The Art of the STEAL: When Passion Drives Crime
This week, we discuss a series of "intellectual crimes" in which the stolen objects were more valuable for their history and status than for their resale price. And stick around for an artsy "Last Thing Before We Go".
Thank you to this week's sponsors!
Help your liver and save 25% on your first month of subscription by going to dosedaily.co/MOMS or entering MOMS at checkout.
Get organized now, with Skylight! Right now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15-inch Calendars by going to SkylightCal.com/MOMS.
Download the free Rakuten App or go to Rakuten.com to start saving today.
And right now, IQBAR is offering our special podcast listeners twenty percent off all IQBAR products—including the sampler pack—plus FREE shipping. To get your 20% text MOMS to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details.
The Boston Public Library's "Lost" Art: We dive into the bizarre case of two priceless artworks—an Albrecht Dürer engraving and a Rembrandt van Rijn etching—that went missing from one of the country's most prestigious libraries. The disappearance caused a media uproar and led to the resignation of the library's president . But in a twist, the art was never stolen; it was just in the wrong spot for an entire year.
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: We explore the story of John Charles Gilkey, a man driven by intellectual vanity who used stolen credit card numbers to amass a collection of rare books worth over $200,000. Gilkey wasn't in it for the money; he simply wanted to appear to be a sophisticated intellectual . His obsessive "bibliokleptomania" forced the rare book community to tighten security and share information on thefts.
The Notorious Map Thief: Next, we cover Edward Forbes Smiley III, a charming and respected rare map dealer whose financial troubles led him to a life of crime. Using an X-Acto blade, he would carefully slice rare maps out of centuries-old atlases from institutions like Yale and Harvard. We reveal how a single misplaced blade led to his downfall, exposing his theft of nearly 100 maps .
The Notorious Map Thief: Next, we cover Edward Forbes Smiley III, a charming and respected rare map dealer whose financial troubles led him to a life of crime. Using an X-Acto blade, he would carefully slice rare maps out of centuries-old atlases from institutions like Yale and Harvard. We reveal how a single misplaced blade led to his downfall, exposing his theft of nearly 100 maps.
Check-out bonus episodes up on Spotify and Apple podcast now!
Get new episodes a day early and ad free, plus chat episodes, at Patreon.com/momsandmysteriespodcast .
To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://www.advertisecast.com/MomsandMysteriesATrueCrimePodcast.
Listen and subscribe to Melissa’s other podcast, Criminality!! It’s the podcast for those who love reality TV, true crime, and want to hear all the juicy stories where the two genres intersect. Subscribe and listen here: www.pod.link/criminality
Check-out Moms and Mysteries to find links to our tiktok, youtube, twitter, instagram and more.
Transcript:
Mandy: [00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend and Melissa. Hi Melissa.
sa: Hi Mandy. How are you?
Mandy: I am doing well. I feel like I have finally a week later,
recovered from being at Crime Con. I.
sa: Okay.
Mandy: Yeah, I mean that, I feel like we've been home for a while, but uh, we talked about it a little bit, how I just feel like it takes me so much longer.
Like the older I get, it takes me longer and longer just to recover from doing anything outside of my ordinary, especially if it involves traveling, especially if it involves time zones and switching back and forth.
sa: and delayed flights.
Um, and you did.
a lot like you were
active outside of Crime Con and like did some things,
so I
feel yeah, I should be tired.
Mandy: Yeah. I know we didn't, uh, I didn't really talk much about it on the, last episode, but yeah, I did have the opportunity to go and do a couple of really fun things. Well, one thing we did together, we went on like a cool little nature wildlife drive. We were supposed to see bison. [00:01:00] We did not see bison.
sa: No, but We saw Prairie Dogs. The cutest thing I've ever seen.
Mandy: they were so cute. And you
know, Melissa is not an, uh, one to
oo and awe and over an animal. Uh, but you did.
sa: I was loving
it. I would see their little
heads pop up and I was losing my mind. It was so cute. So
Mandy: that was a lot of fun. but then I also went and
visited the Stanley Hotel, which I'm sure a lot of our listeners probably know the Stanley Hotel and, maybe would've been interested in hearing about that. But yeah, it was really.
Interesting, fun, historic. Um, I went with our friend Kim, who, uh, was the host of the People Are Wild Podcast.
Some, some of our older listeners might, uh, remember who she is, but it was so fun to get to go and hang out with her. It was a little bit of a drive through the mountains, which was interesting for me 'cause I am. Don't drive in the
sa: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Mandy: but it was so much fun just to go see that. And The Shining has always been one of my favorite horror films or thrillers, if you wanna call it that.
It was one of the [00:02:00] first ones I remember watching when I was a kid and like latching onto and being like, oh, okay. So movies aren't always like Bambi and Snow White, like there's
also, uh, there's other types of movies out there. So that was one of my first like introductions. So getting to see
the Stanley Hotel was very exciting for me and something that has been on my bucket list.
So yeah, I was happy to. Achieve that while I was there.
sa: That's awesome. And we did.
a, uh, we didn't mention this either, but we did a, an escape room with our friend
Kim again, and I know, and Kimberly and Katie with a date with Dateline and. I don't think I've ever felt as stupid as I did in the first room, not really understanding how anything worked. I was like putting a code into the same thing over and over and
over again.
