Letters Thief Nailed and Bailed; Screeds Worth $100,000

Staff -- Library Journal, 2/9/1998

A New York Public Library (NYPL) employee arrested February 5 was released on $10,000 bail after a hearing in Manhattan's federal court. Julio Gonzales O'Higgins, a Peruvian citizen with a legal green card, confessed to police that he removed a combination of seven letters penned by composers Wagner and Mozart from NYPL's Performing Arts Library and sold them to a bookstore for several thousand dollars. Suspecting that the items were stolen, a dealer later notified authorities who easily traced the papers back to the suspect, who unwisely had left a copy of his driver's license with the bookstore. Armed with his address, FBI agents quickly apprehended O'Higgins at his New Jersey residence. The case is scheduled to go to trial in early March.