Decades-long case involving stolen historic rifles has come to an end in Philadelphia American Revolution Museum. On March 13, a ceremony at the institution marked the recovery of more than 50 weapons stolen from 16 separate museums during the late 1960s and 1970s, including the Daniel Boone Farm in Pennsylvania, the Connecticut History Museumand the Beauvoir Museum in Biloxi Mississippi, USA today reported.
Beginning in 1968, historic pistols were allegedly stolen from collections across the United States. Museums often did not notice for weeks, months or years that their armories had been compromised. Cases all went cold until 2009, when Pennsylvania detectives Andrew Rathfon and Brendan Dougherty received a bogus tip involving a firearm removed from the Valley Forge Historical Society.
The couple then began a 14-year nationwide investigation which, through what Rathfon described to USA today like a few “flukes and confidential sources”, led them to the residence of Michael Kintner Corbett in Newark, Delaware. On May 24, 2017, a team led by FBI Art Crimes Agent Jake Archer searched Corbett’s home, uncovering an unprecedented hoard of missing historic firearms, the making of which spanned the entire story. of the United States, although none actually matched the description of the missing original. objects that motivated the search.
Corbett, a 73-year-old history buff, entered a plea deal for possession of stolen property in 2022, resulting in a single day in jail, 14 months house arrest and a $65,000 fine. According to his attorney, Barry Gross, Corbett never intended to sell the guns, only “to have them.” While a “large number” of Corbett’s weapons had been acquired through legitimate means from estate sales and flea markets, Corbett’s ability to lead officers to the once undisclosed locations of Valley Forge’s missing weapons told another story. Authorities could not prove Corbett’s involvement in the initial burglaries, although Assistant United States Attorney General KT Newton joked, “I’ll leave you to your own conclusions” when he was asked about it.
“We know that a number of firearms and other items stolen from the same museum at the same time were found in his home,” Newton said. USA today. “We also know that in the distant past, Michael Corbett himself was arrested and charged with burglary…at General Mansfield’s house, headquarters of the Middlesex County Historical Society in Connecticut.”
The March 13 ceremony at the Museum of the American Revolution brought together cultural heritage workers from across the United States, from the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts to the Delaware County Historical Society. “It gives you hope,” said ZeeAnn Mason, chief operating officer of the Museum of the American Revolution. “When 50 years later we are able to recover these items, it means there is still hope.”
