Jarrett

Harry L. Jarrett, a special clerk in the Registry Section of the Customs Division of the United States Post Office at Los Angeles, was convicted of a violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 318 which provides: “Whoever, being a postmaster or other person employed in any department of the Postal Service, shall unlawfully detain, delay, or open any letter * * * intrusted to him or which shall come into his possession, and which was intended to be conveyed by. mail, or carried or delivered by any carrier, messenger, agent, or other person employed in any department of the Postal Service, or forwarded through or delivered from any post office or station thereof established by authority of the Postmaster General; * * * shall be fined not more than $500, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

Defendant opened a letter which came into his possession in his office and extracted therefrom a sum in currency. The only point at issue is made by his contention that the letter was not mail matter; that is, that it was not “intended to be conveyed by mail.”

The letter was prepared by the postal authorities in Los Angeles as a decoy. It was addressed to a fictitious person in Hollywood. In it was…