GEO. PLITT, Agt. P.O. Dept.
Sworn and subscribed this 7th day of January, A. D. 1841, before
N. EWING,
Prest. Judge 14th Judicial District, Pennsylvania.
Same day warrant issued to George Meason, Esq., Sheriff of Fayette county, and to all constables.
The United States of America vs. John F. Braddee, William Purnell, et al.
William Corman, being duly sworn, says that more than one year ago John F. Braddee repeatedly urged him to let him, the said Braddee, have some of the mail bags from the mail coach, and that he would divide the money taken from them with said Corman. Said Braddee said he had frequently known such things done, and that lots of money had thus been made, and it had never been detected. While said Corman was driving the mail coach between Smithfield and Uniontown last winter, the said Braddee sent Peter Mills Strayer frequently in a sleigh after him to get a mail bag containing a mail—that at length he, said Strayer, took one from the coach, which was then on runners, while he, the said Corman, was watering at Snyder’s, east of the Laurel Hill. That Braddee afterwards told him that there was nothing in it.
That he knows of no other mail being taken until within about two months past, when he, the said Corman, was driving between Uniontown and Washington, and when at the instance and after repeated and urgent requests of said Braddee he commenced leaving a mail pouch or bag in the stage coach, when the coaches were changed at Uniontown, and continued to do so at intervals of (say) a week, ten days or two weeks, until within a week or ten days before Christmas. That the said mail bags were taken from the coach by said Braddee or some one under his direction. That Braddee after the taking of said mails would sometimes say there was nothing in them, and again that others had but little money in them. One he said had but fifteen dollars. The last but one gotten, as before stated, he said had a large amount of money in it, but he was going to keep it secretly—bury it until the fuss was over. That said Braddee said he had a secret place out of doors where he could hide the mail bags so that they could not be found. That said Braddee from time to time gave him three dollars or five dollars as he asked for it, and once ten dollars; and loaned him forty dollars when his (Corman’s) wife was going away. That William Purnell several times after a mail bag had been taken, would take him, said Corman, aside and whisper to him that the bag had nothing in it. That on the day before yesterday he was several times at said Braddee’s house and Braddee wished him to leave a mail bag in the coach for him when he, said Corman, should return from Washington last night. That said Braddee very often wished him to leave a mail bag when he did not. That he, Braddee, requested him to leave the large mail bag in the coach for him, but he never did do it.
WILLIAM CORMAN.
Sworn and subscribed this 8th day of January, A. D. 1841, before me
N. EWING,
Pres. Judge of the 14th Jud. Dist., Pa.
Dr. Howard Kennedy also made a preliminary affidavit, which is given in a previous chapter.
WARRANT OF ARREST.
The United States of America to George Meason, Esq., High Sheriff of Fayette County, Pa., and to all Constables of said County:
Whereas, John F. Braddee, William Purnell and Peter Mills Strayer have been charged before me, the President Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District in the said State, on the oath of George Plitt, an agent of the Post Office Department, with stealing the United States mails from Wheeling to New York, these are therefore to command you, and each of you, to take the said John F. Braddee, William Purnell and Peter Mills Strayer, and bring them before me, or some other Magistrate having jurisdiction, to be dealt with according to law.