Cold Case Cracked: Pistol Stolen Nearly 50 Years Ago Returned To Mercer Museum

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Artifacts stolen by one man from a whopping seven museums in the region were returned in a repatriation ceremony Friday, some 50 years after they were taken.

The Bucks County Historical Society said in a release Monday that the FBI had returned a late-18th century English flintlock boarding pistol to the local Mercer Museum. Other historic artifacts were also returned to the American Swedish Historical Museum, Hershey Story Museum, Landis Valley Museum, Museum of the American Revolution, and York County History Center.

Several historic firearms from the 18th and 19th centuries were repatriated, as well as a Native American silver concho belt.

Thomas Gavin, 78, of Pottstown was convicted in these thefts from the 1960s and 1970s. Due in part to his age and declining health, he was sentenced this year to one day in prison and various fines.

“In law enforcement, as in any profession, there are good days and bad days," said Jacqueline Maguire, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. "Today, standing here along with our partners, is one of those good days. The absence of the items from these museums represented not just a physical or financial loss, but a loss to every visitor, every student, and every researcher who didn’t get to see the items over the years and missed out on important pieces of our nation’s heritage. The absence of these items was, for so long, a loss to the historical record.”

The recovery of the artifacts was made possible through the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team's Philadelphia division, the United States Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Upper Merion Township Police Department.

"To recover an object stolen from a museum is a tremendous thing," Cory Amsler, vice president of collections and interpretation with the Bucks County Historical Society, said. "But to recognize that the object, once returned, can also help to tell an important and compelling story about a dramatic time period in Bucks County history makes its recovery that much more valuable."

At the time of its disappearance, the pistol taken from the museum was on display in an exhibit case on the third floor of the Mercer Museum in downtown Doylestown. In the 1990s, when reviewing a comprehensive inventory of the Mercer Museum’s collection, the pistol could not be located and was officially recorded as “missing."

The pistol was among items donated to the museum by the great-granddaughter of General Augustine Willet. Willet served as a captain of militia at the onset of the American Revolution, later being promoted to a major and lieutenant colonel. In 1800, he was commissioned brigadier general of the Bucks County militia.

"The Mercer Museum looks forward to including the pistol in its displays in the future," the historical society wrote in a release.

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