Historian Sentenced For Selling Blood-Stained WWII Dog Tags

WASHINGTON, DC — The historian who stole World War II dog tags from the National Archives in D.C. and advertised their "stains of fuel, blood" when he sold them has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail and tens of thousands of dollars in fines, according to a report.

The Washington Post reports that Antonin DeHayes, 33, of College Park, Maryland — a historian at the National Archives who pleaded guilty to the crime earlier this year — pointed out the blood, fire, and fuel stains on the metal of the dog tags when he put them up for sale.

DeHayes was sentenced on Monday by a federal judge in Maryland to 364 days in prison, and he was ordered to pay more than $43,000 in restitution to the buyers who purchased the items. Many of the items came from the bodies of fallen servicemen.

According to the plea agreement, from December 2012 through June 2017, DeHays stole and sold U.S. service members’ dog tags and other records from the public research room at the National Archives at College Park. Prosecutors say DeHays stole at least 291 U.S. service members’ dog tags and at least 134 other records from the institution.

For example, on or about December 9, 2016, DeHays visited the National Archives and stole two dog tags, one silver and one brass, issued to a downed Tuskegee Airman, who died when his fighter plane crashed in Germany on Sept. 22, 1944. DeHays gave the brass dog tag to a military aviation museum in exchange for the opportunity to sit inside a Spitfire airplane.

In a separate incident, court documents say DeHays stole two dog tags that were linked together with a wire loop. One of the dog tags was issued to a U.S. serviceman who served in World War II, and the other dog tag was issued to his father, who had served in World War I.

DeHays stole other records, in addition to dog tags, from the National Archives at College Park, including identification cards, personal letters, photographs, a bible, and pieces of downed U.S. aircraft.

Although DeHays kept some of the stolen dog tags and records for himself and gave others as gifts, he sold most of the stolen items on eBay and elsewhere. Before selling the dog tags, DeHays sometimes removed from the markings made in pencil which could have been used to identify the dog tags as having been stolen from the National Archives.

Authorities say that on one occasion, DeHays sent a text message to a potential buyer stating that certain dog tags for sale were “burnt and show some stains of fuel, blood . . . very powerful items that witness the violence of the crash.” Another time he texted a customer that a dog tag for sale was “salty” (bearing the signs of war-related damage) and that an officer ID and American Red Cross ID for sale were “partially burned.”

DeHays had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Additional report by Patch editor Deb Belt

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