The Art of the STEAL: When Passion Drives Crime
Moms and Mysteries: A True Crime Podcast
Moms got ya covered-feed
4.6 • 8.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 September 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we discuss a series of "intellectual crimes" in which the stolen objects were more valuable for their history and status than for their resale price. And stick around for an artsy "Last Thing Before We Go".
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The Boston Public Library's "Lost" Art: We dive into the bizarre case of two priceless artworks—an Albrecht Dürer engraving and a Rembrandt van Rijn etching—that went missing from one of the country's most prestigious libraries. The disappearance caused a media uproar and led to the resignation of the library's president . But in a twist, the art was never stolen; it was just in the wrong spot for an entire year.
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: We explore the story of John Charles Gilkey, a man driven by intellectual vanity who used stolen credit card numbers to amass a collection of rare books worth over $200,000. Gilkey wasn't in it for the money; he simply wanted to appear to be a sophisticated intellectual . His obsessive "bibliokleptomania" forced the rare book community to tighten security and share information on thefts.
The Notorious Map Thief: Next, we cover Edward Forbes Smiley III, a charming and respected rare map dealer whose financial troubles led him to a life of crime. Using an X-Acto blade, he would carefully slice rare maps out of centuries-old atlases from institutions like Yale and Harvard. We reveal how a single misplaced blade led to his downfall, exposing his theft of nearly 100 maps .
The Notorious Map Thief: Next, we cover Edward Forbes Smiley III, a charming and respected rare map dealer whose financial troubles led him to a life of crime. Using an X-Acto blade, he would carefully slice rare maps out of centuries-old atlases from institutions like Yale and Harvard. We reveal how a single misplaced blade led to his downfall, exposing his theft of nearly 100 maps.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a true crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend of Melissa. |
| 0:16.0 | Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. I feel like I have finally a week later recovered from being at CrimeCon. |
| 0:25.4 | Okay. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we've been home for a while, but we talked about it a little bit how I just feel like it takes me so much longer. Like the older I get, it takes me longer or longer just to recover from doing anything outside of my |
| 0:38.4 | ordinary, especially if it involves traveling, especially if it involves time zones and |
| 0:44.7 | switching back and delayed flights. And you did a lot. Like you were active outside of CrimeCon and like |
| 0:52.7 | did some things. So I feel like, yeah, you should be tired. Yeah, I know we didn't. I didn't really talk much about it on the last episode. But yeah, I did have the opportunity to go and do a couple of really fun things. Well, one thing we did together, we went on like a cool little nature wildlife drive. We were supposed to see bison. We did not see bison. No, but we saw prairie dogs. The cutest thing I've ever |
| 1:14.1 | They were so cute. And you know, Melissa is not one to ooh and awe and over an animal. No. But you did. |
| 1:23.6 | I was loving it. I would see their little heads pop up and I was losing my mind. It was so cute. So cute. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. But then I also went and visited the Stanley Hotel, which I'm sure a lot of our listeners probably know the Stanley Hotel and maybe would have been interested in hearing about that. But yeah, it was really interesting, fun, historic. I went |
| 1:46.2 | with our friend Kim, who was the host of the People Are Wild podcast. Some of our older listeners |
| 1:52.2 | might remember who she is. But it was so fun to get to go and hang out with her. It was a little |
| 1:56.4 | bit of a drive through the mountains, which was interesting for me because I don't drive in the |
| 2:00.7 | mountains. But it was so much fun just to go see that. And The Shining has always been one of my favorite horror films or thrillers, if you want to call it that. It was one of the first ones I remember watching when I was a kid and like latching onto and being like, oh, okay, so movies aren't always like Bambi and Snow White. Like there's also, there's other types of movies out there. So that was one of my first, like, introduction. So getting to see the Stanley Hotel was very exciting for me and something that has been on my bucket list. So, yeah, I was happy to achieve that while I was there. That's awesome. And we did a, we didn't mention this either, but we did a, |
| 2:35.3 | an escape room with our friend Kim. Oh yeah. How did I forget? And I know. And Kimberly and Katie with a |
| 2:41.0 | date with dateline. And I don't think I've ever felt as stupid as I did in the first room, not really |
| 2:46.1 | understanding how anything worked. I was like putting a code into the same thing over and over and over again. |
| 2:52.6 | That's not how it works. But it was so much fun and we actually escaped. We did. Yeah. I mean, |
| 2:58.1 | I wasn't surprised because I mean, I feel like we're all pretty capable, strong, independent, |
| 3:03.8 | intelligent women. But yeah, it was a little hard. And then some of them like that Kimberly and Katie were figuring, like they were like the whiz kids of the operation. They were figuring out every single one. I know. And some of them I was like, I'm lost. Like they would be even explaining like, oh, you have to do this, this, this goes together. And I'm still lost. So. So I know when they would explain, I was like, |
| 3:25.0 | why don't you just do it? I don't know what you're, I'm trying to scam things on some like, |
| 3:29.9 | what was it, the cash register that says literally like, do not press buttons, only scan. And I'm |
| 3:35.8 | just like buttons, buttons, right? They're trying to trick me. Right. It has to be. |
| 3:40.7 | I fully think everyone's trying to trick me in my life. So that's exactly what I thought was happening. But overall, it was an awesome trip. I totally get it. I don't know that I'm completely recovered. I am unpacked. So that helps. Yes. Yeah. That took me a couple of days, but I am fully unpacked now. So we're getting there. |
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