“Edwin Rist, you may sit”: Regina v. Edwin Rist, St. Albans Crown Court, April 8, 2011, transcript, p. 11.
“All that can be done is to try to support”: Ibid., p. 15.
17. THE MISSING SKINS
“Asperger’s as a defence???”: Anonymous to author, May 29, 2013.
“he certainly did not display”: “Talented Fly Tier Turns Thief,” Flyfishing.co.uk, November 18, 2010, https://www.flyfishing.co.uk/fly-fishing-news/107611-talented-fly-tier-turns-thief.html.
“available to pay”: Regina v. Edwin Rist, St. Albans Crown Court, July 29, 2011, transcript p. 1.
“to lose his piccolo and flute”: Ibid.
“Should he come into more money”: “Natural History Museum Thief Ordered to Pay Thousands,” BBC.com, July 30, 2011.
He asked Adele: Jens Pilgaard to Adele Hopkin, December 14, 2010.
“If you can give me a full accounting”: Curtis Rist to Jens Pilgaard, December 28, 2010.
“out of the blue”: Dave Carne to author, May 13, 2012.
“get raided by the police”: Ibid.
“The Fly-Tying Crime Report”: Morgan Lyle, “The Case of the Purloined Pelts,” Fly Tyer, Spring 2011, pp. 10–12.
She was proud that she’d arrested: Sergeant Adele Hopkin, interview by author, July 28, 2015.
“Had there not been such a report”: David Chrimes to author, May 18, 2012.
“The whole thing was a complete kick”: Mark Adams and Dr. Robert Prys-Jones, interview by author, January 21, 2015.
“We are pleased the matter has been”: “Man Sentenced for Stealing Rare Bird Skins from Natural History Museum,” Natural History Museum at Tring, April 8, 2011.
18. THE 21ST INTERNATIONAL FLY TYING SYMPOSIUM
searched for “Edwin”: “Indian Crow Feathers for Sale, Buying new flute!” ClassicFlyTying.com, November 12, 2009, now deleted from website, scan at Kirkwjohnson.com/screenshots.
I mentioned an article: “Natural History Museum Thief Ordered to Pay Thousands,” BBC News, July 30, 2011.
To commemorate the departed: Michael D. Radencich, Classic Salmon Fly Pattern: Over 1700 Patterns from the Golden Age of Tying (Mechanicsburg, Penn.: Stackpole, 2011), p. 300.
“What the hell”: John McLain, interview by author, November 20, 2011.
19. THE LOST MEMORY OF THE OCEAN
the events of August 27: “Tring Museum Replica Rhino Horn Theft: Man Charged,” BBC News, January 17, 2012.
With only six left in existence: Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016), p. 29.
Vietnamese clubgoers, who: Nicky Reeves, “What Drives the Demand for Rhino Horns?” Guardian, March 3, 2017.
Months earlier, after Europol: Europol Public Information, “Involvement of an Irish Mobile OCG in the Illegal Trade in Rhino Horn,” OC-SCAN Policy Brief for Threat Notice: 009-2001, June 2011.
Darren Bennett was sentenced: “Rhino Horn Thief Who Stole Fakes from Natural History Museum Jailed,” Telegraph, December 7, 2013.
“The United Kingdom doesn’t spend”: Mark Adams and Dr. Robert Prys-Jones, interview by author, January 21, 2015.
In the middle of the twentieth century: “Scientific Impact of the Bird Specimen Theft from NHM Museum Tring 2009,” courtesy curators at Tring.
feather samples from 150 years’ worth: Ibid.
“memory of the ocean”: Todd Datz, “Mercury on the Rise in Endangered Pacific Seabirds,” Harvard School of Public Health, April 18, 2011.
Scientists can now pluck a feather: Dr. Richard O. Prum, interview by author, April 18, 2013.
Specimens in the collection: “Scientific Impact of the Bird Specimen Theft.”
191 skins had been recovered: “Natural History Museum Thief Ordered to Pay Thousands,” BBC News, July 30, 2011.
In one article: “Student, 22, Ordered to Pay Back £125,000 He Made from Theft of 299 Rare Bird Skins,” Daily Mail, July 31, 2011.
“couple of weeks”: “Exotic Bird Pelts ‘Worth Millions’ Stolen from Natural History Museum by Musician Acting Out ‘James Bond’ Fantasy,” Daily Mail, November 27, 2010.
