Mastro Judge Strikes Down Plea Agreement

[MW1]

Lifson’s close links to Halper also played a part in the New York Daily News’ shielding him from suspicion in the card-trimming scandal. Halper was a close personal friend of Daily News reporter Bill Madden, who acted throughout the years as Halper’s unofficial press agent. The Daily News has intentionally not reported about the Halper scandals because of Madden’s close ties to the former Yankee limited partner. In fact, reporter O’Keeffe has gone as far as reporting that the documentation of instances of sales of fraudulent artifacts by Halper are simply “accusations.”

In their book, “The Card,” Thompson and O’Keeffe lauded Halper as “The Babe Ruth of sports memorabilia,” and described the “truly historic” items in his collection including “Shoeless Joe Jackson’s Black Betsy bat,” and “Ty Cobb’s dentures and rifle Cobb’s mother used to shoot his father.” All of those items used as examples of Halper’s “Cooperstown South,” however, have been determined to be fraudulent artifacts as a result of investigative reports written by Haulsofshame.com and SABR researcher Ron Cobb.

So in other words, HallsofShame.com is claiming that Teri Thompson and Michael O'Keeffe, either knowingly or unknowingly, assisted in helping to cover-up and/or perpetuate fraud. While I cannot comment on these accusations, I do know that O'Keeffe makes some absolutely ridiculous claims about John Cobb and Ray Edward's bogus Honus Wagner and goes so far as to assert in his book that the card is likely authentic.