$75,000.00 Dollar Gem goes Missing from Carnegie Museum Collection in 1981 never to be seen again

I will never forget sitting at a Pittsburgh Mineral & Lapidary Society meeting in late 70s when Del Oswald a curator with the Carnegie Natural  History Museum presented the plans for a brand new Hillman Hall to show off the museums collection which had been hidden away for years . he fought many years to get the hall built as museum officials where always trying to eliminate the collection but in the end Del won out.

http://www.carnegiemnh.org/online/hillman/

They had a grand opening and with in a few weeks of opening a major gem was missing from the collection despite excellent security system.  which is described in article from Pittsburgh post gazette .

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19841007&id=3xEdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IJYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3536,3825841

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2002&dat=19810727&id=WK0iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=77EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4669,5623068
 After the robbery I asked Del would he like me to look the security over  to see if there was a hole some where since I worked with alarm systems  he said No.  Which got me suspicious this $75,000.00 gem gone and its all hush hush whats going on.Also why was just this stone targeted  It really seemed like an inside job but why?  You could not sell a stone like that legitimately and cutting it down into smaller stones would not make it worth any where near what it was whole .

But then a couple years later things would get very interesting and bring down many big names in the city on tax evasion charges . Del Oswald  personally and with out the museums knowledge was caught up in a tax avoidance scam  run by some  gem dealers where a donor would buy a a raw uncut stone which might cost $1500.00  and an additional $500.00 to have it cut but then they would give them to museum at a cut value  and get a deduction letter for $10,000.00  retail price gem was worth . not the $2000.00 it cost and where taking an illegal $8000.00 deduction

Eventually the whole thing unraveled and many got caught and had to pay up and I have always wondered was this tax scam the reason the stone disappeared? as it would have been part of the scam being run and traced to some one even higher up the food chain the IRS could target? 

Of course we will never know and Del and many of the donors have since passed on and the gem still missing and its story as yet untold. 
The last time I saw Del was at a mineral club meeting where he explained the whole tax scam and how it worked while no one went to jail it cost plenty of $$$ for those involved  to get out of this mess ,and who ever stole the stone the statute of limitations has since log run out and they got away clean 

A Horrific Crime on Pittsburghs North Side 11 yr old Scott C. Drake molested murdered and mutilated They got his suposed Killer . But did they get everyone involved ?

While working in the North Side of Pittsburgh in late 90's involved with turning some old buildings into a Photography Museum You often would encounter the homeless who walked the streets  at all hours of the day and night. 2 older guys in particular you would see all the time begging for money often at the corner of Madison and East Ohio Street. They where a fixture for several months and you never saw one with out the other. We would later learn one of them was named Cornelius when we saw what had happened

http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20001022cornelius2.asp

It was kind of comical these 2 guys as they would wonder around the north side everybody liked them and would give them change  . They often hung out at intersection of Madison and East Ohio where the Arc house Alcohol Recovery Center operated  across from the scene  where the crime happened . But then there was a 3rd guy who showed up on the North side and he looked a lot like  the bigger of the homeless pair and dressed the same who wondered around the north side. Many times when we had a crew of guys on a project we would have extra pizza left over from lunch and offer it to them  But the 3rd guy who looked like Corneluis  was not very sociable and kept to him self.

But then one evening on the news there was a horrifying crime. A young boy 11yr old Scott C. Drake had been raped mutilated and murdered and by that morning they had a suspect Mr. Cornelius?

 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20000929&id=z3ZLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3n0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7323,6221831

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20001002&id=iRBZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=028DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6111,2997793

We where all shocked how could this be you never saw Mr Cornelius with out his partner and what about the guy who looked just like him. Needless to say we contacted the detectives Did they have the right guy?  because we all knew about the other guy who looked a lot like him  and besides no one ever saw Cornelius around any one other than his partner .

