France to try 2 Americans for theft of 1814 treaty

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Paris criminal court agreed Thursday to hear a case involving two Americans in connection with the theft of an original copy of the 1814 treaty in which Napoleon renounced any claim to rule France, judicial officials said. John William Rooney and Marshall Lawrence Pierce were charged in connection with the 1988 theft of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed by Napoleon, from France's National Archives. No date was set for the trial of Rooney, a 74-year-old retired college professor, and Pierce, 44, in a criminal court to face charges of receiving stolen goods, the officials said.