Two very different headlines prompted celebration today: the circus came to town in 1924, and a massive mail theft case was cracked in 1974. The latter left area businesses out thousands of dollars and sparked a four-month investigation.
100 years ago
Sept. 25, 1924
• Poplar Bluff prepares today for “the grandest day of the year for the boy and girl” besides Christmas — Circus Day. The John Robinson Circus will arrive at 2:30 a.m. tomorrow by train and open its show with a parade tomorrow. Schools will dismiss at noon so students can see the attractions and performances.
The Poplar Bluff Interstate American declared, “The Robinson circus has with it enough people to populate a good sized village and enough livestock and animals to stock and cultivate a farm one-fourth the size of Butler county.” This is reflected in its menu: for breakfast alone, local stores will supply 100 lbs. of dry oatmeal, 150 lbs. of bacon, 85 dozen sweet rolls, 10 bushels of potatoes and 25 lbs. of coffee. The animals receive five tons of timothy hay and thousands of pounds of straw and grains, plus hundreds of pounds of meat and milk for carnivores. Perplexingly, the circus’ poor polar bears are fed bread.
75 years ago
Sept. 25, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
Sept. 25, 1974
• An ex-con has been arrested for stealing $26,000 worth of payroll checks. William Levine, 46, of Poplar Bluff faces five counts of cashing forged and stolen Nation-Wide money orders and one count of forgery.
Levine confessed to stealing and cashing payroll checks from the Butler County Post Office on May 1. The thefts were discovered when a check was cashed in Jefferson City on May 7. Curtis Bybee, then-chief of the Missouri Division of Welfare’s Bureau of Finance, said he didn’t stop the payment of the checks because he thought it was “just another case of mail being delayed,” even though they should’ve arrived on April 30.
Eight checks totaling almost $3,000 were cashed by local merchants and banks before payment was halted. The state is insured for the lost money, but the businesses lacked recourse. Bybee also failed to notify the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, who only discovered it through alerts from the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce. The BCSD nevertheless led the four-month investigation and arrested Levine, aided by an FBI agent and a postal inspector.
Levine has several past convictions for mail theft and forgery — he was on parole for the latest one when he committed his most recent crime. In his home deputies found 37 of the missing Butler County checks (totaling $11,000), money orders from 1965, a TV stolen in 1973, and a loaded revolver. More arrests are expected.