C'mon, how do I get Mail.app off my case??

I have a problem that is driving me nuts. When I check for mail on my G3 iBook loaded with Mac OS X 10.3.9, I'm treated to a stream of information flashing left to right advising every move Mail.app is making as it retrieves my stuff from the POP server.
All this happens in a one line high ribbon of space immediately under the menu bar. In the right margin, there's an undulating clocklike thingy that is meant to convey your machine is busy working like a coolie. After Mail.app retrieves everything, it announces the take, and the thingy disappears.
In my case, the thingy never stops thinging. Mail.app obsessively keeps trying to retrieve a message I read weeks ago. This is what I see every time I open Mail. "46 messages Fetching 1 of 28: FWD: New Addition to The Smith Family." That "New Addition..." was 3.9 MB worth of images, but that shouldn't have been a problem. Indeed, it was not a problem since it was successfully retrieved. Even so, I made hard copies and trashed the file made no difference.

I created a bogus mail account nothing changed. I downloaded Thunderbird to use as a substitute email program still no help. I created a new "User," but that John Doe made no difference either.
As if all that isn't bad enough, I keep hearing my Sosumi mail sound whether I have mail or not. What I do have is a migraine. Me and Rodney Dangerfield are in the same boat.
Nested away 83 layers down in some obscure location on my HD, there's a wretched little utility in the shadows I need to nuke, but where is it?

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