Search This Blog

Showing posts with label outlaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outlaw. Show all posts

Monday, April 21, 2014

The Revolver of Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow, the latter half of the infamous 'Bonnie & Clyde,' is one of most recognizable names from the Depression Era's list of unsavory characters.  As remembered for his relationship as his life of crime, Barrow began a humble Texas boy, but in his short 25 years on this earth, he grew into a part of American history.  One of Clyde Barrow's guns will be sold at Rock Island Auction Company's May 2014 Premiere Firearms Auction.  This Colt Army Special double action revolver is chambered in 38 Special and comes with three documents of provenance all signed by Texas lawmen.

Lot 1206: Historic Documented Colt Army Special Double Action Revolver Belonging to Public Enemy Era Outlaw Clyde Barrow

As mentioned Clyde Chestnut Barrow (whom the FBI labels "Clyde Champion Barrow," an alias provided by the outlaw himself) didn't exactly have the most illustrious of beginnings.  He was born on March 24, 1909, the fifth of seven children on a poor Texas farm.  The family allegedly lived under their wagon in a move to an impoverished area known as West Dallas, and had to save money just to buy a tent.  He and his brother would help provide for the family by stealing.  His life of crime began rather comically: his first arrest coming for failing to return a rental car on time (charges were dropped, but remained on his record) and his second arrest was for stealing a truckload full of turkeys with his brother Marvin.  He would eventually find gainful employment beginning at 18, but would supplement that income with robbery and stealing cars.  In an attempt to turn his life around, young Barrow attempted to enlist in the Navy, but was rejected for medical reasons, likely the aftereffects of a childhood disease.  This would have been devastating for the young man who had already tattooed "USN" on his left arm.

This Dec. 3, 1926, mug shot from the Dallas Police Department files shows a dashing teenage Clyde Barrow. He was charged with auto theft, but according to later records the indictment was dismissed.

1930 was an interesting year in the life of Clyde Barrow. While sources vary on the specifics, it is credible that Barrow met one Ms. Bonnie Parker early that year. Unfortunately for the "star-cross'd lovers" their romance was almost doomed from the start. Clyde's life of crime would continue and eventually catch up with him, landing him a 14-year stretch in Eastham Prison Farm in April of 1930.  It was a notoriously rough prison, not only for its "guests," but also for its brutal work load on prisoners.  Prison changed Barrow, allegedly due to a sexual assault (or several) at the hands of Ed Crowder, who was serving a 99-year sentence for bank robbery. Barrow would have his revenge by splitting Crowder's head open with a pipe wrench - his first homicide.  The story that went to the outside was that Crowder had gotten in a home-made knife fight with a man named Aubrey Scalley, a friend of Barrow's who was already going to be inside for a long time and had little to lose.

Knowing he had to get out of prison, Barrow elects to cut off two of the toes on his left foot with an ax - the big one and part of the second.  Self mutilation and amputation was a surprisingly popular way to get out of work in that prison; sometimes with as many as fourteen men having "accidents" in a single week.  It could be self-performed, but most men knew certain inmates who would perform the task for them.  This mutilation would leave Barrow with a limp the rest of his life.  Unfortunately, Barrow had no idea that his mother Cumie had been petitioning for his early release.  His mutilation would be in vain as Barrow would be paroled days later by Governor Ross Sterling on February 2, 1932.  He would leave the prison on crutches.

The sexual assault, the murder, the horrible conditions, the work, the desperation so great that a man would have his own toes cut off, all changed Clyde Barrow.  Those who knew him best, his family and fellow inmates, say that he changed, "from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake."  He immediately resumed his life of crime, but his end game was much different.  It was no longer the money, guns, and cars he had sought before, although he certainly still needed those.  Now Barrow was after those items so that he could launch a raid on Eastham Prison.  After all, he owed a big favor to Scalley who took the fall for his murder while he was still doing time.  But helping Scalley was just the icing on the cake.  Barrow wanted revenge on the institution he felt had wronged him and to reunite with Ms. Bonnie Parker.

However, life had a way for not going as planned for Barrow.  His early string of robberies, more often gas stations and stores than banks, resulted in several murders and from April to August in 1932 the gang of Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and several other individuals had killed five people including two law men.  As the murder of innocent people and law men continued, public opinion began to turn against Bonnie & Clyde.  Once the darlings of a daring romance who defied the banks and big businesses (a popular notion during the Depression), even their most fawning admirers could no longer turn a blind eye to their violent ways.  This is not to say the gang was always violent.  In fact, several scholars of Bonnie & Clyde believe that the gang only used violence when necessary to avoid capture.  Several victims, including law men, were kidnapped as opposed to killed and would be eventually let go, sometimes with money to get home.  An interesting disparity against the myth that surrounds them as nothing but cold-blooded killers.



