Man Guilty of Stealing Benjamin Franklin Books
A federal court has found a San Gabriel man guilty of mutilating and stealing two rare books written and printed by Benjamin Franklin.
William Witherell, 39, was convicted in Philadelphia on two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property by U.S. District Judge J. William Ditter Jr.
Witherell, a loner who traveled in his small truck around North and South America while visiting libraries, was convicted for tearing the covers off the two 18th-Century books after he stole them from the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library. They were valued at $60,000.
He was arrested in January after FBI officials raided his parents’ California home and found about 300 rare books that were believed stolen from libraries around the U.S. and Canada.
Witherell, who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, is on bail and must live with his parents in California until he is sentenced Nov. 28.
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