Posted April 1, 2005.

Arizona Documents Thief Sentenced

A Texas man who was convicted last year of stealing historical documents from libraries at the University of Arizona and the Arizona Historical Society will serve one year in prison. Paul H. Northrop, 62, of El Paso was sentenced in Tucson March 31 by U.S. District Court Judge John M. Roll, the March 26 Tucson Arizona Daily Star reported.

Northrop was convicted March 23, 2004, on four counts of theft of objects of cultural heritage and two counts of interstate transportation of stolen goods. Some of the documents related to military campaigns against the Apache chief Geronimo, while others concerned Tombstone, Arizona, in the 1880s. The FBI has recovered 55 of the documents Northrop stole but 50 remain missing.

“The items taken cannot be replaced,” said UA Special Collections Librarian Roger Myers during the sentencing. “The loss to our common cultural heritage is permanent.”

Posted April 1, 2005; revised April 14, 2005.