Rice scholar fights crime

Rice scholar fights crime

	JEFFERSON DAVIS

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

When Lynda Crist, editor of Rice’s Jefferson Davis Papers project, saw a set of Davis’ letters on an auction house Web site, she realized instantly that they shouldn’t be there. Crist, who knew the documents belonged to Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., had microfilmed the papers in question, worth more than $15,000, and included them in a volume of the Jefferson Davis Papers.

She notified Transylvania University of her find on the Web site of Alexander Autographs Inc., and the university contacted the auction house and the police within a week of the discovery.

An Indiana man, a Jefferson Davis impersonator who researched documents to make his impressions more authentic, was charged in May with stealing the papers in 1994. Among the items in his auction lot were letters and notes written by Davis or his wife, Varina, dated from 1847 to 1898.

Federal authorities charged the 70-year-old Eugene Zollman with theft of major artwork.