited date stamps for those classes of mail, and therefore they were cancelled by hand. So wherever the FBI got the information that the package was mailed on March 16, they didn't get it from the postmark or from the package itself. And it also shows that the package was not sent 1st class so the chances of it arriving from Stamford to Condon's house in the Bronx all on the same day seem remote.
I sent Mark's image of the postmark to 5 postal historians and postmark dealers. I asked them - without prompting - if they could tell me where it was from. The unanimous opinion was Stamford, Connecticut.
Of course, there is one "killer" piece of evidence remaining to be found. And that is another Stamford double-oval, against which to compare the sleeping suit postmark. Believe me, I have tried. I have purchased numerous pieces of mail and postmarks but none are clear enough to be definitive. So that final piece is still awaited. The search is hampered by the fact that double-ovals are not really of any interest to collectors but I will continue to look until I find one.
So, if - as now seems certain - the sleeping suit was mailed from Stamford, what does that tell us about the case overall? And particularly about our assumed nexus of the Bronx? It seems to me that there are a number of possibilities:
- someone travelled to Stamford from the Bronx to mail the sleeping suit for reasons of anonymity i.e. to a place where nobody knew them or would have reason to remember them;
- someone had to travel to Stamford or its vicinity in order to retrieve the suit and then mailed it at the nearest post office;
And then the possibility that perhaps intrigues me most:
- someone travelled to Stamford to met someone who had the suit, Stamford representing a halfway or convenient meeting point.
Now, to the first possibility. It does seem rather extreme that someone would travel to Stamford, just to be away from the Bronx. After all, the assumed mailing location of Brooklyn would provide that. Just as easily as Mt Vernon or Westchester or Manhattan or countless other closer places. But neither is Stamford a million miles from the Bronx.
The Stamford post office is located at 421 Atlantic Street (co-incidentally or not providing a linkage to Station E at Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn). The train station is at 499 Washington Blvd, only a few blocks away and providing easy access to New York. The harbour is a short walk, providing access to Long Island Sound (of which more later). But, perhaps most interestingly, only one block from the post office is the Boston Post Road. And that road, of course, runs all the way back down directly to the Bronx, close to Hauptmann's home, close to Condon's bailiwick, close to many of the sites we associate with the case.
On the second possibility, one cannot, of course, rule out that Stamford provided some hiding place for the suit and that it was necessary to travel there in order to retrieve it. It seems impossible to prove or disprove at this juncture.
And then to the third possibility, which perhaps provides some linkage back to the Boston Post Road and perhaps also to Long Island Sound. It seems to me that if there were a number of people involved and if one was based in the Bronx or New York and one further north, then perhaps Stamford represented an acceptable meeting place, one person travelling through the more densely populated and heavier traffic of NY and the other travelling south, perhaps some distance. Of course, it is only a theory. But there are, to my mind, some considerations in terms of Long Island Sound.
There are a number of maritime connections to the case, some clear, some less so. CJ apparently told Condon that the child was on a boat. We have the Nelly note, which gives very specific instructions about an area - clearly known, or at least understood - around Martha's Vineyard, at the top of Long Island Sound. Then there was conversation between Condon and CJ about Boston, a major port, also reached from NYC via the Sound. There is the table board, with the sea shanty as part of the "confession". There is the connection of Condon, Hauptmann and Hans Mueller to City Island, which of course is at the bottom of Long Island Sound. And then we have Stamford, a short sail from City Island, and also along the Sound. And then there is Condon's apparent trip by boat out to The Narrows, Hart Island, Fort Schuyler and Morris Cove following his first meeting with CJ.
So, where does this leave us? I'm really not quite sure. It certainly expands the area of operations, as it were. Perhaps it's further suggestion of an accomplice. Perhaps it suggests the FBI were misled by someone into thinking the suit came from Brooklyn. Perhaps there was some reason that nobody wanted to look into this Stamford connection. Does it cast doubt on Hauptmann's involvement? Not to my mind. All I do know is that it certainly opens up another avenue of investigation, one that must be explored to its fullest extent.
It started many moons ago with Michael Melsky. I was insistent - in my usual way - that the sleeping suit had been mailed from Station E, 2581 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. After all, that's what the FBI said and I couldn't see how they could manage to get that kind of basic information wrong. The suit had been promised to Condon on Saturday March 12 by CJ during their meeting at Woodlawn and had apparently arrived at Condon's house on Wednesday March 16. According to the FBI it was not only from Brooklyn, but had been mailed that very same day.