However, killers they were, and even with the law well aware of their life of crime, the Barrow Gang seemed incapable, or apathetic, to avoiding the law.  Raucous behavior, gun play, drinking, and more all captured the attention of locals who would contact the law.  Many times the gang would get itself cornered and shoot its way out courtesy of Clyde's appreciation for the BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle).  Even with Thompson sub-machine guns and armored cars, the law was outgunned.  The Barrow Gang's firepower combined with Clyde's skill behind the wheel of the new Ford V8 engine was a combination that permitted them several miraculous escapes, despite being surrounded and often heavily outnumbered.




From 1932 to 1934, Bonnie and Clyde had changed from petty thieves with a goal to murderers who would never be taken alive.  The couple knew that if they were captured they would certainly be executed, which lead to a desperation to always escape.  Clyde had no intentions on returning to any prison.  The group circled the Midwest and southern states, traveling from one member's family to another and performing robberies along the way.  This appreciation and love of family, even while ruining so many others, is another unexpected contradiction posed by the Barrow Gang.  This predictable method of travel would prove to be their end.

Their ways would turn steadily more violent, removing any remaining romance they may have had with the public and attracting even more attention from the law.  On April 13, 1933 Joplin, Missouri police responded to what they thought were noisy bootleggers.  They got more than they bargained for.  One lawman was killed and another wounded as the gang made their escape. Having been caught by surprise, the gang left behind many of their belongings including a small arsenal, several legal documents belonging to members of the gang, some of Bonnie's poetry, and a several rolls of undeveloped film.  It's from this cache of personal belongings that we have many of today's existing photos of Bonnie & Clyde.  The pictures show a more playful, whimsical, and loving side of the two killers and when they were plastered on newspapers everywhere it rekindled the public's affection and catapulted their notoriety from the Dallas area to across the nation.





That year, more robberies and kidnappings led to being even more wide spread notoriety and forced the gang to more extreme measures to avoid capture. Seldom could they rent houses and cabins. Now they were often forced to stay in campgrounds, cooking their meals over campfires and bathing in rivers. To make matters even worse, while driving on June 10, Clyde had missed some "Bridge Out" signs, smashed through the barricades at 70 mph, and crashed their car into a ravine. Sources differ on whether or not Bonnie was trapped under the car, or whether the third-degree burns on her leg that went down to the bone were caused by a gasoline fire or from leaking battery acid, but the result was the same. The gang would have to lay low while Bonnie healed. Some say that she could never walk again after that day, but more likely she walked with a terrible limp, alternated by hopping around on her good leg or being carried by Clyde.

The downward spiral continued for the Barrow Gang.  On July 29, Clyde's brother Buck, a member of the gang, was mortally wounded during one of Clyde's miraculous esacpes.  Buck's wife Blanche was captured that same day. In August, the gang managed to burgle the armory in Plattville, IL, giving them a fresh supply of ammo, handguns, and three new BARs.  In November, police also captured Clyde's protege and Barrow Gang member W.D. Jones in Houston.  The couple was now on their own.  They managed to escape yet another trap set for them by the Dallas sheriff and his deputies on November 22 and continued carjacking and robbing.  Even with all this heat on the duo, Clyde had not forgotten about his time at Eastham and on January 16, 1934 five prisoners escaped with help from Barrow.  He had planted two pistols in a ditch that the prisoners used to kill two guards (not enough in Barrow's mind) and then escape under bursts of BAR fire from Barrow.  Clyde finally got some pay back, but it came at a huge cost,  The escape was a huge embarrassment for the law and in response, they would turn on the heat higher than ever.

In 1934 things became even more increasingly desperate for the pair - killing two young highway patrolmen on April 1, before killing another constable and kidnapping/wounding a police chief on April 6.  Forever after the prison breakout and these killings, Bonnie & Clyde would be pursued by former Texas Ranger Captain Frank A. Hamer.  He had retired, but accepted the special assignment of hunting down the Barrow Gang.  It was Hamer's idea not to chase the gang, as so many had done before, but to use their predictable travel patterns to surprise them.  Using the family of escaped convict and gang member Henry Methvin, Hamer and his posse of 5 men waited for the gang just outside Methvin's parent's residence.  Sure enough, Barrow's Ford quickly approached, yet slowed upon seeing Methvin's father's (Iverson or "Ivy") truck in the road.  It had been planted there to force Barrow to one side of the road, but also to slow Barrow who would be looking for Ivy Methvin.  The Methvin's cooperation with the authorities would end the lives of Bonnie & Clyde.

