Myrtle Gelder

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      Sex: F

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Individual Information

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     Birth Date: Abt 1907
    Christening: 
          Death: 
         Burial: 
 Cause of Death: 

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Spouses and Children

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1. *Henry John Silbernagel
       Marriage: 

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Notes

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General:

Per Times-Picayune 12/13/1935 Pages 1 and 8
Loss of Stolen Checks' Proceeds Gambling in St. Bernard Revealed
By Podine Schoenberger
The glittering gods of chance, exemplified in gambling establishments near New Orleans, brought distress and desolation Thursday to Mrs. Myrtle Silbernagel, 28 years old, 3618 Marais street, wife of a $22.50-per-week sewerage and water board employe.
Mrs. Silbernagel loved to gamble. She loved it so much that when she saw two envelopes containing Christmas savings checks, totaling $75, she took them from a neighbor's mail box, forged endorsements on the checks, cashed them and lost most of the money playing roulette in a St. Bernard parish gambling establishment.
Before she lost the proceeds of the checks, Mrs. Silbernagel's statement asserted, part of her husband's weekly salary had been lost in the same manner and in the same establishment.
She had meant to win, had intended fully to pay back her friends, with a little interest maybe. Instead she had to borrow carfare home, detectives traced the checks, and Thursday morning Mrs. Silbernagel was formally charged before Commissioner Reginald H. Carter, Jr., with taking mail addressed to other persons from an authorized depository, opening said mail and removing contents. Her bond was fixed at $1000.
Listens to Confession
"I don't know what made me do it," she said, her voice little more than a whisper. "Something just came over me when I saw those letters. I guess I must have gone sort of crazy for the time being." Mes. Silbernagel didn't look much like a gambler as she sat in Postal Inspector F. W. Peterson's office Thursday morning listening while her confession was read to her.
A thin little woman, rather colorless as to features, she seemed more the respectful housewife. That she was unlucky at roulette was obvious from the shabbiness of her black tam, the cheapness of her dark red coat, the scuffed heels on her muchly worn shoes.
"Maybe this will cure me of gambling," she volunteered as she stared through horn-rimmed glasses at the confession she had just signed. "Maybe I ought to be cured, taking from them as I did. Why they were good friends to me."
Played Four Hours
Her husband, Henry Silbernagel, is a helper for the sewerage and water board, she said, and the $22.50 a week he makes doesn't leave much change for gambling.
"I thought if I could get a hold of a lot of money at a time I could turn it into plenty and buy lots of Christmas presents," she said. "I played for four hours, then it was gone."
Mrs. Silbernagel said she had never been in trouble before in her life.
"When I realized what I had done I sat down and wrote to them and told them about it."
She pointed to the letter she had sent to Miss Myrtle McGovern in which she admitted stealing the checks from the mail box. The letter, scrawled in pencil on dark gray scratch paper, was unsigned.
Asks For Chance
"I should have signed it," she said. They didn't want to get me in trouble, but they didn't know from the letter it was me."
"I took your checks," the letter said, "and cashed them, but I thought I would be able to repay you before this. Please give me a chance, as I'm going to work today and will be able to give you $2 or $3 a day.
"Give me a chance and I will repay you, as I did not mean to steal them. Forgive me and leave me pay you back."
Mrs. Silbernagel's troubles started on November 29.
"On that day," she said, "I went over to see Mrs. Leona McGovern, who lives with her four daughters at 1235 Independence street. I had know her for a year and a half and visited her almost every day.
Sees Two Letters
"Well, it was about 10 o'clock when I went there and while I was waiting on the porch of her house I saw two letters in the mail box. As the return address on these two letters was the American Bank, I allowed to myself that they had Christmas saving checks inside of them.
"Well, before I knew what I was doing almost my hand reached out and took those letters from the mail box. I folded them up and hid them in my hand, then I went into the house and talked with Mrs. McGovern for about a half an hour. then I went home."
That afternoon, Mrs. Silbernagel related that she forged the signature of Miss Myrtle McGovern to the $50 check, cashed it at a store, "buying a few things I wanted. Then I went home. That same day about 5 o'clock I went to the Riverview Club at 7005 North Peters street, lost what I had left of the $50 then forged the name Miss Betty Lou McGovern on the $25 check and cashed it. I lost all of the money playing roulette."
Officers Notified
In the meantime, she said, the McGoverns didn't realize she had stolen their checks and they went to the bank to see what happened to them.
They found out that the checks had been mailed out, found out they had been delivered. But where were they? City police and postal authorities were notified and at the request of Postal Inspector Peterson, Detectives Walter Klemmer and J. B. Mock took up the trail.
The letter which Mrs. Silbernagel had written to the McGoverns proved of little use to them at first, since it was unsigned and the McGoverns didn't know who had sent it.
And so the detectives went from bank to bank. Finally one check was traced to the Riverside Club. Officials of that club said they knew the woman who gave the check, that she was a frequent visitor but they couldn't remember her last name. They knew her as Miss Myrtle, they said.
Back to the McGoverns went the detectives.
"Do you know any woman whose first name is Myrtle?" they asked Mrs. McGovern.
"Why, yes," she replied, light dawning at last, and she told them of her friendship with Mrs. Silbernagel. The arrest followed, the woman readily admitting her guilt.

Per Times-Picayune 1/14/1936 Page 16
Lost Gambling
Sentence of a year and a day in a federal institution, imposed on Mrs. Myrtle Silbernagel, who pleaded guilty to the theft from a mail receptacle of two Christmas savings checks, was suspended when Mrs. Silbernagel said: "I have learned my lesson, I will never gamble again if you will give me a chance."

Research:

Per Orleans Parish Birth Index
1897423GELDER , ANNIE MYRTLEMACIAS, ALICE MGELDER , HENRY AOrleans
Order Page: 294 Volume: 112