Yale thefts

[Everett Wilkie <ewilkie@ix.netcom.com>]

The following article concerning the recent thefts from Yale appeared in
the New Haven Register.  --ECW

$2 MILLION HEIST

Hamden man suspected in Yale theft

William Kaempffer and Natatie Missakian, Register StaffNovember 30, 2001

NEW HAVEN — Authorities from Yale University won't say how a seasonal 
employee allegedly walked out of the Beinecke Rare Book Library with 
more than $2 million worth of valuable manuscripts, maps and original 
letters from historical figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson 
and Benjamin Franklin.  The suspect, Benjamin Johnson, a 21-year-old 
college student from Hamden, has confessed, police say, to stealing 
scores of valuable items at Yale and selling some for $52,000. 
He was charged in late October with hocking an irreplaceable treasure 
trove of American historical documents from his dorm room at the 
University of Wisconsin in Madison for spending money.
Some of the items were recovered when authorities raided the room and 
searched his parent's home at 421 Ridge Road.
In the wake of the shocking revelations, Yale has beefed up security at 
the library.
"There are additional security measures in place," said Yale University 
spokesman Thomas Conroy. "The Beinecke collections have tremendous 
historical and research value, and every step is being taken to recover 
items and to safeguard them."
Conservators at Yale fear some of the purloined documents might have 
been damaged in the theft and have asked a judge's permission to treat 
them before they deteriorate further.
Some documents, dating back to the early 1700s, already have been 
ruined, snipped apart by Johnson and their famous signatures sold to 
collectors, authorities said.
Johnson remains free on $50,000 bail on charges of first-degree larceny 
and first-degree criminal mischief. He is staying with his parents on 
Ridge Road and has a 7 p.m. curfew.
The thefts allegedly occurred while Johnson held a job last summer at 
Beinecke, and apparently went undetected until a Philadelphia collector 
dealing with Johnson grew suspicious. 
The suspicions led the Wisconsin Capitol Police to serve a search 
warrant of Johnson's dorm room. Detective Edward Bardon found about 50 
stolen items hidden in a drawer. Bardon said Johnson arrived in the 
middle of the search and was taken to police headquarters for 
questioning.
"He stated he wanted to be cooperative and told me the whole story," 
Bardon said Thursday.
After Bardon contacted Yale police, officers here searched Johnson's 
parents home and recovered more stolen treasures.
Regina Romero, the administrator at Beinecke, declined comment.
The thievery started to unravel when, for $3,750, Johnson allegedly sold 
an original cut signature and closing statement of George Washington to 
Catherine Barnes, a well-known manuscripts dealer in Philadelphia and 
president of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association.
"She didn't think too much about it until she got the item and saw that 
it was in pristine condition," said George L. Vogt, director of the 
Wisconsin Historical Society. Vogt said such signatures that have been 
in circulation tend to be worn. 
Her suspicion grew when Johnson offered to sell her more cut signatures. 
The two had been corresponding through e-mail. After doing some research 
on his e-mail address, she learned that Johnson was a University of 
Wisconsin student, Vogt said.
"Then the alarm bells went off because she thought his story of having 
inherited a collection and these being duplicate items in the collection 
was not likely," Vogt said.
Barnes contacted Vogt, concerned the items may have been stolen from the 
Wisconsin Historical Society's collections. Vogt called law enforcement 
authorities after discovering some missing items.
When police approached Johnson, he admitted the items were stolen, but 
not from the Wisconsin Historical Society, Vogt said. Vogt said that 
undetected theft is now being investigated as a separate matter.
Bardon, the Wisconsin detective, said Johnson was in the process of 
selling an early edition of "Moby Dick" to a California collector when 
he was arrested. The three-volume set is worth $125,000 with $35,000 for 
the protective wrapper.
Yale experts later traveled to Wisconsin to photograph and appraise the 
items found there.
"Just what I have here is worth $1.25 million," Bardon said of the 
materials found in the dorm room. The total heist, Yale told him, is 
almost double that. "They're calling this a $2 million theft."
Police in Wisconsin froze Johnson's bank accounts. 
What remained unclear Thursday was what portion of the stolen items had 
been recovered, and how much had been destroyed or sold.
In Wisconsin, authorities recovered a 15th century book of maps, and 
signatures of Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock and George 
Washington. They also found a series of letters, written in the late 
1700s, with the signatures cut out.
In Hamden, they found dozens of stolen books: one by Charles Darwin 
valued at $60,000; three volumes of "Moby Dick" appraised at $125,000; a 
copy of the "Wizard of Oz" worth $6,000; Ian Fleming's "From Russia With 
Love," worth about $3,000.
A mutilated letter from George Washington to the French general 
Rochambeau had an appraised value of $350,000.
Yale police also found a key to a room at the university's Kline Geology 
Lab in Johnson's bedroom, and a fossil that belonged to the Paleobotany 
Department. Johnson had completed an internship in the lab in 1996 and 
worked as a volunteer in 1998.
Conroy declined to comment on how the heist went unnoticed.
"I don't have anything to add to what you have from court papers," he 
said. 

©New Haven Register 2001



Everett Wilkie
Editorial, Kamico Instructional Media
4413 Spicewood Springs Road, Suite 200
Austin, TX 78759
ewilkie@ix.netcom.com
512-343-0801, x122; fax: 512-372-9204
Home:  11702 Elk Park Trail, Austin, TX 78759
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"Convenient Store Robbed"--Newspaper headline