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Steve Berlin is a retired Podiatrist from Baltimore, Maryland who had been active professionally for about 50 years and a past president of the Maryland Podiatric Medical Assoc. He is a past President of the Board of Directors of the Ohio College Of Podiatric Medicine which is now part of Kent State University and recently retired from education. Steve also serves on two boards including the Podiatric Foundation.

Steve has been a stamp collector and started when he was around 11 years old, but like many collectors he stopped and majored in collecting stamps till after college and military service. Steve became more interested in postal history and have been through several different subjects until he found his niche in interruptions of mail.

Steve enjoys this topic as I find it both very interesting and exciting if you could use these terms. I virtually collect world wide which certainly captures my interest and pocket book.

Steve’s collecting topic, hoping not to scare anyone listening to me, has been called “The Devil’s Mail”. So what is really The Devil’s Mail? This subject includes death and destruction affecting mail delivery from around the world. It involves recovered mail from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and any other weather issues causing delay and destruction. It also includes delay due to war or any military conflict where mail robbery has taken place.

Mail Robbery postal history is very scarce, if not rare. Most of these postal history covers have been destroyed either by robbers or in acts of war. Mail robbery is usually performed for the theft of valuables and/or during the act of war for intelligence information. Mail robberies during the 18th and 19th centuries were often punished by death. Perhaps that is why so few robberies were recorded during these times.

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