[MSN] Guilty plea in theft of Theodore Roosevelt gun from Sagamore Hill National Historical Site.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Dec 1, 2006 

Guilty plea in theft of Theodore Roosevelt gun from LI museum

By DINO HAZELL
Associated Press Writer
A Florida man who stole the gun Theodore Roosevelt used in the
Spanish-American War's most famous battle has pleaded guilty to violating a
law designed to protect cherished U.S. antiquities, prosecutors said.

Anthony Joseph Tulino, a postal worker from DeLand, Fla., who was living in
New York, pleaded guilty to a violation of the American Antiquities Act of
1906, which Roosevelt signed into law. It prohibits the theft of relics from
U.S. government property.

Tulino, 55, faces up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"Today's guilty plea effectively ends a 16-year-old mystery, and a treasured
piece of American history has been returned to the public," U.S. Attorney
Roslynn Mauskopf said Thursday in a statement.

Roosevelt carried the 1892 double-action six-shot revolver when he was
serving as the regimental commander of the Rough Riders during the charge up
Cuba's San Juan Hill in 1898.

The gun was stolen in April 1990 from the Sagamore Hill National Historical
Site, Roosevelt's former home in Oyster Bay, N.Y. The revolver, a
cornerstone of Sagamore Hill's collection, had been in a display case that
had no alarm.

The FBI recovered the gun this year. It was returned to Sagamore Hill, which
was Roosevelt's home from 1885 until his death in 1919.

A telephone at the office of Tulino's attorney, Thomas Sommerville, rang
unanswered Thursday night, and Sommerville didn't immediately return an
e-mail seeking comment. He had declined to comment when his client was
charged earlier this month.

Police were tipped off after Tulino's best friend saw the gun, which was
kept in a closet at his Florida home.

The .38-caliber Colt revolver originally was acquired by the U.S. government
for the Navy in 1895. It was in the armory of the USS Maine when the
battleship mysteriously sank in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15, 1898, leading to
the war. It was recovered during a salvage mission by one of Roosevelt's
relatives, who gave it to him.

An inscription on the revolver, which was valued at up to $500,000, reads,
"July 1st, 1898, San Juan, Carried and Used by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt,