And the Natural History Heist of the Century

I have been a fly tyer and fly fisherman for 60 years.One book that I could relate too.Fly tying can become an addiction. For me,it helped to pay tuition for an undergraduate degree in Biology ,as well as ,a graduate degree in Medical Microbiology.I was from the old school,where you tied flies that were used to catch fish,either fresh or saltwater.I tried tying Salmon flies,but lacked skill and patience.I cranked out 12 dozen at one sitting,not 1 fly in 3 months.The book let me see the seedy side of my sport.Very well written and researched. Thanks.

This is a brilliantly written, researched and referenced work that I found deliciously readable and inspiring. Kirk W Johnson’s artistry and dedication have created a book that practically turns its own pages. The beautiful images that grace some of the last pages of the book were a surprising bonus; I didn’t know they were there. Although Mr Johnson’s “colorful” and complete descriptions gives a clear image in ones’s mind of people, places, and of course birds, their feathers, and flies, as I read this on my iPad, I was able to visit many websites that served as further visualizations and insights, and helped to prolong a read that I was not eager to finished. A fascinating book, even if you’ve never before thought about the subject.

An awesome read. Burned through it in a couple of days. Very well written. Solid twists and turns. Exhaustively well researched. It opened my eyes in regards to the harm brought to some many species of rare and amazing birds. All for fashion, sport or in this case, decorative fly tying.

This is an important subject -- the protection and defilement of great museum collections in the service of greed, vanity and silly obsession. The tale follows a non-profit advocate, fly fisher and writer (the same person) as he tries to untangle the theft of priceless rare bird "skins" from the British Museum of Natural History in Tring. Despite the peppy style and compelling subject matter, the book has several serious problems, to wit: First, it's pretty snarky. The author sneers in his characterizations of fly tiers and their eccentricities, short-changes wildlife curators in their understanding and care for rare bird specimens, suggests that US Fish and Wildlife and Customs authorities are uninterested in pursuing the illegal trade, and imputes a "so what" cynicism to society in general. Maybe he's right, but there is a strong counter narrative available from experts close at hand, including wild bird conservationists, public policy makers, and agents fighting the good fight in the effort to embolden and enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora, which is a good global agreement. Second, the book fails to explore in any depth how invaluable the collections are. Sure, he gives a quick recounting of Wallace's incredible privation and courage in the trips he made to the Neotropics of South America and to Southeast Asia. But, even allowing that such vintage collections can never be replaced, the author doesn't even attempt to describe their importance to morphology, behavior, aerodynamics, evolution, etc. Still today, new species of vertebrates are being discovered around the world, and the collections of Tring, AMNH in NY, the Museu Goeldi in Brazil, and a handful of others provide essential backdrop. A simple example: only in the past 15 years or so was it discovered that African bee eaters are able to perceive a broader spectrum of light than thought previously, which led to important new hypotheses and field research regarding their prey, their sexual selection and other behaviors. The source for comparative data relied on collected skins, some from the 19th century. Third, the author only superficially calls out the anti-intellectual and self-regarding ignorance of the fly tiers, as they question the need for collections and participate in the dishonest trade in endangered species and their parts. These people are involved in crimes, pure and simple. The author could have chosen snow leopard skins from his own experience in Afghanistan, or the rarest reptilians, who can end up on the internet days or weeks after their first discovery. Ho hum, eBay; too boring for you to worry about, I'm sure. In the end, this is a mediocre rendering of a very important moral story for our time: how a privileged child and his accomplices were able to steal and then trade in an invaluable collection of scientific importance and then shrug it off as no more than shoplifting. The author himself is not immune from withholding his knowledge from the British police while he finishes his book and seems to accept the unhappy selfishness of a selfish age. And how an author saw an opportunity and then moved on.

The first part of The Feather Thief is a tale about a thief and his crime. Edwin Rist was a highly talented musician with an idiosyncratic hobby: tieing fishing flies. Deprived of the colorful feathers he and other tiers lusted for by scarcity and the law, he broke into a museum outside of London and made off with an enormous haul of rare bird skins and stuffed carcasses, many of them over a century old and collected by the famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. After making his get away back to his small flat Rist began advertising feathers and skins on tiers' websites and Ebay, selling to collectors around the world and making a substantial fortune. The museum,meanwhile, didn't realize it had been robbed for over a month. After the authorities were finally notified and a police search began Rist, who took few if any steps to cover his tracks, was eventually arrested, put on trial, and through the vagaries and inconsistencies of the justice system ended up serving no jail time!