At approximately 9:15 on May 23, 1934, the posse, who had allegedly been waiting concealed for two days, opened fire on the Ford with an undetermined number of rounds.  Some sources say as few as 80 and others say no fewer than 168 rounds were fired.  Two of the posse gave the following quote to the Dallas Dispatch,

"Each of us six officers had a shotgun and an automatic rifle and pistols. We opened fire with the automatic rifles. They were emptied before the car got even with us. Then we used shotguns ... There was smoke coming from the car, and it looked like it was on fire. After shooting the shotguns, we emptied the pistols at the car, which had passed us and ran into a ditch about 50 yards on down the road. It almost turned over. We kept shooting at the car even after it stopped. We weren't taking any chances."




In footage taken at the time, Bonnie can be seen in the passenger seat slumped on Clyde.

After members of the posse went into town to call their bosses and tell them the gruesome news, word spread fast and a crowd quickly formed at the scene.  Many members of the crowd were scrounging for souvenirs; one woman cut a piece of Bonnie's bloody hair and dress (these were later sold), others scooped up shell casings, pieces of broken glass, and one man was caught trying to cut off Clyde's ear and another man was stopped from amputating Barrow's trigger finger.

The car was an arsenal itself, containing a dozen guns including several shot guns, three BARs, and  several thousand rounds of ammunition which included 100 20-round BAR magazines.  Hamer and his posse would later take some criticism over not giving the couple a chance to surrender, but the car's deadly payload made it clear to all the men there that day that they had made the right decision.

Only some of the firearms and ammo recovered from the vehicle.

The couple wished to be buried side-by-side, but Mrs. Parker would have none of it, insisting that her baby girl be brought home.  She is quoted as saying, "He had her for two years. Look what it got her. He's not going to have her anymore. She's mine now."


"They don't think they're too smart or desperate
 they know that the law always wins. 
They've been shot at before;
 but they do not ignore, 
that death is the wages of sin. 

Some day they'll go down together
 they'll bury them side by side. 
To few it'll be grief, 
to the law a relief 
but it's death for Bonnie and Clyde."

- Final stanza's of "The Trail's End" by Bonnie Parker




The revolver appearing in Rock Island Auction Company's May 2nd, 3rd, & 4th Premiere Auction was formerly the property of Clyde Barrow.  It was found by Navarro County, Texas Sheriff Rufus Pevehouse on May 6, 1930.  Now for those of you paying attention, you'll know that Barrow was in prison at the time the gun was found.


However, the revolver was found inside a car previously impounded by the sheriff's office and the pistol was overlooked in the vehicle's glove compartment.  In fact, the stolen vehicle had been left at the home of Frank barrow, Clyde's uncle, who called Sheriff Pevehouse to come pick up the vehicle.  Later, when the gun was on display, it was recognized by Texas Ranger M.T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, who stated that the gun had been stolen from his car and that its modifications had been made while it was in Gonzaullas' possession.  Long story short, when Clyde left this stolen car at his uncle's, he forgot the stolen gun in the glove box.  This revolver is accompanied by a contemporary case and three documents which attest to its provenance, two signed by Pevehouse himself and one signed statement from another Texas Ranger attesting to its authenticity.

The gun is a Colt Army Special double action revolver with several distinct features.  It has been customized in the Fitzgerald Special style, which includes a short barrel, bobbed hammer, and cutaway trigger guard.  The nickel finish remains excellent with only minor indicators of wear.  The revolver has also been fitted with finger grooved, yellow phenolic grips.

This revolver will provide some lucky collector a fantastic opportunity to own a piece of "Public Enemy" era history.  Bonnie & Clyde remain one of the most famed outlaw couples of all time, spawning movies, literature, and countless documentaries.  Though before you know it, this historic firearm will be just like Clyde's succinct epitaph, "Gone, but not forgotten."




This revolver is just one example of the many history-laden items in Rock Island Auction Company's May 2014 Premiere Firearms Auction.  There is also signed correspondence from George Washington, two letters signed by Richard Jordan Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling gun, a Civil War autograph book filled with autographs from Union Generals that were acquired by Spencer Meade, son of Gen. George Meade, many Civil War photographs from the same collection, Samuel Colt's Henry rifle, a LePage shotgun given from the President of France to the President of Mexico, an 1897 Gatling gun with Spanish-American War history, plus firearms belonging to William Loeb Jr., Ed McGivern, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Heinrich Himmler, and Fritz Sauckel.  Browse our catalog by clicking here and see what historic artifacts you can find to add to your collection.




