Bonnie and Clydes handguns going up for sale

[internet troll]

http://www.history.com/news/guns-fou...brain_HIS_HITH

I always enjoy history and Bonnie and Clyde are a fascinating part of it. The handguns that were on them when they were killed are up for sale. Predictions are $100,000 per gun.

Notice that their guns were given to one of the people who killed them as part of the bounty. Today I imagine that they would be tagged for evidence then destroyed vs. ever letting anyone take ownership of it.



Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were partners in both crime and love. Nearly 80 years after the lives of history’s most famous gangster couple ended in a hailstorm of bullets, it has been announced that the personal handguns found on their bodies will be sold to the highest bidder this September.
Bonnie Parker’s gun, found taped to her thigh after her death. (RR Auction)

On the morning of May 23, 1934, a stolen Ford V-8 automobile kicked up a cloud of dust as it sped down a dirt road near Sailes, Louisiana. Inside was America’s most infamous duo—Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. For nearly two years, the outlaws—and lovers—had captured headlines as they eluded authorities on one of the most notorious crime sprees in history. Along with the “Barrow Gang,” Bonnie and Clyde had gone on a binge of kidnappings, murders and robberies, knocking off banks, country stores and gas stations throughout the South and Midwest. While there are conflicting accounts as to whether Bonnie ever fired a shot, according to the FBI the couple is believed to have committed 13 murders

The 1934 Ford driven by Clyde through the Louisiana pines that morning was a veritable arsenal on wheels. Inside were three Browning Automatic Rifles, two sawed-off shotguns, almost a dozen handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. In case that wasn’t enough, tucked inside Clyde’s waistband was a Colt .45 Army pistol, believed to have been stolen from the federal arsenal in Beaumont, Texas. Concealed beneath Bonnie’s red dress was a Colt .38 revolver taped to her inner thigh with white medical adhesive tape.
Clyde Barrow’s gun, found inside his waistband after his death. (RR Auction)

“Seldom did anyone ever live when Clyde got the first shot,” warned a newsreel of the day. On this day, however, Clyde never even had a chance to grab for his Colt. A six-man posse led by retired Texas Ranger captain Frank Hamer, hiding in the bushes on the side of the dirt byway, unleashed a fatal blizzard of gunshots into the vehicle carrying Bonnie and Clyde. The lawmen emptied their automatic rifles, then their shotguns and then their pistols. They pumped more than 130 rounds of steel-jacketed bullets into the car. The duo was killed nearly instantly. When the authorities opened the doors of the automobile after the ambush, they found Bonnie’s body leaning on Clyde’s.

As part of his bounty, Hamer was given the Colt Model 1911 U.S. Army pistol recovered from Clyde’s waistband and the snub-nose detective special revolver found on Bonnie’s leg. The guns were passed down to Hamer’s son and then sold to a private collector. Last week, New Hampshire-based RR Auction announced that the guns, along with other personal effects recovered from Bonnie and Clyde’s perforated car, will be sold to the highest bidder during a live auction on September 30.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in a photograph from the early 1930s. (Library of Congress)

Bobby Livingston of RR Auction said he expects each gun to go for at least $100,000. “As far as handguns connected to Bonnie and Clyde, these are the finest you can have as a collector,” he said. “They were on the market last in 1986, so we are obviously getting intense interest. These items are as close to Bonnie and Clyde as you can get.”

Other items up for sale include Bonnie’s light brown leatherette cosmetic case—minus the lipstick, box of face powder and powder puff that were found inside after the ambush. Another item up for bid is Clyde’s Elgin pocket watch, which has a 10-karat gold-filled screw-back case. The watch was among the personal effects returned to Clyde’s father, along with his body. Clyde’s father wore the watch in memory of his son for more than 20 years until his death.
More than 100 other lots that are part of RR Auction’s “Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen” collection will be up for bid on September 30, including a letter written by John Dillinger from prison and a handwritten score of “Madonna Mia,” a song composed by Al Capone while he was incarcerated at Alcatraz.

[cdi]

A fitting end to a pair of antisocial shit-birds...

[snakeman21]

That's awesome. I'd love to own just one of them.

[thundrr1]

The auction was last year.......

[internet troll]

The auction was last year.......

I guess that explains the July 16th 2012 at the top of the article. Good catch.


Sooooooo..... In other news Bonnie and Clyde's guns sold for $504,000

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012...or-504000?lite

LITTLETON, N.H. - Two pistols found on the bodies of famed Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after they were killed by a posse in 1934 sold at auction Sunday for $504,000.

A snub-nosed .38 special found attached to the inside of Parker's thigh with white medical tape fetched $264,000 at an auction in Nashua, New Hampshire.
She taped the gun to her thigh, because, according to a document obtained by the auction house, "In those days, no gentleman officer would search a woman where she had it taped and there were very few women police officers."

The auction house had initially valued the piece between $150,000 and $200,000.

A Colt .45 -- valued between $150,000 and $200,000 -- recovered from the waistband of Barrow's pants -- fetched $240,000. According to a YouTube produced by the auction house, the gun was plucked from the bandit's body by Frank Hamer, the relentless posse leader who tracked Bonnie and Clyde.

The guns owned by Parker, who died at age 23, and Barrow, who was 25, were purchased by a Texas collector who wished to remain anonymous.
"They're still iconic and their love story kind of resonates," said Bobby Livingston, vice president of RR Auction, the company that conducted the sale. "We have a romanticized vision of Bonnie and Clyde."
The hunt for the outlaw lovers captured the nation's imagination during the depths of the Great Depression. The duo were believed to have committed 13 murders and numerous bank robberies, kidnappings and car thefts during a cross-country crime spree from 1932 to 1934. Their fame was heightened by their practice of leaving glamorous photos of themselves at crime scenes, including one of Parker smoking a cigar.

A popular 1967 movie, "Bonnie and Clyde," a somewhat romanticized account of the couple's career starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was critically acclaimed for its frank presentation of sex and violence.
Among other crimes, the two are thought to have killed police officers in Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma. They were also suspected of staging a prison break in Waldo, Texas, that left two prison guards dead in 1934.
A posse of Texas Rangers and Louisiana police killed the two in an early morning ambush in northern Louisiana in May of that year. The posse then recovered the items from the couple's bullet-ridden car. In those days, the auction house video stated, the posse could keep the items. They weren't kept for investigation as they would be now.
The guns auctioned off came from the estate of memorabilia collector Robert Davis, who had purchased them in 1986 for about $50,000 each, Livingston said.

A gold pocket watch found on Barrow's body sold for $36,000. Other items included a 1921 Morgan silver dollar taken from Barrow's jacket fetched $32,400, and one of Parker's silk stockings, taken from the couple's car after their death, which went for $11,400.