Historian Goes to Jail for Theft of Lincoln's and Washington's Letters

Edward Renehan Jr., 52, is a historian of a different kind. Instead of doing historical research or writing history books, he tried to do a somewhat different kind of historical activity and in the process, he made himself in history as ‘The Historian Who Stole the Letters of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Went to Jail’.

He was sentenced on Friday to a year and a half in prison after apologizing for stealing the letters.

Edward Renehan Jr., 52, also must pay more than $86,000 in restitution to a Manhattan gallery where he tried to resell the letters, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ordered as he imposed the sentence.

Renehan admitted he stole the presidential letters in 2006 and 2007 from the Theodore Roosevelt Association, based in Oyster Bay, on Long Island. He was then its acting director.

Among the letters, one was handwritten by Lincoln on March 1, 1840; two were written by Washington. One of those was dated Aug. 9, 1791, the other Dec. 29, 1778.

Renehan still faces a state charge of stealing and trying to auction off a 1918 letter that President Roosevelt wrote about his son Quentin's death in World War I.

Roosevelt Association director Jim Bruns said outside court that it was "a painful pill when a historian is caught in a position like this." But he said it was a significant breach of trust that must be faced.

Source: The Associated Press, NY, USA