The first part of Kirk Wallace Johnson's The Feather Thief is as suspenseful and eye opening as any fictional crime drama. Rist's audacity makes for entertaining reading and often gives cause for rueful shakes of the head over the inconsistencies and (often) incompetencies of legal systems the world over. Additionally, there is some interesting material on Wallace and his collections, the museum Rist broke into, and on the fad for exotic bird feathers during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Had the book ended here it would have been a solidly entertaining and satisfying read.

Oddly, though, the book continues on. Kirk Wallace Johnson, who is himself a fascinating character who has spent praiseworthy years attempting to help Iraqis in the aftermath of the US invasion and occupation, becomes part of the story. He documents his lengthy efforts to track down some of the skins and feathers which didn't make it back to the museum, sometimes with the assistance of Rist himself. This part tended to drag for me, primarily because Johnson admits that without the tags or other documentation it isn't possible to identify a skin or a feather as having been part of the museum's collection.

Frankly, I got the sense that the last part of The Feather Thief was more or less cobbled together in order to flesh things out and make the book longer. Overall it's still a good read, but uneven.

While fly-fishing to destress from his work with advocating for refugees, the author was introduced to a strange theft in England by his fishing guide. Just years before a young man broke into the British Museum of Natural History and made off with hundreds of rare birds driven by an obsession with Victorian fly-tying. Mr. Johnson was intrigued and decided to look into the case further. What would drive someone to steal dead birds, and furthermore, where were the more than 100 birds the police never recovered? To gain a better understanding, he gives himself and readers a history of obsessions with birds and feathers, what curbed the feather trade, a brief history of fly-tying and a look at its modern world, and how his own investigation into the missing birds played out.

This is most definitely one of the oddest true crime tales I've ever read. It is also the one with the lowest human body count. It is a somewhat frustrating read because Johnson highlights several ways a whole group of people are breaking endangered species trafficking laws and pretty much getting away with it, all so they can feed their obsession with an art form. I'm sure bringing this to light was a huge motivator for the book, and it sounds like someone needed to blow the whistle. I hope the greater awareness brings about needed change. It is a fascinating read, even if justice seems a bit elusive at times in the real world. (I'll let you read it yourself and see if you think the thief got what he deserved or not. The history of how certain endangered species laws came about isn't something you regularly come across and it was fascinating to see how Victorian feather-obsession turned to endangered species awareness and activism. The love/hate relationship natural history museums have with collectors is also an interesting point brought up by the book. Without collectors of the past, most of them wouldn't have their own collections, but the biggest threat to modern museums besides fires seems to be overly-ambitious collectors today. Recommended to anyone who likes histories of animal activism and what needs activism today. Also recommended to anyone who likes non-gory true crime stories or just plain whacky true crime stories.

Notes on content: About seven strong swear words and about four mild ones, all in quotes. No sexual content. Animal specimen collecting of the past is related, though not with super gory details. Some deaths due to tropical diseases and such on animal collecting journeys are related.

Despite the old adage about not judging a book by its cover, it was the cover of this one that drew me -- it's quite gorgeous, with its rainbow-tinged feathers surrounding the title and subtitle. Oddly enough, the book itself is about far more than a bizarre true crime, but about the allure of feathers and how they can drive those obsessed with them to ridiculous, even criminal, lengths. And despite not being a big fan of the "true crime" genre, I found "The Feather Thief" to be fascinating... and not a little enraging, not because of the book itself but because of the eventual frustration in trying to bring the titular thief to justice.

"The Feather Thief" is Edwin Rist, a gifted musician who one day breaks into the Tring Museum, home to hundreds of skins belonging to rare birds, and steals a suitcase full of some of the most prized specimens. As the bizarre crime is uncovered and leads pursued, we learn the history of the stolen skins -- some retrieved by Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Charles Darwin -- and all very valuable not for their monetary worth but their contribution to science and natural history. But the allure of feathers, once started by the ladies' fashion industry, continues today in the form of antique salmon-fly tiers, who want nothing less than authentic feathers... even if they must come from endangered birds whose feathers are illegal to import. And even when Edwin is finally caught, there's the mystery of where the missing skins are, whether Edwin will actually be punished for his crimes... and just what harm his actions have done to natural history and science.

Kirk Johnson tells a fascinating story, not only about Edwin's heist but about the history and importance of what he has stolen. He delves into the strange and obsessive world of fly-tying, a hobby that has its fanatics and purists as much as any other, as well as the mindsets that allow these people to justify the stealing and killing of rare birds to allow them to pursue their hobby. Even the part of the story where Kirk himself takes center stage, setting off to interview the principle characters and try to find some of the missing feathers and skins himself, was interesting, and gave the reader a firsthand account of what was missing, why it was so important, and how maddening it is when a confessed thief shows no remorse and just might escape any punishment for his crimes.

