Babe Ruth will pops up on LI
Last Updated: 4:26 PM, July 26, 2010
Posted: 3:00 AM, July 26, 2010
He signed scads of autographs during a storied career, but the Sultan of Swat’s last one is getting all the attention.The last will and testament of Babe Ruth —complete with a shaky, misspelled "Georgge HermanRuth" signature — had been missing for at least nine years, stolen from a Manhattan court house only to wind up with a Long Island memorabilia collector, The Post has learned.
What happened in between seems to be as inscrutable as the infield fly rule. But the FBI is determined to unravel the circuitous route of the Babe’s last wishes, documented in 1948, to the Suffolk County home of tax preparer Mark Lewis.
"Babe Ruth may have signed a million autographs for fans during his life time, but this signature was, perhaps, his last," said Peter Nash, a former rap artist with the group Third Bass turned baseball historian who writes about stolen and fake baseball memorabilia on haulsofshame.com
The will had been missing Manhattan Surrogates Court for years.
"We know that the will was apparently stolen from Manhattan Surrogates Court, and we are looking into it," FBI Special Agent James Margolin told The Post.
Lewis had stepped up to the plate in 1999, reportedly buying the Bambino’s will for an eye-popping $30,000 and claiming he got it from the grandson of Ruth’s lawyer.
The will came back into the public eye in 2004, when Lewis tried to auction it off through Sotheby’s but the city asked the sale be stopped until it sort out who has legal ownership of the document.
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