That's not how it works. Um, but it was so much fun and we actually
escaped
Mandy: We did. Yeah, I, I mean, I wasn't surprised because, I mean, I feel like we're all pretty capable, strong, independent, intelligent women. But yeah, it was a little hard. And then some of them, like that Kimberly and Katie were figuring, [00:03:00] like, they were like the wiz kids of the operation. They were
figuring out every single one I know. And um, some of them I was like. I'm lost. Like they
would be even explaining like, oh, you have to do this, this, this, this goes together and I'm still lost. So
sa: I know when they would explain it, I was like, why don't you just do it? I, I don't know what you're, I'm trying to scan things on some, like, uh, what was it? The
cash register that says literally like, do not press buttons, only scan. And I'm just like, buttons,
Mandy: Right. Like that has, they're trying to trick me. Right? It has to be
something else.
sa: I fully think everyone's trying to trick me in my life. So that's exactly what I thought was happening. But overall, it was an
awesome trip. I totally get it. I'm, I I don't know that I'm completely recovered. I am unpacked,
so that helped.
Um, that took me a couple days, but I am fully unpacked now. So, um, so we're getting there
um. I'm very excited. This week we are doing, kind of a smorgasborg of things, right? Mandy, you had an idea for one of these, [00:04:00] uh, stories and then we kind of looked into a few
others. So We're I'm so excited to
talk about this. This is a little bit different,
which we say like all the time, which means
Mandy: We're always
sa: different for us.
Mandy: Yeah. Is it different or is it just random? Because should
we,
sa: Yeah. Let's say that
it's random, but it's Thursday, so that's where we are the most
random.
So Mandy, let's get into it.
Mandy: All right, so most of the time when we talk about theft, it's usually motivated by the simplest of factors, and that is money. But sometimes the thing that's stolen is actually priceless, not because of, you know, its resale value, but because really of what it represents to the person who owns it, or just in general.
It could be a piece of history, a rare artifact, or just really an obsession that can't be satisfied by anything less than owning the real thing, which. As a child, I used to obviously not plan crimes, but I would think about the ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz and how they were just sitting behind a, in a [00:05:00] case at like the Smithsonian, and I'm like, how come no one ever just goes and steals them?
sa: Okay. This is coming from the grill with a hamster in her pocket. So things are starting to make a
Mandy: yes, I've definitely reformed myself in my adulthood
since I was
a child,
but.
sa: I totally agree. There are
some where I'm like. Really, nobody's gonna take this. it's just sitting out here, which is such a dumb thing. Not a dumb thing to think, but like, it's a kid thing to
think, I mean, I do it in adulthood too, where I'm like, what's stopping somebody from taking this, you know,
chair
at Cracker Barrel when they have all the chairs lined up?
I'm like, what's stopping somebody from just backing up and doing this?
Mandy: And
there's so many people, there's so many
intrusive thoughts floating around out there. Like no one's intrusive thoughts have ever told them to go take like an ar, a
historical artifact. I mean, I guess they have, we're gonna talk about a few cases of people doing
that really. Yeah, exactly. Uh, so today we are talking about some, I guess you can
call intellectual [00:06:00] crimes.
I don't know if I'd call em that. 'cause when I say intellectual, I think. The person must have been very intelligent. but I don't know, I guess that remains to be seen so as we'll see some of these so-called masterminds of the crimes we're talking about today, were less Oceans 11 and more like misplaced library card energy.
sa: So the first story takes us not into a dark alley with Jewel thieves, not even to a person that's having intrusive thoughts, but into the polished marble halls of one of the country's most prestigious libraries. The Boston Public Library, which has been around since 1895, holds more than 1.7 million rare books, manuscripts, and artworks. It's a kind of place where a single shelf might contain more cultural history than most of us saw in four years of high school. Mandy, here's an important question, Dewey
Decimal system. Do you
remember doing the Dewey Decimal system in, oh no. Was this, you know,
Mandy: I mean,
yeah, I mean, I remember learning about it. I don't know [00:07:00] that I remember, how it works,
sa: Oh I
would
Mandy: ask me to explain it.
sa: No. I very much remember, like I would, I remember being very against the de Dewey decimal system, which I'm assuming the Boston Public Library probably has, because I was looking up books on Amelia Earhart
in elementary school for some project, but I. Duh. Thought it was a IR is how you'd spell Airhart.
And in the kids section, I kept going through it over and over and over. And I just remember from that day on just being like ticked off at the library. Like you've gotta have an A, did you mean EAR? Like something in the Dewey decimal system that would help you out, but Atlass it didn't. And there, my love of reading probably stopped. So in 2015, the library suddenly found itself in the middle of a scandal that sounded like an art heist, except the culprits weren't suave criminals with grappling hooks instead, and, boy, can I [00:08:00] relate to this,
the enemy.
was the library's own messy filing system.
Mandy: That would be my
sa: Um, right, that is my enemy. If I brought the camera down just a little bit, you could see three empty water bottles. Coffee cup. I don't drink coffee. Um, there's lots of things going on in here. My whole life is messy. So here's what actually happened though. All the way back in April of 2014, A group of school children came in for a visit. And saw one of the most popular things at the library.
It's their crown jewel. It's Albrecht Doers 1504 engraving of Adam and Eve. And so this isn't just any old print, it's considered the pinnacle of Northern
Renaissance printmaking. So it's a kind of thing you'd insure for like, um, $600,000.
Mandy: my gosh. Imagine
sa: are we allowing children even around it, those grubby hands.
Mandy: my gosh.
sa: But sometime after this visit, the engraving went missing.
And not just for a week, not [00:09:00] a month, for over a year,
Mandy: It wasn't alone. There was another treasure that they also took, which was the Rembrandt Van Ryan, It was from 1634. It's an etching called Self Portrait with Saia, and it's valued at about $30,000. And that had also vanished, and that is really when things went from bad to worse.
So the library realized that these works were missing in June of 2014, but they didn't report it to the authorities until May of 2015, almost an entire year later. And when the news finally broke, it turned into a full blown media circus. There were headlines they were screaming about, you know, priceless art vanishing from one of America's most beloved institutions.
It was obviously just people were in an uproar. How could this happen? And the police and the FBI suddenly found themselves involved. The mayor's office was actually also breathing down everyone's neck to figure this out, and the public was wondering how a [00:10:00] place that was literally dedicated to preserving culture could lose track of $630,000 worth of.
Culture and the political fallout was also fast and ugly as it often is. Amy Ryan, who's the library's president and had she'd been in charge for eight years, was suddenly in the hot seat because of course she was, she's the president of the library. And critics pointed to, you know. The mistakes, like not mentioning the fact that these things were missing for a year, and there was really no inventory system.
The board of trustees seemed more like a fan club than anybody actually performing oversight on what was going on.
sa: But that is a problem if you don't have a real inventory system for things of that price.
Mandy: So the mayor's chief of staff, Dan
Co basically demanded answers kind of in a way that sounded not very polite, uh, but it was more like, okay, like who was asleep at the wheel? Who's responsible for this? Who can we.[00:11:00]
I guess blame this on
who can,
right?
can we blame? Who can take
accountability? Right. So Ryan tried
to hold her ground, but after a particularly
heated board meeting, she ended up resigning and said that she just didn't want to distract from the library's mission, which is really just kind of like a nice way of saying that she would be the scapegoat and let's all just move on.
sa: That's all that people really want when things like this happen is like someone's head's gonna roll, like someone has to take responsibility. So I don't, I don't really blame her. I, I'd probably wanna be out out of there at that point. So, meanwhile though, the library's keeper of special collections, Susan Glover was also suspended
with pay. Mandy, that actually doesn't sound like a bad
gig. She's sitting at home. The whole city's debating whether or not you've replaced this Renaissance masterpiece and you're getting paid. You could watch old Maury episodes or cheaters, which I forgot was a thing until the other day. And I definitely wanna [00:12:00] watch some old ones, and just when it looked like the Boston Public Library had joined the ranks of history's greatest unsolved heist, that's where the twist came in on June 4th, 2015, literally the same day that Amy Ryan resigned. Staffers found both artworks. They were sitting about 80 feet away from where they were supposed to be.
I'm gonna blame the Dewey Decimal system completely, and there's no facts to back that up, but who's gonna tell me no? So this, these things weren't like smuggled anywhere. They're not hanging in some billionaires hidden gallery. Just miss. Filed. I can't imagine being Amy that day and
being like, are you freaking kidding me?
How did somebody put this in the wrong spot for a year?
Mandy: Yeah.
sa: To get to that point, it had taken 14 staffers combing through 180,000 prints, rifling through stacks of 320,000 items, and searching offices and reading rooms and storage spaces. There were [00:13:00] hundreds of hours of searching and all for the big reveal that someone had essentially shelved a Rembrandt like it was maybe.
The wrong
copy of Goodnight Moon, which if I was Amy Ryan, I would be set
off. Absolutely. So the fallout, of course was still severe. The fiasco exposed these glaring weaknesses in the library systems.
There's no regular comprehensive inventories. As we talked about before. There was bad communication and big gaps in security. And of course it's great the artwork is back, but the library's credibility definitely took a hit. So this one isn't actually a theft,
but it
kind of feels like
one, well it stole Amy
Ryan's job.
Mandy: And it stole like time, and energy from the authorities and from the
sa: much time, so much time for somebody to misfile something. But this is a place that obviously people trust and do have these like incredible pieces of art and, you know, all this stuff that contains so much history. So for [00:14:00] them to lose it is like a big damage to the public trust, which can sometimes be just as bad as an actual heist.
And
we have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors,
Marker
Mandy: Know your liver is
the second largest organ in your body.
It handles over 500 functions, but it's one of those things we never really think about until we should.
sa: Honestly, the human body is so amazing. But that statistic that you talked about was what made me curious about dose. Their dose for your liver shot was made to help keep your body's filter running smoothly. It aids digestion and
helps flush out unwanted elements while breaking food down into The nutrients we actually need.
Mandy: The science behind it
is impressive. In a double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial, over 86% of people saw their liver enzymes drop by 50%. That's not just hype. That's real results.
sa: Plus it's so easy to work into your day. One dose shot is like taking 17 shots of turmeric juice at once, and it's gluten-free, dairy-free, [00:15:00] sugar-free and vegan. If you stick with it, you'll notice better
digestion, more energy, and even
clear sleep and focus over time.
Mandy: Save 25% on your first month of subscription by going to Dose daily.co/moms or entering moms at checkout. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L y.co/moms for 25% off your first month subscription.
sa: Say goodbye to
sticky notes And calendar confusion because Skylight Calendar is here to help keep your family organized.
Mandy: And you know, I'm all about a
schedule. If it's not written down, it doesn't exist. In my world,
skylight takes all of our calendars. That means school events, soccer practice, even chores, and puts them in one place on a sleek HD touchscreen.
sa: I also like that its syncs with Google, apple Outlook, all of it, and you can color code each family member. So there's no more excuses of, I didn't know I had to do that. It really only takes your kids learning the hard way one time to make sure they're giving you everything they need to put on the calendar as
well.
Plus you can see [00:16:00] daily, weekly,
or monthly views, which actually makes it easy to plan ahead.
Mandy: my favorite part's. Actually the companion app. I can update the grocery list or add an appointment from anywhere, and it shows up instantly on the display at home. And Skylight even gives you 120 days to try it out. If you're not a hundred percent happy, you can send it back for a full refund.
sa: right now. Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15 inch calendars by going to skylight cal.com/moms. Go to skylight cal.com/moms slash moms for $30 off your 15 inch calendar. That is S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T-C-A l.com/mobs. And now back to the
episode.
Marker
Mandy: So we have heard a story about a very strange occurrence at a library, uh, where people just don't keep track of things. And now we're gonna talk about an accidental heist of a Boston man who made stealing really into an art form, or at least in his own mind. That's what he thought he did. John Charles Gilkey wasn't your typical [00:17:00] criminal. He was born in 1968 in Modesto, California, and he just really was an ordinary guy.
He wasn't wealthy, he wasn't flashy, and he just didn't really seem destined for fame or infamy, really just kind of was a guy. But he had one big dream and that was to surround himself with rare, expensive books that would make him look like the kind of sophisticated upper class intellectual he desperately wanted to be.
He wasn't about to let a little thing, like not actually being upper class intellectual and sophisticated, those things weren't gonna stop him. So he worked at Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco, which already tells you that, you know, he's kind of in striking distance of a lot of credit cards of people who have high credit limits, and he started stealing those card numbers and using them to buy himself these rare books.
And he would have the books shipped to hotels so no one would be able to trace them back to him. Between 1997 and [00:18:00] 2010 with a very short little stint in prison in between, uh, Gilkey racked up about $200,000 worth of stolen rare books and manuscripts, and he wasn't just targeting random works. He carried around the modern library's 100 best novels list, like it was his personal grocery list, and would just tick off.
First editions as he went, he was really getting every single thing. And what's wild is that you would think that he would obtain these books so he could sell them for profit, but that's actually not what he ever did. He wasn't interested in that. He truly just wanted the books for himself to make himself up here like he was refined, uh, and that he would, you know, he was giving himself the status that he thought and he deserved.
sa: But can you even tell people that you have these books because they're stolen? So like
how are you looking refined? If you're like, look at all these first
editions I have, and people are like, huh,
Mandy: Well, here's the thing. Yeah, it's either, okay. If someone took brought me into [00:19:00] their home library and was like, these are my collection of rare books, I would. Just be like, oh cool. 'cause I
sa: actually,
Mandy: well versed in that world. So I would just be like,
oh, that's cool. So like either the person that you're showing the books to has to either
be like me and not know anything about books or, 'cause if you show it to the wrong person who does know like about books, then yeah, they could be like, wait a minute, like where did you get all these?
sa: And they could be like, wait a minute. I remember someone
bought a book that you happen to have here on my credit
Mandy: Right, right, exactly. So, yeah, but just it like general, I feel like I would never
question if it.
was stolen or not. If someone just told me they had like a collection of rare books, I'd be like, oh, okay. You're a rare book collector. Like I would never think that they were
sa: Good point. Mm-hmm. You know what, you, you, you got me on that one. But the psychology behind John Gilkey is totally fascinating. Even though it's a little pathetic. John Gilkey rationalized his crimes [00:20:00] by saying that rare books were unfairly locked away from people like him, and that dealers were greedy and that he was just making them more accessible, which again, to him, only to him, but in his mind he's not a thief.
He's sort of a Robinhood, He once told a journalist that he thought he was 60% wrong and 40% right, which is how my son explains anything he does that I ask him not to have done. There's like percentages involved, and obviously that's a pretty convenient math problem when you're the one committing these felonies, but every criminal story needs a nemesis, and that's where Ken Sanders walks in. Ken Sanders is a rare book dealer from Salt Lake City, and he was so passionate about protecting books that he basically became a book world detective. Is that what five was about?
There's a movie, there's a cartoon
from childhood that.
was about like a detective and books
Mandy: I don't know. My husband has mentioned five, but I don't think I ever [00:21:00] had, I don't have any memory of that.
sa: somewhere out there. Oh. I used to like literally sing to the moon and think that there was someone out there looking at the same moon. It was creepy. but Ken Sanders was relentless.
He would study. John Gilkes methods, tracked his purchases, and even set up a sting operation in 2003 with California police. They used this rare Steinbeck edition as bait, and when John showed up at the hotel to pick it up, officers arrested him. At the time, he had multiple stolen books and fake documents in his possession.
He actually went to San Quentin, which I was like, really for this,
um, in 2004
for 18 months. But shocker, prison did not cure his obsession.
Mandy: I didn't even know you could go to San Quentin for like a short term sentence.
sa: And definitely not for just stealing books. Not just
stealing books. I mean, he was 60% right and 40% wrong. But for like, not a violent crime, I
would ticked if I
[00:22:00] ended up in there. by 2010 though, John Gilkey was back at it. He was arrested again in San Francisco for stealing antique
maps.
Clearly, old habits die hard.
Mandy: So Gilkey actually became a bit of a celebrity in the rare book world, but in the worst possible way. He was the subject of Allison Hoover Bartlett's book called The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, and he even popped up in NPR and Podcast episodes. Experts studying him, labeled his condition. Biblio. Kleptomania. Okay, so this is specifically a compulsive need to steal books. We've all heard of Kleptomania, but this is specifically when you are, compulsively compelled to
steal books, definitely for me too, but they noted obsessive compulsive
tendencies, narcissistic traits, and a giant case of intellectual vanity.
And unlike thieves who steal for profit, Gilkey was stealing two. Really just fill a hole [00:23:00] in his own self-image because to him, those books were the ticket to the life he thought he deserved. In the end, he didn't just steal books, he stole a piece of mind from the whole community of dealers and collectors and forced them to really tighten security, verify transactions and share information about thefts, which I guess things like this usually are the way we get tighter.
Security for
sa: Mm-hmm. yeah,
Um, you know who this guy reminds me of? Mandy,
Mandy: Who?
sa: Everett Dutchie.
covered, we just covered the, uh, documentary from Netflix called The Kings of Tupelo. It's three parts if you wanted to listen to
It's on our Patreon and Apple and Spotify subscription. But oh my gosh,
if you watch that documentary, you know, j Ever Duck Dutch Ski and what? Like how much these two I could see
him as as the character in this, but yeah, and if you haven't watched it, please watch it. 'cause I'm still, it's my whole
personality.
still
it. So the next person we're gonna talk about [00:24:00] is someone named Edward Forbes. Smiley, the third, let's get that right. he was stealing maps to keep up this image that he was this intellectual.
So where John Gilkey is trying to feel like an intellectual, Edward Forbes Smiley III was stealing them to keep up this appearance that he already was one. So Edward was born in 1956 in New Hampshire and he had the kind of name that makes you immediately picture a prep school blazer and a boat slip. He went to Hampshire College, he did a year at Princeton Theological Seminary, and then he worked his way into the rare books in Maps World in New York in the 1980s. and he was someone that was charming and witty, and he seems to know absolutely everything about maps. Dealers and collectors respected him. Librarians trusted him, and scholars quoted him. He was someone that had this big, booming belly laugh and a way of making people feel like they were in on something special when he talked about a discovery, and for a while he was genuinely successful. [00:25:00] Edward helped build some of the most important map collections in America, like the Lawrence Slaughter Collection at the New York Public Library, the Norman Leventhal collection in Boston.
But behind this persona, his finances were a mess. Edward had actually bought too many properties, including a farmhouse in Maine, a house on Martha's Vineyard, which you know is gonna be expensive. He actually took that one, tore it down, and build something even bigger and better.
So I can't imagine how expensive that was. But he was someone that would renovate, expand, and invest, and he racked up debt doing this. Rivals in the trade quietly referred to him as slow pay or no pay, which doesn't seem like a very nice, uh, it's a long nickname, but, uh, it's not a very nice one. And when the bills came due, Edward turned to the maps he was supposed to be protecting and he developed this precise surgical method using an exacto blade. He would carefully slice rare maps out of centuries old [00:26:00] atlases.
Mandy: What?
sa: I know,
imagine, I don't know, just, I'm just too dumb. I don't trust myself with an exacto knife.
There's just a lot that could go wrong for me. So his targets were often folded or tucked inside books. So with the right cut, he could slip them out without
immediate detection, So he could take these maps They're in a book, and now he's, he's outta there.
Mandy: So he had a very refined taste. He seemed to like, maps that, like are they artists? Do, what do you call them? What do you call people who I.
sa: Do we call them people? Is it like Christopher Columbus?
Mandy: don't know. I don't know. But this guy really
liked things that
were done,
right? They, he liked things that were done by people such
as Hernan Cortez,
Samuel d Champlain,
John Smith and Henry Briggs, Melissa, do you know any of those men?
sa: John Smith, A hundred percent.
Mandy: hundred percent. A hundred percent. So he [00:27:00] liked maps that didn't just show
geography, but told stories about the age of discovery and the founding of the colonies.
And since he was trusted, he had access to all of these things. Yale, Harvard, the Boston Public Library, the Newbury and Chicago, and even the British Library in London. These institutions all welcomed him like he was just their old friend. Meanwhile, he's literally slicing up maps
sa: all up and down the
Mandy: all of, there you go.
And that was until June 8th,
2005, that morning at Yale's by Nicki Rare book library. A staffer named Naomi Sto noticed an X exacto blade lying on the reading room floor. Another reason why you can't use an X exacto blade 'cause I would be the one to leave it behind by accident.
And another staffer, Ellen Cortez, picked it up and immediately felt a chill. She's thinking like, who would bring a razorblade into a rare book room? Not someone with good intentions, that's for sure.
sa: I mean, good on her.
Mandy: Right. [00:28:00]
I probably wouldn't even, I would be like somebody was opening a box in here and left
their, left their box gutter.
Um, so they looked around and they ended up spotting Edward in his pale tweed blazer, uh, examining maps, and when they checked the sign in sheet, they confirmed his name. A quick Google search told them exactly who he was, and that was a famous map dealer. So suddenly everything started to click into place, and this wasn't just some ordinary exacto knife that someone accidentally dropped.
For, you know, non nefarious purposes. This was actually the equivalent of the murder weapon. It was a smoking gun, really. So the security began to watch him very closely and the campus police were called in. And we'll get back into exactly what happened after one last break to hear a word from this week's sponsors.
Marker
sa: you know that little
thrill you get when you found the best deal? That's what Rakuten feels like. Every time I shop,
Mandy: Same here. I've used it at places I already shop all the time, like Target,
Ulta, and even [00:29:00] Ticketmaster, and I love that you can stack cash back right on top of sales.
Marker
sa: And it's really so simple. stores. Pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers And Rakuten shares that money back with you as cash back. At this point, I can't imagine not using Rakuten. We are in the fall and it's gonna be Christmas in the holidays.
Before you know it. So now's a great time to sign up, You can get the cash back through PayPal or a check, and it
adds up faster than you'd think.
Mandy: Plus it's totally free to sign up, and over 17 million members are already
saving members have earned more than $4.6 billion in cash back. If you're not using it yet, now's the time because why not maximize your savings? Download the Free Rakuten app or go to rakuten.com to start saving today. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N rakuten.com. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar. Our exclusive snack and hydration sponsor IQ Bar is the Better for You. Plant protein-based snack made with brain boosting nutrients to refuel, nourish, and satisfy hunger without the sugar crash.
sa: You know, Mandy, I am [00:30:00] obsessed with mint chocolate chips, so it's no surprise that the IQ protein bar with that flavor is my go-to. It actually tastes so good, but it's packed with plant protein, more fiber and less sugar than the usual snacks I'd
reach for.
Mandy: And IQ Bar makes more than just bars. Their ultimate sampler pack has everything, nine bars, eight hydration mixes, and four instant coffee sticks. So you can try it all without committing to just one thing.
sa: I also love that all of their products are clean, so there's no gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, or artificial sweeteners. Just ingredients that make sense and actually fit into a busy day.
Mandy: And with over 20,005 star reviews,
people clearly love it. It's an easy way to fuel your day, whether that's with a bar, a hydration mix, or even their mushroom coffee.
sa: And right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ bar products, including the Sampler Pack, plus free shipping to get your 20% off text. Moms to 64,000. Text moms to 64,000. That's moms to 64,000. Message [00:31:00] and data rates may apply. See terms for details, and now back to the episode.
Marker
sa: So before the break, our friend Edward, has really slipped up. He has left his Exacto knife in a room of rare books, and now everyone is kind of onto him. So enter Detective Martin, Juan Filio. Martin was shadowing Edward as he left the library. He then followed him To a museum gift shop and finally confronted him When shown the Exacto blade,
Edward nervously admitted that it was his
saying, he must have dropped it. I have a cold,
which
Mandy: Okay.
sa: explain that one to me.
Mandy: I mean, I guess, um. You're clumsier when you're
sa: Was it in your nose? It doesn't make any sense. So police searched his briefcase and they found seven maps. He also had one more hidden in his jacket pocket and he was arrested on the spot. At first though, Edward tried to claim that these maps were his and he just brought 'em in for comparison. But of course, as investigators dug [00:32:00] deeper, the truth unraveled. Faced with mounting evidence, Edward confessed Over four years, he admitted she's stealing 97 maps from at least six major
institutions. Their combined value was more than $3 million.
Mandy: Wow. I didn't even, like, I, I don't know how people even get involved in this world, like in these worlds, that went way over my head. I had no idea maps were worth so much money.
sa: you know what's gonna be worth a lot of money one day. MapQuest maps. Remember how we used to
print those out? Someone's gonna have a story about
someone with an exact donut knife
stealing, stealing, uh, MapQuest things from, uh, from a
Mandy: Crazy. So one of the most heartbreaking losses was a Samuel Day Champlain Map from 1612 that was stolen from the Boston Public Library. Others included a Cortes map from Harvard Abraham or Elia's typist, Orbis Rum. Don't know what that is. I'm assuming it's a map, but it could be a painting, it could be a book. I [00:33:00] have no idea what it even
sa: Great
Mandy: Right, Right, That was very hard. But by the time
he was sentenced in 2006, Edward had actually cooperated with the FBI and helped to recover most of the stolen maps.
All but six were eventually found And they were often found after being brought in in good faith by dealers or collectors who had heard about this whole big thing and decided generously to give them back So Edward ended up getting 42 months in federal prison and he was ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution. When he was released in 2010, his reputation had been destroyed. The rare map trade that was once built on just handshakes and trust now had tighter security protocols and stricter inventories, and they kept a wary eye for even the most respected insiders, which good, because usually it's the most respected insiders.
It's usually the most inside that are. Responsible for doing things like this. So Edward's downfall was just a reminder that the biggest threat is not always [00:34:00] outsiders with crowbars. Sometimes it is just the people that have keys to the building.
sa: Very true So if John Gilkes obsession was books and Edward Smiley's was maps, Edwin Wrists. Fixation was
Feathers. Where did we get to a place of feathers?
ahead,
Mandy: I, I don't have any words. Like I said, I don't know how people get involved in some of these hobbies and some of these
like interests that they have. I don't like. At what point in your life did you decide that feathers was your thing?
sa: I don't know. I, I'm very wary of
feathers. If I see a feather, I'm
like, this just came out of
Mandy: I was always told not to ever touch feathers because like either gross and disgusting and like whatever,
sa: Yeah,
Mandy: if that's even true. I just never, I just was
sa: you're not supposed to
swallow gum either, but I learned that that's not a lie. You could swallow gum. I, I spent years not swallowing gum being terrified. It was gonna take seven years to digest. So these weren't any feathers though. These are rare exotic plumage prized by a small but fervent group of Victorian fly tying enthusiast. [00:35:00] Sure. So Edwin was born around 1987 in New York City by two Ivy League parents. He was homeschooled, musically gifted, and by the age of 10, he was already winning flute competitions. But while his musical talent got him into the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London, his heart was already
very tangled up in a very
different world.
Victorian salmon fly tying.
Mandy: Okay.
sa: who isn't at that
age?