-Written by Joel Kolander






SOURCES:

http://bonnieandclydehistory.blogspot.com/

http://texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm

http://www.biography.com/people/clyde-barrow-229532

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde


Friday, August 9, 2013

Butch Cassidy's Colt and the End of the Wild West

It is no coincidence that the Old West and gun collecting go hand in hand.  For firearms manufacturers, it was a time of innovation and industrialization.  Colt's Paterson was invented in 1836 and was the first percussion cap revolver, while Smith & Wesson's first cartridge revolvers would be produced two decades later in 1856.  These innovations in firepower were amplified by standardizations that were concurrently taking place.  Guns could be mass produced for the first time making them affordable and easier to repair.  Ammunition was also becoming standardized, safer, easier to use, and more powerful.  The guns produced in this era were some of the first to utilize many of the technologies that we take for granted today.

The Old West also connects with gun collecting because firearms were an indispensable part of the landscape.  In an era without 911, police radio, and most forensics technologies, the gun was often the only way to defend oneself from frontier wildlife, Indians, and outlaws.  It could also protect your livestock, be used for hunting... and villainy.  Besides their noble and necessary roles, guns in the West obviously served several "less than savory" roles: dispute settler, stagecoach/rail/bank robber, claim jumper, border enforcer, and avenger.  The gun we'll investigate today was once the tool of one of the Old West's most infamous outlaws and will be offered in Rock Island Auction Company's September 2013 Premiere Auction.


Antique Colt Single Action Army Revolver with Notarized Letter Attributing the Revolver to Famous Western Outlaw Robert Leroy Parker, Best Known as Butch Cassidy



Butch Cassidy is a man that many picture as a ruggedly handsome Paul Newman, when in reality he was a square-headed, straw haired, extremely successful thief.  Butch Cassidy was born as Robert LeRoy Parker on April 13, 1866 in Beaver, Utah.  Known around the house as "Roy," he was the youngest in his Mormon family of 13 children.  His family being poor, Roy worked ranches at a young age and would eventually leave home in his early teens in search of greener pastures.  He continued working ranches and at one point even took work in a butcher shop, earning him his lifelong moniker "Butch."  The topic of when Roy earned his famous nickname is debated, others say he took it after he changed his last name, but everyone agrees on the occupation.  On one of those ranches where he found work, Roy befriended a rancher by the name of Mike Cassidy, who had a reputation of rustling horses and cattle.  No doubt that Mike Cassidy warmed right up to his protégé.  History reports that Butch was never anything but charming, kind, and well-liked with an infectious grin.  Mike Cassidy taught young Roy how to rope, drive cattle, expertly ride a horse, and to become an expert marksman.


Butch's first, lesser-known foray into crime was actually when he entered a Hay Springs clothing store, took a pair of jeans, but left a note promising to pay his debt when he next returned to the shop.  The shop owner pressed charges regardless of the note, but Butch would be acquitted by a jury.  Butch showed aptitude toward any task he put his mind to and had quite a reputation as a skilled and able cowboy.  However, Butch would eventually take the promise he showed as a rancher and would apply that skill to other, less savory, areas. Starting his new life, Butch decided to try his fortunes in a town called Telluride, Colorado, a boomtown full of showgirls, saloons, prospectors, miners, and gamblers.  Initially paid for hauling ore, Butch would eventually begin winning money for racing horses.  He was only 23 when he, along with three other cowboys, robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride and had over $20,000 to show for their excellent planning.  No doubt using some of his plunder, he purchased a ranch in Dubois, WY in 1890 and returned back to his cattle and horse rustling roots.

His reputation as an outlaw began to grow after his Telluride robbery.  In an attempt to honor his old  mentor and not disrespect his family, especially his mother, Butch changed his surname to Cassidy.  His popularity also began to grow as sentiments again the "cattle barons" of the day grew increasingly hostile; his rustling of cattle from barons was seen as a blow against the giants for the "little guy" independent ranchers.  In 1894, he would be jailed for 18 months of a two year sentence in the state prison in Laramie, WY.  The prison sentence was earned from a "sting" set up by the cattle barons.  They sold Butch unbranded horses for a irresistible price without papers.  They then notified the local law about his "undocumented" livestock and had him arrested, ironically, for "rustling" horses that he had actually purchased.

