The "League of St. Christopher" Scam

Occasionally, these odd little medals show up for sale online or are donated to museum at Mission San Juan Capistrano. The unusual part isn't the obverse (front), which is a typical "St. Christopher medal" of the kind often worn or carried by Roman Catholics for protection while traveling. The mystery begins on the reverse, which includes the text, "Postage Guaranteed / Drop in any mailbox / The League of St. Christopher / San Juan Capistrano / California." So what was that all about? No one in San Juan Capistrano seems to know.

The League of St. Christopher was launched in the early 1950s, nominally as a private operation to raise funds for historical restoration work at Mission San Juan Capistrano. However, the League had absolutely no affiliation with the Mission. 

Former radio announcer and one-time movie producer ("Adam Had Four Sons") Robert C. Sherwood of Van Nuys was the founder, president, and seemingly only member of the League. He sent out at least 300,000 requests for donations by mail -- primarily to addresses in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia. The League's letterhead featured an image of the Mission and gave the impression of a connection to that historic site.  

Sherwood had started manufacturing "religious items" by 1951. Presumably, these items were the "League of St. Christopher/Mission San Juan Capistrano" medals that were likely included with the requests for donations. (Many can be found on eBay today.) 

Hollywood's youngest producer (age 29), Robert C. Sherwood, in 1940. (AP Photo)

In July 1958, when Sherwood was forty-seven years old, he was prosecuted by the Feds for tax evasion and nineteen counts of mail fraud. More than forty witnesses, including his own parents, testified against him. It seems the League was a scam in which Sherwood kept all the money for himself -- buying a home, a new Cadillac, etc. Moreover, he never claimed any of this income on his taxes. 

Sherwood also replicated the scam with another group he invented called the National Child Safety Council.

In 1950, he was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on nineteen counts of mail fraud. He lucked out when the prosecutor couldn't gather enough evidence before the statute of limitations ran out. But that wasn't where it ended.

On August 30, 1958, Sherwood was given a one-year suspended sentence and put on five years' probation for tax evasion and was ordered to pay taxes on $23,000 -- a fraction of the more than $150,000 he'd taken in from the League scam. 

In January 1961, Sherwood committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at his Sunset Strip apartment in Hollywood after an argument with his wife.

"Wait. Back up. What about the 'Postage Guaranteed / Drop in any mailbox' part of the medallion?" I hear someone ask. 

The League offered members a lifetime key return service for $1. If the medal was lost, the idea was that it could be dropped in any mailbox and thus returned to the League, which would match the stamped serial number on the medallion to their membership records and then return the medallion (presumably attached to the owner's ring of keys) to the owner. 

However, if anyone ever found a ring of keys with this medallion attached and dropped it in a mailbox, they didn't accomplish much. No one in San Juan Capistrano had ever heard of the League of St. Christopher.