In March 2012, Raymond R. Scott was found dead in his prison cell, after, apparently, having cut his own throat. It was the final tragic act in one of the most colourful criminal cases ever held in the English courts.
The story begins in 1998 when a rare copy of a Shakespeare First Folio was stolen from Durham University.
Authorities had been stumped for a decade as to the Folio’s fate until Raymond Scott strolled into the world-renowned Folger Library in Washington DC and asked to have a very similar copy authenticated.
Scott wanted to sell the First Folio, worth in the region of £1 million, in order to live the high life with his beautiful 21-year-old Cuban dancer girlfriend whom he had met during one of his frequent trips to Havana. The flamboyant Scott had a taste for Ferraris, Lamborghinis and vintage champagne, yet had spent most of his time living with his aged mother, Hannah, on social security payments in a modest home in Washington, Tyne on Wear.
In one of the many strange twists in the case, he claimed that he had obtained the book from a friend in Cuba who was a former bodyguard to President Fidel Castro. Scott, who never took the stand, was eventually jailed for eight years for handling stolen goods, but was cleared of stealing the First Folio.
Over an 18-month period, from just after his arrest, Scott provided a series of interviews to reporter Mike Kelly during which new evidence emerged, including the naming of a possible second suspect.
Shakespeare & Love explores the true story behind the theft and journey of the Durham Shakespeare First Folio and reveals for the first time the full character of the man dubbed by the press as ‘Bling Lear’.
The story begins in 1998 when a rare copy of a Shakespeare First Folio was stolen from Durham University.
Authorities had been stumped for a decade as to the Folio’s fate until Raymond Scott strolled into the world-renowned Folger Library in Washington DC and asked to have a very similar copy authenticated.
Scott wanted to sell the First Folio, worth in the region of £1 million, in order to live the high life with his beautiful 21-year-old Cuban dancer girlfriend whom he had met during one of his frequent trips to Havana. The flamboyant Scott had a taste for Ferraris, Lamborghinis and vintage champagne, yet had spent most of his time living with his aged mother, Hannah, on social security payments in a modest home in Washington, Tyne on Wear.
In one of the many strange twists in the case, he claimed that he had obtained the book from a friend in Cuba who was a former bodyguard to President Fidel Castro. Scott, who never took the stand, was eventually jailed for eight years for handling stolen goods, but was cleared of stealing the First Folio.
Over an 18-month period, from just after his arrest, Scott provided a series of interviews to reporter Mike Kelly during which new evidence emerged, including the naming of a possible second suspect.
Shakespeare & Love explores the true story behind the theft and journey of the Durham Shakespeare First Folio and reveals for the first time the full character of the man dubbed by the press as ‘Bling Lear’.
