Luther T. Blackwell Short $20,000 in Postal Accounts, Caught in Hotel Room With Nina Thompson, June 28, 1922

Luther T. Blackwell in Atlanta Prison. . . Arrested by Postal Authorities for Alleged Shortage of $20,000 in His Accounts

By the Associated Press

Atlanta, Ga., June 28—Luther T. Blackwell, former postmaster at Pine Hall, N.C., was held in jail here without bond today pending action by post office inspectors, by whom authorities state he has been sought for an alleged shortage of $20,000 in his accounts. He was arrested at a local hotel in company with a young woman who told the police she was Miss Nina Thompson, of Columbus, Ga. She is being held on a charge of suspicion. An attempt by a negro bellboy at the hotel where Blackwell and the woman registered Sunday as “Mr. and Mrs. R.T. Walker, Spartanburg, S.C.,” to ?ob their room led to the arrest. The boy was seen entering the room by R.C. Tuggle, house detective. The woman’s screams soon followed, and the detective rushed in. He found the negro with nine $100 bills in his hands, and two $10 notes in his mouth.

About this time Blackwell entered, and when asked to appear as a witness against the negro, Tuggle said, offered him the money to drop the case. The detective insisted that the couple accompany him to the police station where Lieut. Of Police Scott said he recognized the man as the former Pine Hall postmaster.

Blackwell is said by the police to have admitted his identity and the shortage of his accounts. The woman denied any knowledge of the affair, claiming she met Blackwell here on Monday.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, June 28, 1922