Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2014 Issue

Thief Now Cooperating to Return 7,000 Stolen Artifacts

Tillman.

Tillman.

When the Parole Board sat down to consider daytime release for John Mark Tillman, of Fall River, Nova Scotia, Canada, they had a long record to consider. It was early May of 2010, and by then, Tillman had been charged with a dozen crimes over an almost 30-year period. However, Tillman was also a university graduate, and a charming man, who appeared remorseful and sincere in his attempt at rehabilitation. His crimes tended to be petty – minor thefts, a forged check, buying and selling merchandise he suspected was stolen. Despite the history of recidivism, the Board felt he was (finally) a good candidate for turning his life around.

 

The bigger concern with Tillman was his temper and violence. That finally caught up with him in 2009 when he smacked his girlfriend in the head, and threatened her with much greater bodily harm, such as smashing her face to powder. This was the crime that landed him in prison. Tillman explained to the police that he was just trying to get her to repay a debt. He “convinced” her to drive to an ATM where she withdrew some money and gave it to him. Tillman had followed her in his BMW (yes, a BMW). Tillman never earned more than poverty wages, yet was still driving a BMW, among his many possessions, which makes one wonder why he needed a relatively small amount of money from a girlfriend so badly.

 

Mr. Tillman was pending trial at the time for threatening to kill his own mother. A sister also said he had threatened her. The charge was dropped when his mother supposedly recanted the claim shortly before she died (of natural causes). Still, he obviously had a problem.

 

Nevertheless, the Board saw good progress for Mr. Tillman in prison with anger management. They were more focused on this part of his behavior than the 30 years of petty thefts. While saying “it acknowledges your history which is inclusive of violence,” the Board said he had demonstrated his ability to use the skills in anger management he learned in prison, and therefore “you are assessed as a low risk to reoffend… the Board is satisfied you do not present an undue risk to public safety.” The Board concluded, “Furthermore, your release at this point will facilitate your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.”

 

Tillman was less than a rehabilitated citizen. The new girlfriend who awaited his release in 2010 later became afraid of him. Charges of assaulting her were later initiated. In 2012, he was placed on probation for using a forged check to repair his BMW.  It was a violation of the terms of this later probation, being out in his car at an hour not permitted, that finally led to Tillman’s downfall. A local officer, recognizing him, pulled him over. She conducted a search of his car. In it, she found a letter written by British General James Wolfe in 1758. Wolfe is known for leading forces against the French during the Siege of Louisbourg. What on earth was this violent, petty thief doing with an historic document in his car? The police did a little investigating. They found it was missing from Dalhousie University. So they determined it was time to do a search of Tillman’s residence.

 

What they discovered looked more like a museum than a residence. They found what they estimated at the time to be 1,300 historic artifacts. Later counts ran that number to 7,000. They included books, such as a first edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species, manuscripts such as a letter from George Washington, as well as other antiques, including a suit of armor. They came from libraries, museums, dealers, and private collections. What they didn’t find were any bills of sale. Tillman clearly had notreintegrated himself into society as a law-abiding citizen. He was a thief on a scale that no one had imagined.

 

Tillman also had a few non-antiquarian possessions. Along with the BMW he had a Porsche. He purchased his home, valued at over $400,000, with cash. He also had $350,000 in the bank. Evidently, he sold a lot of items, despite still having some 7,000 artifacts valued at $1 million-plus in his possession. There were also some non-antiquarian stolen goods around, like an outboard motor stolen from a boy scout camp and a family heirloom chair taken from a 102-year-old man.

 

When Tillman appeared in court in 2013 there was little sympathy left for the man. He pled guilty to 40 charges, claiming the terrible conditions of prison awaiting trial made him see the light (something his earlier stint behind bars did not accomplish). The Judge was not impressed. Noting that Tillman had shown no remorse, nor any respect for his fellow citizens or the justice system, the Judge sentenced him to 9 years in prison.

 

Of course, this left officers with the enormous task of finding to whom these 7,000 artifacts belonged. That doesn’t even include tracking down those Tillman had already sold. They sent out notices to numerous institutions and others, both in Canada and the United States, asking what they were missing. Reportedly, some 2,000 items have been reunited with their owners, but that leaves 70% of them “homeless.” The Wolfe letter is an example of the problem. Dalhousie University has an enormous collection of artifacts, but few people to take care of them. The letter had been stolen several years earlier, but the university had no idea it was missing. Just a few weeks ago, that letter, the Washington letter (written during the Revolution seeking help spying from a Nova Scotia resident), a copy of Audubon’s Birds of America, and 600 more items were returned to Dalhousie. Tillman had agreed to forfeit all of the artifacts, his house, cars and cash as part of his original plea.

 

So now we hear that Mr. Tillman is cooperating with police. He is said to be attempting to remember from where the various items he took came. His memory will have to be good to recall this for 5,000 of them, but he should at least remember most of the places he hit. In an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, he indicated it was all too easy. He claimed he used an attractive Russian girlfriend and even his mother at times to distract managers at stores and institutions while he secreted away the goods. He said he learned this skill from his grandmother. Tillman possesses an engaging personality that makes people like him, deflecting suspicion. At other times, he dressed up as a janitor or painter at an institution to avoid suspicion. Considering the enormous number of artifacts stolen without once getting caught, his skills were obviously quite good. Indeed, it was only a car search coming from a traffic stop for violating a condition of parole from an unrelated crime that brought him down.

 

Of course, Mr. Tillman will be getting out sometime near the end of the decade. Perhaps he hopes his cooperation will make that date sooner. He will be around 60-years-old at that time, undoubtedly still possessed of an engaging personality, but this time reformed. This time will be different. Of course it will. Just ask him.

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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