Michael chipped away at me. He was referring to an obscure (or so it seemed at the time) opinion from handwriting expert John F. Tyrell that the sleeping suit had actually been mailed from Stamford, Connecticut and not Brooklyn. I knew from images of the postmark that STA was clearly visible and I jumped to the conclusion that Tyrell was engaging in fantasy and that STA clearly meant STAtion rather than STAmford.
But then a thought began to fester. If someone went to Brooklyn in order to mail the suit, then that person presumably went there for a reason. Perhaps because it was necessary to weigh the suit to get the correct postage and to do so one would have needed to approach the post office counter. One of the earlier ransom notes had been mailed from Brooklyn, so it didn't seem too unusual that someone had travelled there to mail the suit. But what was unusual was that there didn't appear to any investigation whatsoever of this mailing. We had a very important piece of evidence apparently mailed from Brooklyn under circumstances where perhaps the person needed to enter the post office and yet there didn't seem to be any investigation of it. Given the effort put into other avenues of investigation, often of a bizarre tangential nature, it seemed unbelievable that there was nothing on the suit mailing.
I asked the inestimable Mark Falzini if he knew of any investigative reports regarding the mailing. He didn't. I found out from Michael more about the Tyrell quote. Apparently the prosecution had sent out a series of handwriting evidence pieces to the various QDEs prior to the trial. The sleeping suit wrapper was listed thusly:
"On March 16, 1932, the sleeping suit was received by mail in a brown wrapper. The postmark cannot be identified. Addressed to Dr. John E. Condon, 2974 Decatur Avenue, New York."
This prompted Tyrell to write back with his opinion that the stamp (actually the postmark) "appears" to be Stamford, Conn. But it seemed that in 1934/5, it wasn't possible to see the postmark, the postmark that the FBI had been so sure was from Station E, Brooklyn. I started to argue that the postmark had just faded or been damaged. But I didn't really believe it. Enter the tireless Mark, who supplied a new image of the postmark:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/stamp.JPG
The STA was still clear, but for the life of me I couldn't see what Tyrell was talking about. Neither could Michael. All we had to go on was the STA and a complete ignorance of postmarks. So I stared at it. I turned it round and upside down, I played with PhotoShop. And then it began to emerge:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/stamp2.JPG
Now I could - I thought - finally see what Tyrell had seen. I sent it to a number of trusted researchers. We all thought it interesting. But we couldn't be sure. So I embarked on some research on postmarks and post offices and so on, sometimes interesting, sometimes tedious. This is what I found.
There was indeed a Station E at 2581 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. And it was in operation in March 1932. In fact it remained as Station E until July 1, 1947 when it was renamed East New York Station (New York Postal History: The Post Offices and First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980" by John L. Kay and Chester M. Smith, Jr. (1981)).
So how could the FBI have got it wrong? What were they basing their opinion on, not just in saying that the suit was mailed from that location but was mailed on that date?
In the NJSP files, Michael had found a list of post offices. It is undated. And it is incomplete. Here's page 1 of the list:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/postoffices.JPG
As we can see, this list of Manhattan post offices is missing a Station E. And in the place where one would expect to find a Station E, there is the Annex Parcel Post. And, of course, the sleeping suit package was a parcel. So is there some connection between this list and the designation of the sleeping suit package as Station E? It seems unlikely but perhaps can't be ruled out.
The type of postmark on the package is a hand cancel. This is a type of cancel that every post office in the US had. It's called a double-oval or sometimes a double-violet (because of the hue of ink used). Sometimes - as it appears with the sleeping suit package - the double-oval contained the name of the post office and sometimes the double-oval was blank, in which case it is known as a mute oval. Here's an example of a double-oval with the post office name, in this case New York's City Hall Station:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/Registered.jpg
And here's an example of a mute oval:
homepage.ntlworld.com/foxleywood/DoubleOval.jpg
Now what is noticeable about both of these examples is that they are registered mail. And it is this that makes the use of the double-oval interesting. Because remember that the FBI said that the package was mailed on March 16. But no date can be seen on the postmark. And that's because there never was a date on it. The sleeping suit package does not show any registered stamp but the only way that the package could have contained a date stamp is if it had been registered. I have been advised by a number of postal historians that double-ovals had a very specific use and that such use was controlled by the postal regulations of the day. A double-oval hand cancel could only be used for 2nd, 3rd and 4th class mail and for registered mail. The reason why they were used was that for non-1st class mail, the post office simply didn't want people to know how long it took for the mail to arrive. So the regulations prohibited date stamps for those classes of mail, and therefore they were cancelled by hand. So wherever the FBI got the information that the package was mailed on March 16, they didn't get it from the postmark or from the package itself. And it also shows that the package was not sent 1st class so the chances of it arriving from Stamford to Condon's house in the Bronx all on the same day seem remote.
I sent Mark's image of the postmark to 5 postal historians and postmark dealers. I asked them - without prompting - if they could tell me where it was from. The unanimous opinion was Stamford, Connecticut.
Of course, there is one "killer" piece of evidence remaining to be found. And that is another Stamford double-oval, against which to compare the sleeping suit postmark. Believe me, I have tried. I have purchased numerous pieces of mail and postmarks but none are clear enough to be definitive. So that final piece is still awaited. The search is hampered by the fact that double-ovals are not really of any interest to collectors but I will continue to look until I find one.
So, if - as now seems certain - the sleeping suit was mailed from Stamford, what does that tell us about the case overall? And particularly about our assumed nexus of the Bronx? It seems to me that there are a number of possibilities:
- someone travelled to Stamford from the Bronx to mail the sleeping suit for reasons of anonymity i.e. to a place where nobody knew them or would have reason to remember them;
- someone had to travel to Stamford or its vicinity in order to retrieve the suit and then mailed it at the nearest post office;
And then the possibility that perhaps intrigues me most:
- someone travelled to Stamford to met someone who had the suit, Stamford representing a halfway or convenient meeting point.
Now, to the first possibility. It does seem rather extreme that someone would travel to Stamford, just to be away from the Bronx. After all, the assumed mailing location of Brooklyn would provide that. Just as easily as Mt Vernon or Westchester or Manhattan or countless other closer places. But neither is Stamford a million miles from the Bronx.
The Stamford post office is located at 421 Atlantic Street (co-incidentally or not providing a linkage to Station E at Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn). The train station is at 499 Washington Blvd, only a few blocks away and providing easy access to New York. The harbour is a short walk, providing access to Long Island Sound (of which more later). But, perhaps most interestingly, only one block from the post office is the Boston Post Road. And that road, of course, runs all the way back down directly to the Bronx, close to Hauptmann's home, close to Condon's bailiwick, close to many of the sites we associate with the case.
On the second possibility, one cannot, of course, rule out that Stamford provided some hiding place for the suit and that it was necessary to travel there in order to retrieve it. It seems impossible to prove or disprove at this juncture.
And then to the third possibility, which perhaps provides some linkage back to the Boston Post Road and perhaps also to Long Island Sound. It seems to me that if there were a number of people involved and if one was based in the Bronx or New York and one further north, then perhaps Stamford represented an acceptable meeting place, one person travelling through the more densely populated and heavier traffic of NY and the other travelling south, perhaps some distance. Of course, it is only a theory. But there are, to my mind, some considerations in terms of Long Island Sound.
There are a number of maritime connections to the case, some clear, some less so. CJ apparently told Condon that the child was on a boat. We have the Nelly note, which gives very specific instructions about an area - clearly known, or at least understood - around Martha's Vineyard, at the top of Long Island Sound. Then there was conversation between Condon and CJ about Boston, a major port, also reached from NYC via the Sound. There is the table board, with the sea shanty as part of the "confession". There is the connection of Condon, Hauptmann and Hans Mueller to City Island, which of course is at the bottom of Long Island Sound. And then we have Stamford, a short sail from City Island, and also along the Sound. And then there is Condon's apparent trip by boat out to The Narrows, Hart Island, Fort Schuyler and Morris Cove following his first meeting with CJ.
So, where does this leave us? I'm really not quite sure. It certainly expands the area of operations, as it were. Perhaps it's further suggestion of an accomplice. Perhaps it suggests the FBI were misled by someone into thinking the suit came from Brooklyn. Perhaps there was some reason that nobody wanted to look into this Stamford connection. Does it cast doubt on Hauptmann's involvement? Not to my mind. All I do know is that it certainly opens up another avenue of investigation, one that must be explored to its fullest extent.