Local News in Brief : Robber Gets 25 Years for Post Office Holdups

A Van Nuys man was sentenced Monday to 25 years in federal prison for robbing two post offices at gunpoint during the 1984 Christmas season.

Tyrone N. Morris, 21, who will be eligible for parole in 8 years, was the last of the so-called “blue bandanna gang” to be sentenced, said David Katz, assistant U. S. attorney.

The gang of three men and one woman was blamed for seven armed robberies of post offices from Dec. 3, 1984, to March 4, 1985.

Several occurred at the height of the holiday season, when gang members burst into the crowded post offices and ordered customers to freeze while they emptied cash drawers.

A spokesman for the postal inspector’s office said the gang’s nickname derived from the fact that at least one wore a blue bandanna during the robberies.

Morris was sentenced under the federal “Jesse James Act,” which carries a nominal mandatory sentence of 25 years.

The seldom-used act, passed by Congress in the 1880s, applies to those who use a gun to rob a post office. It was originally enacted to prevent outlaws from robbing trains that carried the U. S. mail.

The other members of the gang pleaded guilty last July to the post office robberies and were given prison sentences of six to 30 years, Katz said.

Morris, who pleaded innocent, was convicted in December after a six-day jury trial.

The jury found him guilty in the robberies of a Westchester post office on Dec. 19, 1984, and a Panorama City post office two days later.

The gang took a total of $7,942 in the two holdups, Katz said.