Mandy: Sounds like a good old fashioned pastime.
sa: Yes, exactly, but this was a subculture where artisans recreated, elaborate 19th century fishing flies not for actual fishing, but as an art form. The catch though is the recipes called for feathers from birds that were either endangered, protected, or even extinct. In the fly tying underground world. Apparently some individual feathers sold for thousands of dollars, and Edwin was hooked. He scoped out the [00:36:00] Natural History Museum at TTR about 40 miles north of London.
Mandy: So this museum housed one of the largest Ornithological collections in the entire world, including 750,000 bird skins. Some that were collected by absolute legends, like this guy I've never heard of, named Alfred
Russell Wallace. Right? So among the stolen species were red
roughed fruit, crows spangled coga, Bauer birds.
Like I, I don't even, I've never even heard of most of these birds and, um. Kes, which I've heard of, but couldn't tell you what it looked like or draw you a picture of one
sa: Didn't know it was spelled like that I'll tell you that
Mandy: for sure. Yeah, I know. I just, I haven't reached that level. I haven't reached that stage of life yet where I am familiar with bird names and sounds.
Uh, but when the police finally did come to arrest Edwin in 2010, they found bags of feathers, boxes of bird skins and fly tying equipment in his apartment. His defense [00:37:00] team argued that he had Asperger's syndrome and this like completely obsessional interest that just clouded his judgment and a psychologist even testified about his condition
so Edwin was given a suspended sentence and managed to avoid prison, but he was ordered to pay restitution. He did later graduate and moved to Germany and now he posts get this heavy metal flute covers on YouTube, which I'm actually low key interested in and I wanna go check out. Uh, but of course, the damage was already done.
Although 174 birds were recovered, many were mutilated, their tags were removed, and their scientific value was lost forever.
sa: Here's what I've learned today. People are really
into things. I don't get, I don't books. Sure. Okay, fine. First edition, whatever. Not my thing. But I do know people that are into that. Maps we're getting a little further from. You know things. I think I would take feathers. Feathers that I can literally [00:38:00] find on the ground. Obviously these I can't, but you
can't tell me. I could tell the difference. This is wild. I don't understand like being willing to go to jail and prison for these
Mandy: Well, imagine being like any of these guys, like mothers, right? And they're like children and as they're growing up you're like, this is wonderful. My son is so into books, like Intellectual books or My child is very into like maps, like this is, it's better than being. Doing anything worse, and then come to find out that like,
it's not
sa: career.
Mandy: exactly like, I just like make it make sense, right?
Like I would, who would
ever think that their child's, like obsession with bird feathers would turn into literally stealing scientific,
sa: Yeah.
Mandy: like from institutions. It's absolutely crazy. You would never think that.
sa: No, you wouldn't. But I, I, yeah. This was a, this was wild to me. Um, and I learned that I can't say a lot of words because this one was filled with words I've never heard. And Mandy, we're gonna do something we haven't done in a while. Uh, we're doing a last thing before we go
art [00:39:00] edition, because we did this. It's probably been two or three years now that we did this.
Um, and it's, it's a popular on, it's so fun.
So we have both looked for really weird art on the internet. probably should have been more specific, but we are, we are sending each other these, Paintings, we'll have 'em on social media, and We're saying what we would name these like famous infamous paintings.
So, Mandy, I would love it if you would kick us
off with the first one. Describe what you're seeing
and
uh, and give it a name.
Mandy: I don't even know how to describe what I'm
seeing. there's like a rocking horse and a real horse and a
cat, giraffe horse that also looks like a hyena.
sa: A hyena. I thought that too.
Mandy: But it has really long legs. And then there is a person
with like very messy hair sitting on a chair in the middle of a room with nothing else in it.
Why is everything so random?
sa: wearing boot
heels.
Mandy: heels. a really weird [00:40:00] yellow curtain on the window.
sa: Mandy, what's behind the hyena? Is that gas? Is
that dirt or did they
Mandy: Oh, Oh,
I don't know.
Wow.
Okay. I don't know what's going on here. I'm gonna call this one Carnival of My Nightmares.
sa: That's a good one. It's actually by someone named Lenora Carrington. It's called Self-Portrait.
Lenora did not
have very high
self-esteem that day, and she was going through something. So yes, that's, that's my first one.
Mandy: Wow. All right. Okay, so Melissa, I sent you also.
A very
sa: Uh.
Mandy: first
image, and why don't you tell us what you're seeing.
sa: Number one, how dare you? Number two, this looks like a giant leaning over the water and the giant is throwing coins maybe in the water. That's not the unsettling part. The unsettling part is the giant is not wearing pants and the back end of the giant has, thank goodness it's not children, [00:41:00] but it looks like little men climbing into the square shaped. Buttocks of the giant. And let's see, what would I call this? I would call this a penny for your thoughts.
Mandy: I actually like that you're actually, I see where you're going
with that. So this one is actually called the Flatterers, and this painting is from 1592. And, um, I guess the, the. Artist, uh, Peter Brule. Bruel. I don't really, I'm not really sure. but he was actually known as being a peasant and he always had all these chaotic scenes in his paintings.
But this one particularly the flatterers, is supposed to be kind of a metaphor, like a visual metaphor for people who are like, suck up.
sa: your butt. Yeah,
Mandy: who like, 'cause the giant has like the coins or whatever, and like all these people are like crawling
sa: Oh,
Mandy: backside. Like it's kind of like a, a metaphor just for people.
sa: okay. I like
Mandy: [00:42:00] Yeah.
sa: it. I
don't like to see it, but I
Mandy: Right.
sa: That was awesome.