This book infuriated me... but that was no fault of the writer. One of the frustrating things about true crime is that, unlike fiction where loose ends can and often are tied up neatly by the end of the story, real life is never that clean and neat, and Edwin comes from a wealthy family determined to make sure he suffers no consequences for his crime. Even more maddening, he sees nothing wrong with what he has done and is quick to blame others for his offense. Much of the rest of the fly-tying community shows the same shocking lack of remorse, though a few are chastened enough to try to make amends. Still, the damage this crime has done to science and natural history is maddening, especially for a nature-loving reader.

If you enjoyed "The Orchid Thief" or "The Dragon Behind the Glass," you'll most likely love "The Feather Thief." It's a fascinating crime story, one made bizarre but fascinating by the nature of the thief, the stolen prize, and the impact it has and will have on conservation and science.

I am amazed that there is a culture of bird feathers. I had never heard of it. And further more I do not understand the obsession. I found the book interesting but hard to believe. Millions of dollars change hands and as I understand it today the treasured feathers are used primarily to make fly fishing lures. People who are a part of this world look at the feathers and see beauty. I look and I imagine a bird with no feathers. At one time, in the 18 hundreds it was a status symbol to wear exotic feathers on hats and on clothes, the bigger the better. There was a fashion industry build around feathers! This is the story of a young flute player, an American, who studied music in England. In addition to his love of music he also was one of those persons who is obsessed with feathers. And with little planning he entered a museum one night and stole a large number of feathers. There was not much suspense in reading about this crime but I especially enjoyed learning about feathers, and the people associated with this pass-time.
It is a whole world and way of life for those who collect use and sell exotic feathers.

I really really enjoyed this! I was originally drawn to the odd title--what sort of theft could be called the 'natural history heist of the century'? As soon as Johnson began to explain the tale of Edwin Rist's theft of almost 300 bird skins from the British Natural History Museum, I was astonished. I recently watched the movie American Animals, based on the attempted theft of a copy of Audubon's Birds of America at Transylvania University, so I found the similarities rather similar--both thefts were committed by college students, related to birds, and done for monetary gain. However, Rist's heist was planned much better than the Transylvania group....

Anyways, before I get too off-topic, I think Johnson did a really good job of explaining Rist's heist, and weaving in a wide variety of background information about ornithological history and fly tying. Johnson's own investigation allows the story to live on in a more interesting way, and explores the consequences of such a heist years after it occurred, looking at how those involved regret, hide or ignore the heist. He also weaves in themes of justice, friendship, trust and regret, which added some depth to this work.

My main quibble with this book was that Johnson brings up his own past career as a lawyer helping to bring refugees into the United States in odd ways, almost as a subtle brag, like "Wow, look at the great work I used to do (insert applause) and now I am just here obsessed with birds!" It was just a little odd and unnecessary in my opinion.

Other than that, I think this is a great introduction to Rist's heist, and you are sure to learn a lot while reading. Johnson keeps up the pace, and makes this an easy and quick read. I think this would appeal to a wide range of people, from true crime fans to those interested in birds, and would be a good start in non-fiction for someone who is more intimidated by the genre.

Great resources for scientific research were forever lost when Edwin Rist stole irreplaceable bird specimens from the British Museum of Natural History. The book starts with Alfred Russel Wallace’s initial quest to obtain and then protect the bird skins at all costs. What tool months and year to achieve, were lost in just a few hours and for what, fly-fishing hooks to display. This well documented tale starts with a flourish and ends with disappointment.

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

I have reviewed this book for two different publications. As an ornithologist and someone who has seen most of these species in the wild, I was deeply pained by Rist's theft and desecration of these irreplaceable specimens and appalled by the lack of a prison sentence. Reading the book brought it all back, but it is a terrific book that deserves a read. The writing is vivid and pulls the reader into the story.

Loved this book, about a sport that is my most favorite, fly fishing, tho this is really more about the obsession that fly-tying can become. Well written, interesting and ultimately a little heart breaking to see all the beautiful birds crammed into museum drawers. By the end I was pretty much as disgusted with those specimen collectors as I was with the feather thief’s.

I grew up and live in a town devoted to fly fishing and always wondered about the allure of the tied fly. This books shows the allure, warts and all. More than anything this book is a thriller that will keep you up all night. It is fascinating.

This book attempts to nullify autism, as a root cause of the crime, and the sly author does it intentionally...to create his own point of view. As anyone reading notices, the whole thing fizzles at the end. (Wonder why? Because the author’s premise that autism was a “made-up court ploy”, is entirely false.)

I knew nothing about this book and like the book The Orchid Thief, I entered this incredible world of bird skins. The author’s connection to the topic makes it even more real - a fly fisherman who happens to hear a story. The book pardon the pun flies by and I am recommending it to everyone

I knew nothing about fly-tying and exotic birds before reading The Feather Thief, but I ended up thoroughly captivated by this book. Suspenseful and full of fascinating information. Highly recommended!

