Auction house hopes to make a killing
An auction house is selling the personal firearms of Texas born outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Beatty, the most famous criminal duo in American history.
RR Auction's Bobby Livingston says the guns which are to be sold are the weapons which were found on their bodies when they were killed in an ambush in Bienville Parish Louisiana on May 23, 1934.
"The two things they took from Bonnie and Clyde were a gun that was strapped to Bonnie Parker's thigh, and a gun that was in Clyde Barrow's waistband," Livingston told 1200 WOAI news.
Livingston says the guns were the only items which were taken from Bonnie and Clyde's bodies which were not returned to their families along with their bodies. The guns were in the collection of the late author and collector Robert E. Davis of Waco. Davis also owned several key Alamo and early Texas history artifacts which RR Auction has also sold on line.
"Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer led the posse that captured and killed Bonnie and Clyde, and as part of his contract with the state of Texas, he was allowed to keep these possessions," Livingston said.
Davis also possessed several letters written by Bonnie, Clyde, and Clyde's mother, all of which were used in the writing of Davis' best selling took "Blanch Barrow: The Last Victim of Bonnie and Clyde."
"That's what makes this gun significant," Livingston said, pointing out that several other Bonnie and Clyde weapons, including a shotgun Bonnie was holding in a famous photo of the pair, have come up for auction in recent years. "This is the gun that Frank Hamer took from Clyde's waistband.
Livingston estimates that the weapons, a .38 caliber snub-nose detective special revolver, and a .45 which the gang stole form the federal arsenal in Beaumont, are expected to fetch as much as $200,000 apiece.
