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Images courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Caliban Thefts
One by one, rare books vanished from the library — the Journal of George Washington; a copy of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” valued at nearly $1 million; an Atlas by a 19th-century German explorer worth $1.2 million.
On Monday, Gregory Priore, the former archivist of the Carnegie Library’s rare book room, and John Schulman, owner of Caliban Book Shop, pleaded guilty to theft and receiving stolen property for snatching $8 million worth of rare books, maps, folios, and other objects. Schulman also pleaded guilty to forgery.
Prosecutors say the scheme ran from 1992 to 2017, during which time Priore would steal the rare texts from the library’s R. Oliver Special Collections Room — sometimes simply walking right out of the building with them, prosecutors said — and pass them along to Schulman, who would sell them at his store and online.
Some of the books wound up for sale at Caliban Book Shop, a warren-like used and rare book store with a cobalt blue exterior that is less than a 10-minute walk from the ornate Carnegie Library in the Oakland neighborhood, Pittsburgh’s academic center. Authorities who searched the Caliban Book Shop warehouse about four miles away found more than 40 of the missing books, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The library realized that items were missing from the Oliver Room thanks to an insurance appraisal in April 2017. According to a criminal complaint, Priore received about $117,000 in checks from Caliban Book Shop between 2010 and 2017. “Greed came over me,” Priore told investigators, according to an affidavit. “I did it, but Schulman spurred me on.”
On Monday, Gregory Priore, the former archivist of the Carnegie Library’s rare book room, and John Schulman, owner of Caliban Book Shop, pleaded guilty to theft and receiving stolen property for snatching $8 million worth of rare books, maps, folios, and other objects. Schulman also pleaded guilty to forgery.
Prosecutors say the scheme ran from 1992 to 2017, during which time Priore would steal the rare texts from the library’s R. Oliver Special Collections Room — sometimes simply walking right out of the building with them, prosecutors said — and pass them along to Schulman, who would sell them at his store and online.
Some of the books wound up for sale at Caliban Book Shop, a warren-like used and rare book store with a cobalt blue exterior that is less than a 10-minute walk from the ornate Carnegie Library in the Oakland neighborhood, Pittsburgh’s academic center. Authorities who searched the Caliban Book Shop warehouse about four miles away found more than 40 of the missing books, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The library realized that items were missing from the Oliver Room thanks to an insurance appraisal in April 2017. According to a criminal complaint, Priore received about $117,000 in checks from Caliban Book Shop between 2010 and 2017. “Greed came over me,” Priore told investigators, according to an affidavit. “I did it, but Schulman spurred me on.”
Alcohol House
Prohibition
Pittsburgh in the 1920s was a diverse and dynamic place, and much of that dynamism was fed by the city's immigrant population. The immigrants who populated the labor force -- the Irish, the Jews and the Italians in particular -- also proved adept at bootlegging, with the Irish manning the city's saloons and providing political cover, and the Jewish and Italian communities handling sales and transport… The Volstead Act (which was the regulatory vehicle that enforced the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) never stood a chance here. Bootlegging was instantly big business.
Which is not to say the federal men didn't try. J.W. Conners, the first "prohibition administrator" in Pittsburgh, said, "We feel assured that before another anniversary of the prohibition laws is observed, Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania will take on the semblance of a Sahara." John Pennington, another prohibition administrator here, conducted more than 15,000 raids and arrested more than 18,000 people in the region, according to a news account at the time.
It was but a drop in the bucket. Bootlegging raids had negligible effect: With most fines under $100 for minor offenses, arrests were scarcely a disincentive.
And if the Volstead Act was little discouragement to those who would make, transport and resell booze, it was none at all to those who would drink the stuff… There was more whiskey stored in Pittsburgh warehouses than "in any state of the Union, except Kentucky," according to the government. Some of that alcohol was routinely "lost," and other times, distillery warehouses were robbed outright. Between January 1920 (the first month of Prohibition) and June of that year, 13 Pittsburgh-area warehouses had been robbed of thousands of gallons of booze. Without curbing the supply, it proved difficult to snuff demand. Speakeasies -- as well as "blind pigs," "blind tigers," "poor man's clubs" and "kitchen barrooms" operating out of homes -- proliferated.
Which is not to say the federal men didn't try. J.W. Conners, the first "prohibition administrator" in Pittsburgh, said, "We feel assured that before another anniversary of the prohibition laws is observed, Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania will take on the semblance of a Sahara." John Pennington, another prohibition administrator here, conducted more than 15,000 raids and arrested more than 18,000 people in the region, according to a news account at the time.
It was but a drop in the bucket. Bootlegging raids had negligible effect: With most fines under $100 for minor offenses, arrests were scarcely a disincentive.
And if the Volstead Act was little discouragement to those who would make, transport and resell booze, it was none at all to those who would drink the stuff… There was more whiskey stored in Pittsburgh warehouses than "in any state of the Union, except Kentucky," according to the government. Some of that alcohol was routinely "lost," and other times, distillery warehouses were robbed outright. Between January 1920 (the first month of Prohibition) and June of that year, 13 Pittsburgh-area warehouses had been robbed of thousands of gallons of booze. Without curbing the supply, it proved difficult to snuff demand. Speakeasies -- as well as "blind pigs," "blind tigers," "poor man's clubs" and "kitchen barrooms" operating out of homes -- proliferated.
