POSTAL INSPECTORS: THE SILENT SERVICE
An Exhibit at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum
February 7, 2007 - February 28, 2009
Smithsonian National Postal Museum
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Along a Dirt Road
Near the Arctic
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Protecting You Now
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...AND NEAR THE ARCTIC




Towns of Ruby and Ester, Alaska indicated on map
       
Image:

Towns of Ruby and Ester, Alaska indicated on map

 

On June 20, 1996, Agnes Wright, the Ruby, Alaska, postmaster, was found beaten and shot in her office. A postal money order machine, money orders, and cash were missing. The only clue was that several villagers recalled having seen a stranger near the post office on the day of the murder.

Inspectors and local law enforcement combed the area but did not find any leads for weeks. Then, a refuge manager discovered that a service cabin had been broken into. The missing items were similar to those stolen in similar burglaries by a man named Abram Walter. Three weeks after Wright’s murder Walter robbed the post office in Ester, Alaska. He was found, arrested and brought up on federal charges for the murder of Wright and the robberies of the Ruby and Ester post offices. He pled guilty to killing Agnes Wright as a part of a plea agreement to take the death penalty off the table. Walter was sentenced on July 25, 1997 to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 30 years.

 
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