When even the writing on the “acknowledgements” pages creates emotion in the reader you know you have found a remarkable writer.
An engrossing tale well told by a writer who has a natural writing style that casts a spell on the reader. A book picked up on a whim became impossible to put down.
A great read even if, like me, your existing knowledge, and interest, in fly fishing/tying is limited to merely knowing it appeals to others.
Read it for the mystery, the suspense or the boldness of the crime,no matter the reason read it because it really is that good.

Well done but not a topic for me. I did appreciate learning about early collectors and their massive contribution to science. The dangers and the dedication. The fly fishing and fly lures were not for me

I had zero knowledge of salmon fly tying before reading this book. I found the book very engaging all the way through. The history included and the look into the fly tying community was very interesting, and the crime itself very fascinating. The writing is very engaging - I enjoyed this very much. I read it on my Kindle and all of the photos were in black and white...I assume the images of the feathers and ties in the book are color. I would have liked to see them in color.

There are a dedicated group of individuals dedicated to tying salmon flies using Victorian "recipes" These use beautiful and colorful feathers that are almost impossible to obtain now.

This true story is about a young and very gifted fly-tyer who becomes obsessed with acquiring these feathers. He decides to steal rare birds from the Natural History Museum.

The author meticulously covers the theft, the history of the birds stolen, and all the parties involved in the crime and its aftermath. It is a interesting read, surprisingly fun and very well written.

My only criticism is that the book runs out of steam a little at the end. However, this reflects real life, which does not come as neatly packaged as a novel.

An adventure story of the best kind. A non-fiction heavy weight about the heist of exotic bird skins and feathers in recent times, and the history of the world relating to fashion, greed and impact on the natural world, specifically relating to exotic feathers and their capture. Kirk weaves background on historic naturalists, fly tiers' obsessions with salmon flies, and the exploration and the demand to provide feathers as the decorative power dressing element for women in the Victorian era, with his sleuthing skills as to the legal outcome of this case. Highly recommend this, especially to fly fishers who have seen the beautiful salmon flies revered by some.

How good can a book be about a true life crime involving a heist of dead birds from a London museum? Just wait and see! Johnson has an amazing ability to weave hundreds of years of history into one riveting story that I did not put down from start to finish. Truly unique and a book I will highly recommend to my family and friends who also love to read.

I love this book, and it has made me even more passionate about fly fishing. I've been fly fishing for over 20 years and this book has invigorated my love of the sport, made me think about fly tying in a whole new light, and even inspired me to tie flies!! THANK YOU Kirk Wallace Johnson!!!!

A hobby that has a dark side, where obsession takes over the beauty of the creations. The true story of a young mans robbery of the British Muesum of Natural History's for birds to rare bird feathers for fly-tying. These birds were dated from 150 years earlier that gave us a important part of the Theroy of Natural Selection by Darwin and Wallace. Saved birds from the bombing of WWII, were moved into the Tring Museum. protected for scientific studies, until a young man broke in the take trays of birds for selfish goals.

A whole world of hobbiest consumed by creating the Victorian flys using feather of birds that were placed on endangers species listings. These hobbiest will never use their creations to catch fish. But will yearn to use the origional feathers from an !700 year old book on fly-tying.
As a young teen becomes a top expert in fly-tying, he becomes consumed to find feathers that tiers use for origional flys. Becoming a thief and seller of feathers to the fly-tying community.

A book that will entertian any fisher, or reader of crime, the FEATHER THEIF, shows the world of hidden art consumming a hobby that little would ever know.

I began reading Johnson's work late in the afternoon; I finally had to put it down for much-needed sleep, but the book literally worked its way into my dreams. This is powerful reading. As a biologist who has spent a good deal of time in Central American jungles, I was appalled that such trade in exotic feathers takes place, especially to satisfy the cravings of colonial-minded salmon tiers. I was left with the distinct impression that conservationist are fighting a losing game against a very small, but very active minority who care very little for the natural world. I was inspired to go online and view some of the "feather" sites -- very discouraging. I should point out that one doesn't need to be a biologist or other scientist to appreciated this book; it is for all who care about our global environment.

Utterly fascinating. This book is incredibly well written and well researched. It’s a deeply moving tale of history, greed, human behavior and science. I’ve been house bound for a few months recovering from a broken leg and have read more than 20 books; none have held my interest until I read this book. For me, books typically are well written or have a good story; this book is both. Highly recommend if you have any interest in the natural world and an enjoy history.

This is a great short read where you will both learn and be riveted by the story. There is a lot in here on natural history collections, feathers, & AR Wallace. I found myself unable to barely put it down.