Forgot to mention, I know that SHIFT+DEL does it for the email on focus. Guess I was hoping for more convenience (meaning a right click action)

re :I routinely right-click > Delete Message to trash unwanted emails. But they're still in the trash bin. They are in the Trash because that is correct action. It means if you deleted in error then you have an opportunity to rescue the email. You would need to empty the Trash. Note: Gmail imap accounts only delete emails that have been put in the Gmail trash folder. Otherwise you may still find those emails in gmail 'All Mail' folder stored as archived. Some servers including gmail will auto empty Trash folders periodically.

Right click on Trash and select 'Empty deleted' then compact folders to remove all traces of deleted items from original folders.

You can setup to auto empty the 'Trash' folder on exit or chnage settings upon Delete to Remove it immediately' Right click on mail account folder in Folder Pane and select 'Settings' Select 'Server Settings' optional if imap: 'When I delete a message' select : 'Remove it immediately'

optional for pop or imap: select 'Empty Deleted folder on exit' If imap you can also select 'Clean up Inbox on exit' which will compact the Inbox folder to removes all traces of marked as deleted emails.

click on 'OK'

Sorry for late response and thank you, that helps a little.

I don't think it's possible to do what I really want, which is: On a mail-by-mail basis, choose either "Delete Message" or a "Shred / Delete Permanently" option. Odd as this may sound, there are some mails that I want to trash (same concept as Windows Recycle Bin, I can recover them) and others (say, spammy stuff or what have you), I want to delete permanently right on the spot.

Would be great if the right-click context menu had this second "delete permanently" option. Maybe a feature request for a future release?