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20001004&id=ixBZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=028DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3032,3511917

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20001005&id=jBBZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=028DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6767,4161082

Scene of the crime  now all changed since reconstruction this empty lot was once all heavily wooded

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20000929&id=z3ZLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3n0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819,6149954

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=20000928&id=a5wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=COkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6852,3254855

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=20001003&id=I6AvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K6MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3897,3154855

Of course we where ignored  including us asking abut where the guys smaller partner was ?

As soon as the arrest went down the guy who looked like Cornelius was no where to be seen and neither was his partner had they fled out of fear?  Where they possibly involved in the crime ?  or where they victim's of foul play as well ? What about the ARC House all those possible suspects right there who could have been involved right across the street ?
We will never know because our concerns where dismissed. Concerns Mr Cornelius attorney  John Elash should have known about .

Even Mr. Cornelius attorney John Elash did not think Cornelius could have done it just did not seem to fit his profile
But he was convicted and confessed but was it cohearsed   was blood evidence ,finger prints etc presented during the trail ? DNA was just starting to be developed so I do not know if that was used during the trail the jury came to the scene but where never told about the partner or the 3rd look a like man .
 To my knowledge no appeal has ever been filed. As far as the courts are concerned justice was done but was it?  I do not think we have heard the last of this case at some point some group may go back and look at it and take a second look and a harder look at the guy who looked and dressed like Cornelius and his partner .

A small tree  was planted near the intersection in memory of Scott Drake  which was later torn out by mistake by Penn Dot when they rebuilt the interchange for I-279 and route 28 and Penn Dot has since installed a new tree and small marker in his memory.

Memorial to Drake  small tree and marker

30 years later still no answers Who Killed Billy G?

Billy  G.was a kind hearted soul he lived in an old van  along Old Leechburg Road in semi rural  Plum Boro  at Paglianos Auto Body which has since changed names and owners  .He would  Always come out and great you with a cheerful smile when you brought him a carrot or apple  .
But you see Billy G. was not a person he was in fact a Billy Goat a very large blond one at that who kept the grass neat and trim in front of the business and he was kept on a long chain

and walked among the many old vehicles that sat in the front yard which as you can see by the current picture have all been removed. It was a cold winter night when Billy G. Was attacked and killed the apparent victim of a hit and run even thou his chain would not allow him to get that far down on the road. The plum police  took a report and there was a big splash in the local paper including in big letters spray painted on billy G.'s Van he called  home  " Who Killed Billy G. " but know one ever came forward and a deliberate case of animal cruelty never went any where else.
Yet all these years later it seems those involved might still be hurting animals as there have been consistent reports over the years of horses ,donkeys etc being hurt by being deliberately run over or shot in the eastern section of Allegheny County and Westmoreland and Indiana county's.

We can only hope there is a special place in Hell for people who hurt gods creatures  be it 2 footed human or 4 footed with fur.

A Mysterious Grotto on a hill side in Bellevue Pa. always locked but carefully attended

The first time I saw the Franciscan Grotto  on the hillside along Oak Street in Bellevue Pa. was when I was a young child in 1960's  my father had stopped with my mom and brothers to see his good friend while he was hospitalized at Suburban General Hospital . It was just getting dark when we noticed the faint light of  devotional candles coming from the hill side .

What was this mysterious place on a hill surrounded by a a locked wrought iron gate ?

Well it turns out it once  belonged to a group of Franciscan 's  whose Holy Family  Friary is located on the other side of the grotto and it was built during the depression era in the form of the famous grotto at Lourdes France.
Where the apparition of the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to 3 children.

http://old.post-gazette.com/neigh_north/20010704nshrine4.asp

 I remember the story well having attended St Basil's Grade School and seeing a  B&W  movie about the event  in the church basement one time while attending the school.

 While at one time the grotto was used for services it has been  closed to the public for over 30 years 

 and is now maintained by community volunteers and employees of the former Suburban general which is no longer a emergency room type hospital but rehab and skilled nursing center. which now owns the property  But you can still see the faint glow of devotional candles as you pass in the evenings.