Goode v. United States

• Decision Date: 25 November 1895
• Docket Number: No. 616,616
• Citation: 159 U.S. 663,40 L.Ed. 297,16 S.Ct. 136
• Parties: GOODE v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

159 U.S. 663

16 S.Ct. 136

40 L.Ed. 297

GOODE

v UNITED STATES.

No. 616.

November 25, 1895.

George Goode, a letter carrier, was indicted and convicted in the district court for the district of Massachusetts for embezzlement and theft from the mail. The indictment contained seven counts, the first three of which charged a violation of Rev. St. § 5467, and the last four a violation of section 5469. The substance of these sections is printed in the margin.¹ The case was submitted to the jury under certain instructions, hereafter to be considered, who returned a verdict of guilty upon the whole indictment.

The facts of the case were substantially as follows:

Goode, the plaintiff in error, was a letter carrier employed in the branch post office at Roxbury, which had formerly been an independent post office, but is now known as the 'Roxbury Station' of the Boston post office. Complaints having been made of thefts from the mails at this office, Thomas J. Boynton, a post-office inspector, prepared two decoy letters, one of which was addressed to Whitcomb, Keyes & Co., a firm of merchant tailors on Washington street, in the Roxbury district, and was subsequently delivered to them in the regular course of business, and one addressed to John Muldoon, Esq., 153 Ziegler street, Boston, Mass., and postmarked West Cheshire, Conn.

Boynton, in fact, took an envelope containing that postmark, filled in the date, which was missing on the postmark, with type which he had in his office for that purpose, and canceled the stamp with a canceler, such as was used ordinarily in the smaller post offices. He inclosed in the letter two one-dollar silver certificates and five two-cent postage stamps, marked the postage stamps by means of pin holes, and gave the letter to one McGrath, who was assistant superintendent of the mailing division of the main post office in Boston, but who was stationed temporarily, by direction of the postmaster, at the Roxbury office.

McGrath, when the letter carriers were out, called as witness the superintendent and person having charge of the branch post office, and in his presence put the letter into defendant's, Goode's, box. This was not the ordinary method of depositing the mail. Indeed, he passed by the places on the outside as well as the inside of the post office, where letters are usually mailed, and went into the back room, where the letters, after passing through the mails, are sorted. Goods returned from his route, took up all the letters in his box, and went to his desk, which was situated in the same room. His own route terminated at No. 51 Ziegler street, and it was his duty to put this Ziegler street letter into the box of the carrier whose route included the higher numbers of Ziegler street, or to put it into what was known as the 'list box.' This list box was kept for the reception of any letter known as a 'beat' or a 'nixie'; that is, a letter addressed to a person not to be found in the district. On Goode's return from his route, the letter not being found in either of these boxes or elsewhere, he was searched, and the five marked postage stamps were found upon his person. It was shown that, while absent on his route, he had the opportunity of disposing of the letter and the silver certificates therein contained. There were a large number of other letters in the box in which this Muldoon letter was put by McGrath. McGrath knew at the time that there was no such place as 153 Ziegler street, and that there was no such person as John Muldoon. He put the letter in the box for the purpose of being able to identify its contents in case Goode embezzled them.

Goode was sentenced, upon conviction, to imprisonment at hard labor for three years, and thereupon sued out this writ of error.

Elbridge R. Anderson, for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 666-668 intentionally omitted] Asst. Atty. Gen. Whitney, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice BROWN, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

To make a case under Rev. St. § 5467, it is necessary for the government to prove:

(1) That the person charged was employed in the postal service.

(2) That the letter that he is charged with secreting, embezzling, or destroying was intrusted to him or came into his possession, and was intended to be conveyed by mail, carried, or delivered by carrier, messenger, route agent, or other person employed in the postal service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or branch office, etc.

(3) That it contained one of the articles of value described in the statute, one of which is postage stamps.

(4) Or that the person so employed stole one of such articles out of any such letter, etc., provided the same had not been delivered to the party to whom it was directed.

Upon the other hand, section 5469 applies to every person, irrespective of his employment in the post office; and, to establish a case under this section, it is only necessary to prove:

(1) That the defendant stole the mail, or that he took from out of the mail or post office or other authorized depository a letter or packet, or took such mail or letter or packet therefrom, or from any post office, etc., or otherwise authorized depository, with or without the consent of the person having the custody thereof.

(2) That he opened, embezzled, or destroyed any such mail, letter, or packet containing an article of value.

(3) Or, by fraud or deception, obtained from any person having custody thereof any much mail, letter, or packet, containing such article of value.

As the verdict was general upon all the counts, which are conceded to be sufficient in form, if any one of the counts was sustained by competent testimony the verdict must stand. Claassen v. U. S., 142 U. S. 140, 12 Sup. Ct. 169; Evans v. U. S., 153 U. S. 584, 14 Sup. Ct. 934.

1. The main contention of the defendant is that the Muldoon letter was not a letter in point of fact, inasmuch as it was not only a decoy,—that is, not written in good faith as a message or communication to the person addressed,—but was wholly fictitious; that there was no such person as John Muldoon, no such place as 153 Ziegler street, and the letter could not possibly have been delivered.

That the fact that the letter was a decoy is no defense is too well settled by the modern authorities to be now open to contention. Rex v. Eggington, 2 Bos. & P. 508; U. S. v. Foye, 1 Curt. 364, Fed. Cas. No. 15,157; U. S. v. Cottingham, 2 Blatchf. 470, Fed. Cas. No. 14,872; Bates v. U. S., 10 Fed. 97; U. S. v. Whittier, 5 Dill. 35, 39, Fed. Cas. No. 16,688; U. S. v. Moore, 19 Fed. 39; U. S. v. Wight, 38 Fed. 106; U. S. v. Matthews, 35 Fed. 890, 896; U. S. v. Dorsey, 40 Fed. 752. Indeed, this court held at the last term, in Grimm v. U. S., 156 U. S. 604, 15 Sup. Ct. 470, that the fact that certain prohibited pictures and prints were drawn out of the defendant, by a decoy letter written by a government detective, was no defense to an indictment for mailing such prohibited publicatons.

The question whether a letter addressed to a fictitious person, known to be such, is a 'letter' within the meaning of the statute is more serious, and there are certainly authorities which lend support to the theory of the defendant in that regard. Thus, in Reg. v. Rathbone, Car. & M. 220, a detective mailed a decoy letter, containing a marked sovereign, to a fictitious address in London, and placed it in a heap of letters which the prisoner was about to sort, and which h...