“I looked you up, suspicious copper”: Sergeant Adele Hopkin, interview by author, January 20, 2015.
20. CHASING LEADS IN A TIME MACHINE
In his first year, 2009, he tied: Gordon van der Spuy, “Our Own Major Traherne,” African Angler, June–July 2014, pp. 10–15.
Elvis Has Left the Building: Ibid.
the Blue Uncharmed: Ibid.
“No no no no no”: Ruhan Neethling, interview by author, January 19, 2016.
until he forwarded proof: Mark Adams to Flemming Sejer Andersen, December 6, 2010.
a post from July 26, 2010: Bud Guidry, “It’s Found a New Home,” Clas sicFlyTying.com, July 26, 2010.
On four separate dates: “Classic Fly Tying—Trading Floor,” ClassicFlyTying.com, https://web.archive.org/web/20101129081054/http://www.classicfly tying.com/index.php?showforum=9, screenshot of page as it existed in 2010.
There was a listing for a full Blue Chatterer: Ibid.
“We do it to ourselves”: “Crow Anyone?” ClassicFlyTying.com, April 21, 2010.
“Have a friend in need”: “Classic Fly Tying—Trading Floor,” ClassicFly Tying.com, https://web.archive.org/web/20101129081054/http://www.classic flytying.com/index.php?showforum=9, screenshot of page as it existed in 2010.
On October 6, 2010: “Blue Chatter for Sale, Cotinga Cayana,” ClassicFly Tying.com, October 19, 2010, now deleted from website, scan at Kirkwjohnson.com/screenshots.
On November 11: “Classic Fly Tying—Trading Floor,” ClassicFlyTying.com, https://web.archive.org/web/20101129081054/http://www.classicflytying.com/index.php?showforum=9, screenshot of page as it appeared in 2010.
21. DR. PRUM’S THUMB DRIVE
“I was trying to get Fish and Wildlife”: Dr. Richard O. Prum, interview by author, April 18, 2013.
“Nine or ten vendors were displaying”: Richard O. Prum, “Notes on Fly Tying International Symposium,” November 20, 2010.
“Exotic Materials Photo Album and Sale Page”: “Exotic Materials Photo Album and Sale Page,” EdwinRist.com; no longer on website, screenshots at Kirkwjohnson.com/screenshots.
“the Masoni subspecies”: Ibid.
“had not been motivated by money”: Simon Baron-Cohen, Re Edwin Rist, January 30, 2011.
“I am currently working on a book”: “About,” EdwinRist.com; no longer on website, screenshots at Kirkwjohnson.com/screenshots.
“Oi! lonngu sama!!”: Facebook post, December 9, 2009, screenshot.
“Flame bowerbird, male, full skin”: “Flame Bowerbird Male Full Skin—Trading Floor,” ClassicFlyTying.com, May 7, 2010, http://www.classicflytying.com/index.php?showtopic=40163.
“I know this happened back in 2010”: “Cotinga—Classic Salmon Flies,” Facebook group discussion, August 27, 2013, screenshot.
a post entitled “Long Nguyen”: Edwin Rist, “Long Nguyen,” ClassicFlyTying.com, March 7, 2015, http://www.classicflytying.com/index.php?show topic=54555.
“I hope you understand”: Edwin Rist to author, February 15, 2012.
22. “I’M NOT A THIEF”
“We could be done in two hours”: Edwin Rist, interview by author, May 26, 2015.
419-million-year-old bacterial DNA: J. S. Park et al., “Haloarchaeal Diversity in 23, 121 and 419 MYA Salts,” Geobiology 7, no. 5 (2009): 515–23.
a “marked impairment”: Simon Baron-Cohen, Sally Wheelwright, Janine Robinson, and Marc Woodbury-Smith, “The Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA): A Diagnostic Method,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 35, no. 6 (2005): 807–19.
lack of “theory of mind”: Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan M. Leslie, and Uta Frith, “Does the Autistic Child Have a ‘Theory of Mind
’?” Cognition 21 (1985): 37–46.
“Hi Kirk. Got words from Edwin”: Long Nguyen to author, May 27, 2015.
23. THREE DAYS IN NORWAY
“basically a millionaire”: Edwin Rist, interview by author, May 26, 2015.
He’d said online that it had been: Facebook album, December 8, 2009, screenshot.
“I guess you’ll want to see”: Long Nguyen, interview by author, October 9, 2015.
“What should I feel?”: Ibid.
thanks to Walter Palmer: “Cecil the Lion: No Charges for Walter Palmer, Says Zimbabwe,” BBC News, October 12, 2015.
Twenty-one years earlier: “Greatest Heists in Art History,” BBC News, August 23, 2004.
the case against his friend “looks bad”: Rist interview.
24. MICHELANGELO VANISHES
“life source had drained away”: Long Nguyen to author, January 11, 2016.
My first attempt to speak about it: Simon Baron-Cohen to author, May 27, 2013.
“There is no biological test of autism”: Simon Baron-Cohen to author, October 27, 2015.
“Whether those self-perceptions”: Lizzie Buchen, “Scientists and Autism: When Geeks Meet,” Nature, November 2, 2011.
the American Psychiatric Association: Hanna Rosin, “Letting Go of Asperger’s,” The Atlantic, March 2014.
“Whether a child was labeled”: Catherine Lord et al., “A Multisite Study of the Clinical Diagnosis of Different Autism Spectrum Disorders,” Archives of General Psychiatry 69, no. 3 (2012): 306.
“Psychiatric diagnoses are not”: Simon Baron-Cohen, “The Short Life of a Diagnosis,” New York Times, November 9, 2009.
his friend “deserved them”: Edwin Rist, interview by author, May 26, 2015.
“to refine my knowledge”: Paul Sweet to author, April 20, 2017.
Delisle told me he was no longer: Robert Delisle to author, January 13, 2016.
“ten Indian Crows”: Ibid.
Under the handle Bobfly2007: “Feedback Profile: Bobfly 2007,” eBay.com, http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2, accessed May 26, 2016, page no longer exists.
A simple search for Flame Bowerbird: “Feedback Profile: Lifeisgood.503,” eBay.com, http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2, accessed May 26, 2016, page no longer exists.
“eBay is committed to doing”: Ryan Moore to author, May 3, 2016.
“The black eye of greed”: “The Tring’s Missing Birds,” ClassicFlyTying.com, March 29, 2016, printout of now-deleted post.
25. FEATHERS IN THE BLOODSTREAM
“Good luck”: Robert Delisle to author, February 12, 2016.
“lines of Aigrettes, Paradise and Ostrich”: “Ph. Adelson & Bro.,” Illustrated Milliner 9 (January 1908), p. 51.
“to dictate to American women”: “Notes and Comments,” Millinery Trade Review 33 (1899), p. 40.
“The foolish laws that now exist”: Ibid.
“It’s really hard to convince people”: Long Nguyen to author, October 25, 2015.
“The knowledge of its falsity”: Edwin Rist, interview by author, May 26, 2015.
the tale of Eddie Wolfer: Eddie Wolfer, “Dear Friends and Forum Members,” ClassicFlyTying.com, December 7, 2014, printout of now-deleted post.
his ninety-three-year-old father: Bill Wallace to author, April 24, 2017.
shipped from the Black Forest region: Robert M. Poole, “Native Trout Are Returning to America’s Rivers,” Smithsonian, August 2017.
“the ultimate candy store”: Chuck Furimsky, “A Note from the Director,” InternationalFlyTyingSymposium.com, June 19, 2017.
“stopping the darkness of my greed”: “Man Who Tried Smuggling 51 Turtles in His Pants Gets 5 Years in Prison,” Associated Press, April 12, 2016.
“Thank goodness it was protected”: “Whats that daddy and why the big smile,” ClassicFlyTying.com, October 18, 2012.
“Paging: Secret Agent Edwin Rist”: Charlie Jenkem, “Paging: Secret Agent Edwin Rist,” Drake, March 1, 2013.
A NOTE ON SOURCES
This book draws extensively upon primary sources, including court transcripts, statements to the police, private correspondence and e-mails, an unpublished museum account of the theft, and character reference letters and other reports prepared for the Crown Court. Some of these were obtained through a Freedom of Information request; others were shared directly by the participants. In some cases, sources were granted anonymity and a pseudonym: their names appear in quotes in the first instance.
I have benefited enormously from hundreds of hours of interviews with dozens of fly-tiers, ornithologists, evolutionary biologists, historians, curators, prosecutors in the Crown Prosecution Service, members of the Hertfordshire Constabulary, feather dealers, agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the characters at the heart of this story.
