Rare $200,000 ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ Guns Go Up for Auction - East Idaho News
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Rare $200,000 ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ Guns Go Up for Auction

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3248806?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1348714339164Hulton Archive/Getty Images(NASHUA, N.H.) — The story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the love-struck bandits who rose to fame during America’s “public enemy” era before suffering a violent death at the hands of police, has resonated across generations, spawning films, music, even an annual festival. Starting Sept. 30, some of the most crucial pieces of that iconic American story will be for sale to the public.

The center piece of the auction, which is being held at RR Auction at the Crowne Plaza Nashua, in New Hampshire, is a Colt .38 detective special revolver. The revolver, nicknamed “the squat gun” because Bonnie was squatting on it at the time of her death, was found taped to Bonnie’s thigh after she was shot and killed by Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer and his posse. Hamer later speculated that it was hidden there because it is one of the few locations “no gentleman officer would search.”

RR Auction vice president Bobby Livingston told ABC News that he estimated the gun would sell for between $100,000 and $200,000, but added, “the sky is the limit on artifacts that have this type of provenance.”

Also included in the auction is Bonnie Parker’s cosmetic’s case as well as numerous photos of the couple, including a few taken in the aftermath of the ambush that killed them. Also recovered from the scene is Clyde Barrow’s pocketwatch, which according to the auction house website is valued at somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Various other firearms belonging to the couple, as well as other famous gangsters of the time, are also up for auction, but none compare in value to the “squat gun” and the 1911 Army Colt .45 pistol that was removed from the dead Barrow’s waistband. Both are expected to sell for up to $200,000.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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