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True Crime Collector Skulduggery: R.L. Wilson and the “Trade of the Century”

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R.L. Wilson was a pillar of the firearms collecting community, and especially the Colt collecting community, in the 1970s and 80s. He wrote a slew of books on Colt, and was a major broker, dealer, and appraiser. He also betrayed the trust people put in him, as best exemplified by the “trade of the century”, in which he swindled 290 firearms out of the Connecticut State Library museum in exchange for 8 guns and a cane (including two stolen guns and two later generally accepted to be fakes). Today we will talk about that story…

If you want to hear more about Wilson’s work, I would encourage you to subscribe to support C&Rsenal on Patreon, and check out the two-hour podcast Othais and Cody Museum Associate Curator Danny Michael did on the topic:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/unloaded-30-45416855?

You can also download a huge PDF or Connecticut State Police files on the investigation to read yourself:

http://www.forgottenweapons.com/true-crime-collector-skullduggery-r-l-wilson-and-the-trade-of-the-century/

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