While watching the new show, “Alcatraz,” it was stated that the villiian of the episode, “Jack Sylvane,” was sent to federal prison for robbing a store that sold stamps. Thus, it was a post office. Is this true IRL? :dubious: Wouldn’t it take more than stamps?
I thought the definition of ‘post office’ was that it accepted mail. That may be too logical, though.
My grocery store sells stamps. It’s not a post office. You can’t post anything there.
It’s possible, in the time frame of the TV show (when the post office was a US government agency), that stealing postage stamps was a federal offense. I seem to recall a warning of that nature on stamp vending machines of that era.
There are lots of weird federal laws that establish jurisdiction over things that may be a more minor crime otherwise. Committing a crime against the U.S. Postal Service is one common way to do that. Destroy a commnity fence and you get hit with state vandalism charges. Get caught destroying mail boxes in a teenage game of mailbox baseball. That is some serious bad news as some friends of mine and their families can attest to. Trick someone in simple fraud? It may or may not be a big deal but if you do it using the postal system, you can easily get hit with federal charges and wind up in federal prison. I don’t know if the story is true or not but the general idea is very plausible. Don’t screw around with the mail system in any way shape or form.
Not too long ago, neighborhood groceries and drugstores had what were called contract stations, usually in the back, to help bring in customers. These accepted packages, sold postage, and performed other postal functions. The employees who worked there had special training and probably were bonded, and theft from that part of the store undoubtedly was considered a federal offense and investigated by the Postal Inspection Service.
This. Responding to it to note that many small towns had stores (general stores in the olden days, supermarkets and convenience stores more recently, which doubled as the town’s post office.
I recall a TV docudrama about the lawyer who closed Alcatraz; it centered on a guy who was sentenced to federal prison for 10 years for robbing a general store in the midwest. Because the store (like many small towns) was also the post office, stealing $5 from it was a federal crime. By adding on time for crimes committed in prison this added up to over 20 years in Alcatraz. The guy was charged with murder of anither inmate following a “disturbance”.
the lawyer put the whole Alcatraz prison system on trial, basically showing the convict had been subject to months of solitary in violation of prison rules; that the environment was brutal, the treatment by the guards and the system was brutal, and the conditions were nowhere near the standards set by the government.
In this show, the argument for the original conviction was that the general store also distributed mail and accepted mail, sold stamps, etc. Basically, as the main commerical establishment in a small town in the 1920’s, it was the only place that could do this. As something considered a “post office”, robbing it was a federal crime.
I assume the character is based on this situation?
The stealing of stamps would have been a Federal crime, but it would not have gotten the person assigned to Alcatraz. Alcatraz was the equivalent of the current “SuperMax” prisons; most prisoners were assigned there as punishment for disobeying rules at other prisons.
Murder in the First - Good movie, but mostly untrue. The real Henry Young was not some kid stealing 5 bucks to feed his sister. He was a murderer and bank robber. It appears they made up the Post Office bit.
In the show, the guy wasn’t to Alcatraz for stealing stamps. He was in Leavenworth for stealing stamps, and some guy got frisky in the shower and Sylvane killed him.
Never mind. I missed earlier “Henri Young” post.
Well, you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV!
Alcatraz was closed because it was too expensive to operate, compared to other prisons. Everything used there – food, water, supplies – had to be shipped in via boat. And the empty containers shipped back out again. Plus sewage had been just pumped into San Francisco Bay – that was no longer considered acceptable to do. Even the guards had to be transported there by boat every day, at government expense.
And the conditions at Alcatraz weren’t much different than in the Federal prisons that replaced it. In the current SuperMax prisons there are prisoners who are in solitary confinement in their cells for 23 hours per day, then with 1 hour in an exercise yard – still alone. The worst ones have been confined this way for years, and will be held like this until they die. Nothing like this in Alcatraz.
I manage two contract stations that are in grocery stores. When the contract stations are closed we sell stamps at the grocery portion. Someone robbed the store and even though they got no stamps, it was still a federally prosecuted case since there was money from the stamps in the drawer.
weird federal laws indeed