Mandy: Okay, so next one it's very simple. I see a
pipe, like a smoking pipe, like an, uh, old school one,
are some. Words in what possibly is French.
I
don't know how to read it and I'm not gonna try, but I do think that the last part of it says
sa: Very good, very good. what would you call this?
Mandy: I have no idea. I don't even have a clever or exciting thought about this 'cause it's so simple.
sa: Yeah.
so this one is called, this Is Not A Pipe by Renee Marguerite.
And that's why I picked it because
that's literally what it says underneath it. This is. not a pipe. So what is it? I don't
understand
Why
Mandy: don't,
sa: this art?
Mandy: I don't understand what it is
Um,
sa: ever stolen this I'll tell
Mandy: no. It looks like a pipe to me, but no, I don't know. That'll be an
interesting one to see what, uh, the listeners on Instagram, think about that one.
sa: Please [00:43:00] let us know. 'cause that one is, it's no people crying, calling up somebody's bee hole. But, um, it is a little different. This is upsetting. Okay, the next one Mandy sent me, well, you know what? At first I thought it was like an octopus, but it's not. It looks like a human skull coming out of a,
looking into a river.
It looks like a Titanic submersible kind of thing where somebody's looking outside
at the Titanic, but I'm gonna call this one. Oh, in honor of five. Oh, somewhere out there.
Mandy: Nice, nice. So this one is.
I don't, oh, this one is called, okay. Uh, let me try my best here. I didn't, I did not look up the actual pronunciation. This one's called the Phantom of Coda. Koji. Koji, I'm not really sure. it was completed in 1831, and it says, the information about this painting says that the subject of this eerie print from the 100 Ghost Stories [00:44:00] series, um, is believed to have, uh, lived in.
Mosquito during the end of the Edo period. I know nothing about periods.
Um, so so I guess the artist is thought to. It's thought that his wife had an affair and plotted to have him assassinated along with her lover. And so he turned into a ghost and followed them, and I guess he slayed his wife. This is a story made up and her boyfriend went insane.
And then, died by suicide. And so in this creepy print, This deceased actor is like portrayed like a zombie with his skin and hair still hanging from his skull, like in this skeleton image. I feel like it's a little, uh, abstract maybe.
sa: Yeah. I don't
Mandy: don't get it a ton. And, and the explanation didn't help me really get it, but I just thought I
chose this one because, and I thought it
was funny because, and actually funny because we mentioned intrusive thoughts in this episode, because to me, like this looks like my, like this is like my inner brain, like talking, like looking out, looking out, [00:45:00] like trying to like reach, reach me and be like, hello.
Um,
sa: Yeah.
Mandy: these are like
my thoughts. So anyway, uh, yeah, but I don't, I really don't know. I've never seen the painting before
and it is an interesting one.
sa: I hope to never see it
again, but that is an interesting one.
Okay. Mandy, my last one that you sent me is.
Why are there so many butts involved in yours? So this,
Mandy: I guess I was in some kind of mood today.
sa: so this is, a man, a woman, another weird man in the back. And it, I hope to God it's a child, but a man is holding his nose. A lady's looking like at the camera, like almost like Jen from the office. Like, look at what
I'm having to deal with and has a napkin and is wiping a baby's butt.
Mandy: Yep, that's exactly what you're seeing.
sa: That is what I'm seeing. And there's a creepy man kind of right, right by her head that's like really into it, which is what's concerning me the most. But [00:46:00] yeah, that's, that's it. But the man, that's just a man being dramatic, like they are always like with a diaper. Oh, they, my dad used to wear an actual,
he did paint and body work, so he had like
real mask when my brother was little and would put those on before he would change a
diaper. This is so
dramatic.
Mandy: funny.
sa: So I would call this one baby. Got back
Mandy: I was gonna call it a Day in the Life.
'cause it honestly just looks
like literally. Uh, but no. So this one, the painting is actually just called. Smell and it's from 1637. I won't say the artist's name because I will absolutely butcher it. Uh, but we will put it on, uh, Instagram when we put these up there.
But this one is basically just more of a joke. So the little explanation underneath this on the website that I found this painting on, it says, paint a jokes became more common during the Dutch golden age. Uh, when you can imagine someone roaring with laughter at one of the paintings. Carefully gathered in their collection.
Okay. A good example of this is the humor in this painting smell. So basically it was just meant [00:47:00] to be like a funny, like a humorous painting, which is so weird to think about because like, okay, imagine living in a time, Melissa, where there is no trash tv, there's no like.
sa: I'm
Mandy: What is there to entertain you? So like it does make sense that like they would turn paintings
into like humorous works of inner, something to entertain people and not just, you know, not just painting portraits or painting, um, sad scenes or happy scenes or landscape scenes, but like actually just intentionally choosing to paint something that's meant to just like, make people laugh.
Like that was like the earliest form of like they didn't have TV and like comedy and stuff. life must have been so boring if all you could do is
sa: So imagine how long you have to wait to laugh at this
like you have.
It's like, I'll be back in three weeks. I'm gonna have
something really funny for you guys. Also, why does that baby have such defined
calves That baby does not miss
Mandy: No. Yeah, no, the baby is ripped for sure. So
yeah, those were funny. Those were great, and I always loved doing that. We haven't done [00:48:00] a last thing before we go in a while, so hopefully those of you listening enjoyed it and enjoy looking at these really weird paintings.
sa: Yeah. Freaks. Perfect.
Mandy: guys, that was it for this week. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back next week. Same time, same place. News story.
Bye.
