Nash: Searching for Tommy McCarthy’s last will and testament

From SABR member Peter J. Nash at Hauls of Shame on December 11, 2014:

The FBI and the Boston Police Department zeroed in on court officer Joe Schnabel and they knew they had their man.  The authorities arrested Schnabel in May of 1999 on two counts of larceny and when he finally admitted to stealing the wills of several Boston baseball legends whose estates were filed in the Suffolk County Probate Court, a bizarre baseball mystery appeared to have been solved.

It was in the early 1990s that Schnabel hatched his scheme to swipe the autographs of Hugh Duffy, George Wright, Tommy Connolly and other Baseball Hall of Famers from the Boston Probate Court where he worked.  Then he ventured outside of Massachusetts to pilfer the wills of other players like “Old Hoss” Radbourn in Illinois, Ned Hanlon in Baltimore, Harry Wright in Philadelphia and even Babe Ruth in New York City. Through a New Jersey fence named Jack Heir, Schanbel sold the documents to collectors for tens of thousands of dollars until researchers like Michael Bowlby and Don Hubbard realized that the wills were missing from Court files and alerted the authorities.

For investigators the arrest ended an embarrassing episode that had reached and for Schnabel, a plea-bargain led to a sweetheart deal with prosecutors who sentenced him to just one year probation with a $5,000 fine.  The disgraced state employee even got to keep his pension.  But there was still one thing that didn’t sit well with the Feds and the researchers aiding them in the investigation.  One of the missing wills Schnabel was accused of stealing was executed by 19th century star Tommy McCarthy whose signature is considered one of the hobby’s most valuable prizes.

Read the full article here: http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=28484



Originally published: December 12, 2014. Last Updated: December 12, 2014.