Before writing this book, I shared the assumption with many that something posted online can rarely be removed, but it became painfully clear to me just how naïve I was: this investigation was constantly racing against time or, more precisely, against the delete key. I have hundreds of screenshots of Facebook and forum posts related to the Tring heist that were deleted shortly after I took them. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine was helpful with exhuming a number of posts that had been wiped before I began the investigation. Additional screenshots were sent to me by sources who were concerned about the content.
Where an individual’s remarks appear in quotations, I am drawing directly from transcripts of a recorded conversation, the original e-mail, court document, forum post, phone text, or Facebook comment. In some instances, particularly with forum and Facebook posts, spelling and grammar have been lightly edited for ease of reading.
To reconstruct Wallace’s story, I am particularly indebted to the work of John van Wyhe, Michael Shermer, Ross Slotten, and Peter Raby, but nothing beats reading this brilliant writer in his own words. I have drawn heavily on the original notebooks and letters of Alfred Russel Wallace, helpfully digitized as part of the Wallace Correspondence Project and the Linnean Society.
For Victorian-era history, Lynn Merrill, Richard Conniff, Miriam Rothschild, D. E. Allen, Michael Shrubb, and Ann Colley’s scholarship was critical.
For feather fashion history, Robin Doughty’s Feather Fashions and Bird Preservation was of paramount importance. Barbara and Richard Mearns’s The Bird Collectors was also helpful, as was the twenty-seven-volume Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (1874–98). Thor Hanson was generous with his time: Feathers was a joy to read. Other archival material was made available through the libraries at the University of Southern California.
The fly-fishing and fly-tying writings of Andrew Herd and Morgan Lyle were immensely valuable to me.
I have outlined many crucial sources in the bibliography, and have also credited key insights in the notes section.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, David Elliston. The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Attenborough, David. Alfred Russel Wallace and the Birds of Paradise. Centenary Lecture, Bristol University, September 24, 2009.
Attenborough, David, and Errol Fuller. Drawn from Paradise: The Discovery, Art and Natural History of the Birds of Paradise. New York: Harper Design, 2012.
Audubon, John J. Birds of America. New York and London: 1827– 1838.
Baron‐Cohen, Simon. Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
———. Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.
———. “Two New Theories of Autism: Hyper‐systemising and Assortative Mating.” Archives of Disease in Childhood 91, no. 1 (2006): 2–5.
Baron-Cohen, Simon, Sally Wheelwright, Janine Robinson, and Marc Woodbury-Smith. “The Adult Asperger Assessment (A
AA): A Diagnostic Method.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 35, no. 6 (2005): 807–19.
Berners, Juliana B., and Wynkyn de Worde. A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. 1496; reprint by London: Elliot Stock, 1880.
Blacker, William. Blacker’s Art of Fly Making, &c. Comprising Angling, & Dyeing of Colours: With Engravings of Salmon & Trout Flies Showing the Process of the Gentle Craft as Taught in the Pages: With Descriptions of Flies for the Season. 1842; reprint London: George Nichols, 1855.
Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman Times to the Modern Era. New York: Skyhorse, 2015.
Brackman, Arnold C. A Delicate Arrangement: The Strange Case of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. New York: Times, 1980.
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1877.
Cocker, Mark, David Tipling, Jonathan Elphick, and John Fanshawe. Birds and People. New York: Random House, 2013.
Colley, Ann C. Wild Animal Skins in Victorian Britain: Zoos, Collections, Portraits, and Maps. London: Routledge, 2014.
Conniff, Richard. The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.
Cooper, J. H., and M. P. Adams. “Extinct and Endangered Bird Collections: Managing the Risk.” Zoologische Mededelingen 79, no. 3 (2005): 123–30.
Cowles, Virginia. The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Cronin, Helena. The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man: And Selection in Relation to Sex. New York: D. Appleton, 1871.
Darwin, Charles, Robert Jastrow, and Kenneth Korey. The Essential Darwin. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.
Davies, James Boyd. The Practical Naturalist’s Guide: Containing Instructions for Collecting, Preparing and Preserving Specimens in All Departments of Zoology, Intended for the Use of Students, Amateurs and Travellers. Edinburgh: MacLachlan & Stewart, 1858.
Daws, Gavan, and Marty Fujita. Archipelago: The Islands of Indonesia: From the Nineteenth-Century Discoveries of Alfred Russel Wallace to the Fate of Forests and Reefs in the Twenty-first Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
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