Weapons of Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy sold at auctions

10/1/2012

LITTLETON, N.H. — Pistols found on the bodies of famed Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after they were killed by a posse in 1934 and a gun that once belonged to Butch Cassidy all sold Sunday at two separate auctions.

A snub-nosed .38 special found taped to the inside of Parker’s thigh with white medical tape fetched $264,000 at an auction in Nashua, N.H. A Colt .45 recovered from the waistband of Barrow’s pants was purchased for $240,000.

The guns owned by Parker, who died at age 23, and Barrow, who was 25, were purchased by a Texas collector.

“They’re still iconic and their love story kind of resonates,” said Bobby Livingston, vice president of RR Auction, which 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 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. 

A posse of Texas Rangers and Louisiana police killed the two in an early morning ambush in northern Louisiana in 1934.

In southern California, meanwhile, a .45-caliber gun once owned by Butch Cassidy sold for $175,000.

A spokesman for the private seller said the Colt Single Action Army revolver went to an anonymous online bidder.

Cassidy, the infamous Old West bank robber, bought the revolver in a hardware store in Vernal, Utah, in 1896. 

He turned it over to Utah authorities in early 1900 in an unsuccessful attempt to gain amnesty. Known as the “Amnesty Colt,” it is the most documented of Cassidy’s guns.