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The Bird Obsession That Led To "The Feather Thief"

tommileew/Pixabay

When you think of a robbery at a museum, you probably picture a valuable painting, or some artifact from antiquity.  But dead birds? 

It happened, at the Tring Museum in Greater London.  A man obsessed with exotic bird feathers stole hundreds of old bird skins from the museum and disappeared. 

Enter the man obsessed with flyfishing, and we get a book: The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. 

Author Kirk Wallace Johnson, the flyfisher, tracked the story and the players for several years for his book.  He visits with details of what drove the crime. 
 

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Geoffrey Riley is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and hosted the Jefferson Exchange on JPR from 2009 through August 2024. He's been a broadcaster in the Rogue Valley for more than 35 years, working in both television and radio.
April Ehrlich began freelancing for Jefferson Public Radio in the fall of 2016, and then officially joined the team as its Morning Edition Host and a...