2 Men Charged in Theft of Relics From Civil War
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PHILADELPHIA — A janitor at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is accused of stealing John Brown’s rifle, Gen. George Meade’s sword and hundreds of other Civil War-era relics worth up to $3 million and selling them to a collector for a few thousand dollars.
In the last decade, Earnest Medford, 48, sold more than 200 such items to George Csizmazia, the FBI said Tuesday. The two men were charged with theft of major art. They could each get up to 10 years in prison. Each was released on $100,000 bond.
At a news conference, authorities displayed a table loaded with 19th-century swords, rifles, gunpowder boxes and uniform items.
Artifacts taken included a sword given to Meade after the Battle of Gettysburg and a rifle used by the abolitionist Brown during his 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
U.S. Atty. Michael Stiles said the case represents a theft from every American. “They educate us in ways that books and mere words cannot,” he said.
An antique dealer tipped off authorities.
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