(The Associated Press distributed the following article by Jim Fitzgerald on May 30.)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — An ex-wife who was convicted of stealing 1,400 pictures taken by famed railroad photographer O. Winston Link was arrested again Thursday after some of his photos showed up for sale on eBay.
Conchita Mendoza Link, 67, and a man who lived with herwere taken into custody in Millerton, N.Y., on charges ofconspiracy to sell stolen property, said David Hebert, aspokesman for Westchester County District Attorney JeaninePirro.
Link, of Gettysburg, Pa., and Edward Hayes, 63, allegedlytried to sell 30 stolen photographs to a Westchester resident.The district attorney’s office said it did not know if thesuspects had attorneys.
Pirro said someone tipped her office about the photos oneBay. Her investigators met with the dealer offering them, who was unaware they were stolen. He led investigators to Conchita Link, who had been visiting relatives in Millerton.
Authorities now have the photographs.
In a 1996 trial in White Plains, Conchita Link was convicted of grand larceny for stealing the photographer’s classic prints, then worth $2 million.
She was sentenced to more than six years in prison, and was still on parole when she was re-arrested, Hebert said. If convicted of the conspiracy charge, she and Hayes could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
The photos were never recovered, and O. Winston Link died in 2001 at age 86. His lawyer, J. Edward Meyer, said typical Link prints sell for $2,500 to $5,000.
O. Winston Link was best known for documenting the end of American steam railroading with dramatically lighted photographs of engines puffing smoke into the nighttime country air.