The Thief Who Stole Revolutionary War-Era Rifle In Valley Forge Gets Sentenced Tuesday

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — A man who pleaded guilty this summer to stealing a Revolutionary War-era rifle in 1971 from what is now the Valley Forge National Historical Park and selling it to an antiques dealer in 2018 is scheduled to face a federal judge Tuesday to learn his fate for the crime.

Thomas Gavin is to be sentenced Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office and court records.

In January, after waiving grand jury indictment, Gavin was charged via a "criminal information" with one count of disposal of an object of cultural heritage for stealing an antique rifle from a locked area of the visitor center in Valley Forge Park.

He pleaded guilty to the one count in the federal case against him this summer, records show.

Defendants are typically charged via a criminal information, as opposed to an indictment, when it is apparent that they intend to plead guilty to their crimes.

According to the criminal information against him, Gavin stole the Christian Oerter Rifle in early October 1971 from what was then the Valley Forge State Park Museum. (Valley Forge was a state park before it became a national historical park). Gavin took it from a case in which it was displayed at the museum.

Federal prosecutors said that Gavin sold the rifle, which is worth in excess of $175,000, to a "person known to the United States Attorney," the criminal information states. That person was identified in court documents as antiques dealer Kelly Kinzle.

Gavin resides in Pottstown borough in Montgomery County, and he had sold the Oerter rifle — along with another rifle, a trunk filled with more than 20 antique pistols, and a Native American silver conch belt — out of his home to Kinzle, for a total of $27,150, according to the plea memorandum in the case.

The case is remarkable because Gavin held onto the rifle for around five decades between the time of the theft it and the time he sold it, according to authorities.

According to court documents, the rifle in question was made in 1775 by Oerter, who was the chief gunsmith of the rifle works near Christian's Spring, Pennsylvania, and was considered the only such rifle known to have survived with its original flint mechanism bearing Oerter's name, as well as the site and date of manufacturer.

The Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution had purchased the .50-caliber rifle in the summer of 1963 and subsequently placed it on loan with the Valley Forge Historical Society, according to court records.

The PSSR then transferred the loan of the rifle from the historical society to the Valley Forge State Park Commission for display in the Valley Forge Park reception center.

Gavin stole the rifle on Oct. 2, 1971, during a visit to the park, authorities said. An archived Philadelphia Inquirer report said that Gavin used a crowbar or similar tool to break into what was considered to be an unbreakable display case at the Valley Forge reception center.

Gavin admitted to the theft in February 2020 when questioned by FBI agents and Montgomery County detectives.

Gavin is to be sentenced at 10 a.m.Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney. Records show that Gavin has been out on bail pending sentencing.

According to the plea memorandum, Gavin faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment.