Now that I have your attention, this is from Boing Boing this morning:

James Randi’s letter from Doug Henning is stolen and on eBay
Joseph sez, “Here’s a letter I (and others on the JREF mailing list) got from James Randi concerning a letter Doug Henning wrote to him which Randi states was stolen and is currently for sale on eBay:”

Item #6535581498 now being offered for sale on eBay is a letter written and sent to me by Doug Henning in 1983. At that time, I lived in Rumson, New Jersey. Until I saw it on eBay a few days ago, I thought it was still in my Henning file, but it apparently was stolen from me sometime after 1995, when I last referred to it.
If any of you have heard scuttlebutt about this item, I’d like to hear from you. I cannot discover who offered it for sale, but I assure you I treasured it highly.

James Randi.

 

The eBay auction is here. Anyone with information on this should contact Randi.

Update 6/1/2005 2:30 p.m.:
When contacted with a copy of the Randi mailing list note, the seller responded (in the Ask the Seller section of the auction):

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Randi’s public posting about the letter has made its way to many hundreds (or thousands) of his followers. As we stated to Mr. Randi early on, we would not bow to extortion or pressures or threats as we are not even the owner of this letter, we are a bonded, licensed Trading Assistant selling it under written contract for the ex-wife of Mr. Randi’s foster son and former assistant. Our understanding is that the letter came to be in this person’s possession much longer ago than Mr. Randi states, the client says she believes it came to her ex-husband in the 1980s. Regardless, Mr. Randi’s claim that the letter was stolen is contradicted by our client’s written statement and contract. His attempts to extort the item from us using public embarassment were completely inappropriate and not appreciated. Mr. Randi was informed that a proper police report would start the ball rolling towards resolution but that report just arrived yesterday May 31st.”

Update 6/2/2005 8:00 a.m.:
Well, the seller ended the eBay auction, using the “The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale.” option.

This is the message the seller left:

“To the many individuals who either bid on this item or contacted us–this letter was the property of the ex-spouse to Mr. Randi’s foster son and former assistant. The ex-spouse believed the item was lawfully hers and brought it to us for listing. Mr. Randi asked us to give it back and we informed him to provide a police report first and we would give that document to our client. Instead of handling this professionally, he implied to the public that the item was stolen when in fact it appears the letter was acquired by his foster son when they were together. It appears that Mr. Randi felt the letter valuable after the death of Mr. Henning and he now takes the position that the letter was stolen but he did not file a police report until this Tuesday, some 10 or 5 years after his alleged “theft” (depending upon whether you believe his email or his police report.) Mr. Randi chose to air this laundry out in the public instead of doing the right thing and simply allowing the matter to take its course which would have been resolved amicably between the parties. We never end any listing until all facts are verified and the police report was not given to us until after he sent out a bunch of emails and even spammed our bidders in violation of eBay policy. We asked Mr. Randi to handle the matter through proper channels and he did it is “own” ostentatious way. The client, after hearing of Mr. Randi’s issue with the sale of this letter had agreed to return it to Mr. Randi, even though his claims were a stretch and any possibility of a legal claim were far past any statute of limitations. We feel sorry for both parties because the client had a valuable item she believes was hers to sell and Mr. Randi wanted something person back, but his actions and the way in which he hurt our reputation in the public to try and pressure us to simply return the item was reprehensible. We have a high reputation for honesty and fair dealing and Mr. Randi made it seem as though we simply were fencing this “hot” property. The matter was much more complex than that and we deserved better treatment from Mr. Randi.”

Update 6/3/2005 10:30 p.m.:
…and they lived happily ever after.

(Thanks Dustin.)