By Eilene Lyon
If you’ve read my previous posts about Clifford Cutting (A Postal Crime and Postal Crime Postscript), you might be interested in the following article.
I’m deeply indebted to my cousin, Nancy, who is like a dog with a bone. She obtained a record from the funeral home. She also contacted librarians, getting them to look through their newspaper archives. Most searches turned up empty.
It’s still a mystery why the Hood River newspapers never published a story about Clifford going to prison for embezzling $7.11. But now I can rest easier knowing the timing of his death was truly just a coincidence. (It happened two years to the day after his arrest.)
Another hint from this article is that Clifford may have gone to Missouri to be with Mossielee, his wife, after his release from McNeil Island Penitentiary in May 1940.
Feature image: by Tyler Rutherford on Unsplash
Myricopia 
Good to have a little closure on his death.
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It is. Thanks for following along on this story.
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My pleasure.
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So I was wrong… again! Lol. Great find, mystery solved. No fishing involved, poor guy.
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And I was just sure it was a suicide. Wrong here, too.
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Well he may have died just looking at all the picking that needed to be done. Tough work
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LOL
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It’s still a mystery however about why no report of his embezzlement. Modern day media would have reported it in the newspapers, bounced him around Twitter, then hounded his family on Facebook! Maybe there was a greater sense of empathy and community feeling towards him in those days?
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That’s how I see it, but it’s still odd. This guy delivered the mail in Hood River for many years. Surely it would have been big talk around town.
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Eilene,
That’s odd there was no mention of his embezzlement, considering it was kind of a big deal. But at least you were able to tie up the loose ends. And it’s always nice to have that point person on matters such as this, so shout out to cousin Nancy!
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She’s a top-notch, go-getter researcher, for sure!
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You’ve got a team!
You should peddle this to a network.
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Oh yeah, like I need another job to do!
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LOL
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Good to have the story finished. I feel very sorry for this man, even though he did commit a crime.
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Thanks, Anabel. I feel like he does deserve some sympathy.
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Certainly not much of a “crime” by today’s standards and jail for under a Hamilton is plumb weird. It good to have the details filled-in though.
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Though I’ll always wonder what the rest of the story is, I think I can put this one away now.
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Good to know the real outcome! Sometimes our imaginations tend to run wild when, really, life is pretty average stuff. I wish I had a “cousin Nancy” to help with a few of my research Q’s!
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Yes, she’s a gem. I should do more to enlist librarians in my research like she does.
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I’m kind of enamored with old newspapers these days… questions are getting answered right and left. So glad this paper found it’s way to you–helping to wrap up Clifford’s story.
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Newspapers help answer so many questions that can never be found in official documents.
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