Butch's prison mugshot
The last 6 months of his sentence were commuted after he had shown he was a model prisoner and allegedly promised Governor William Alford Richards that he would no longer rustle in the state.  Newly freed, Butch's drive for crime and excitement had grown immensely and he would quickly surround himself with others of a lawless nature and form what came to be known as The Wild Bunch. They were hand-picked by Butch himself and they would bring a new level of professionalism, excellence, and precision to bank robbing.  It wouldn't be until just after their Aug 1896 robbery of the bank in Montpelier, Idaho of $7,000 that he would recruit one Mr. Harry Longabaugh, better known to the world as "The Sundance Kid."  The next 4-5 years of Butch and his gang's career follows a fairly predictable pattern of robberies in various Western states and then retreating to their hideout nicknamed the Hole-in-the-Wall.  It was a geological formation in the Big Horn Mountains of northern Wyoming which gave the gang, and other outlaws, everything they needed: protection from the elements, an excellent vantage point, long lines of sight, seclusion, allies, food and ammunition stores, and easily defensible narrow passes.  Butch loved the area so much, he would homestead there later in life in a ranch called the Blue Creek Ranch.



His reputation as a witty, charming, funny, brainy, considerate, non-violent man persisted his whole life.  People always found him agreeable and when he would occasionally imbibe, he often drank less than most men.  His only disdain were for those he felt had wronged him or abused their power:  big ranchers, bankers, and railroads often bore the brunt of this sentiment and is likely the result of a boyhood experience where his father lost land in a property rights dispute.  Butch's father Maximillian was a "jack-Mormon" a term coined for inactive members, and when the land dispute arose it went to a "bishop's court," a customary thing in Utah at that time for both civil and occasionally criminal matters.  The bishop ruled against Max in favor of a tithe-paying, active, church member and Max Parker's family was thrown even further into poverty.  Something neither Butch, nor his family would ever forget.  Butch's rustling would frequently target the herds of "religious hypocrites." While Butch is believed to only have used violence as a last resort, he surrounded himself with men who had no such ethical dilemmas.

Eventually the high-profile bank, train, and payroll robberies would earn Butch a little too much attention and the railroad giants, after trying to hire Butch to help guard their trains in exchange for amnesty, would hire the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency to protect their trains.  Pinkerton would form a special posse called the Union Pacific Mounted Rangers on a specially designed train with specially trained men.  The Wild Bunch was initially unconcerned and continued their robbing ways, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  However, it wouldn't be long before the Wild West began to give way to modernity and the 20th Century.  Many of the advances in technology shrank the world that Butch and his gang lived in and they began to feel the grip of law enforcement tightening around them.  Butch had thought previously of escaping to South America and that option got more attractive every day.  So attractive, in fact, that Butch began robbing with the intent of saving enough money to make the trip and a life for himself in Argentina.  During this robbing spree, the gang took the famous photo in Ft. Worth, Texas, now dubbed the "Fort Worth Five."  The photo would ultimately hurt the gang deeply when the Pinkertons discovered it and used it to make wanted posters of the men.  Up until that time the law only had older descriptions of two of them men, including Butch's prison photo.  It would not take long for Butch, Sundance, and Sundance's longtime companion Ethel "Etta" Place, to feel the heat and on February 20, 1901 departed from New York City to Buenos Aires, Argentina aboard the British steamship Herminius.  They no doubt enjoyed the lavish New York lifestyle for several weeks prior to their departure.  To avoid detection aboard the ship, Butch would take the alias James Ryan and pretend to be Etta's non-existent brother.  Upon arriving in Argentina, they quickly set up their own ranch and began living a successful life on the straight and narrow.

The pilfering pair would soon resume their lifestyle of robbing banks and trains in South America.  The "end" of Butch Cassidy's story is clouded at best.  Most believe that the law began catching up with them in South America.  The trio would flee to Chile on several occasions, but continually return to Argentina.  Etta, for reasons unknown, would leave the group on June 30, 1906 on a ship bound for San Francisco.  Butch and Sundance tried to make an honest living for a time, by guarding a mine company's payroll of all things.  Several robberies were attributed to "two American bandits" and eventually they were identified thanks to a mule.  A hotel owner would recognize either the animal or the mining company's logo on its flank and report his find to a local Bolivian Cavalry camping nearby.  The cavalry sent three men to investigate and after enlisting the help of local law enforcement, they surrounded the cabin where the two stayed and a fierce firefight erupted.  Now things become even further convoluted.

1.  Some sources say that after an extended period of quiet there was a scream, a single shot which silenced the screaming, and then, after a pause, a second shot.  Those sources also state that after several hours (some even say the next day) the cavalry finally looked in, discovered two bodies with numerous bullet wounds to their limbs; one body had a bullet hole in its forehead, the other with one in the temple.  The assumption was that Butch had put his long-time friend and partner out of his suffering and then ended his own.  This story and the next both claim to take place on November 3, 1908.

2.  Others say that Sundance, out of ammunition, attempted to reach rifles and ammunition across a small courtyard.  He made it to the rifles, but was gunned down while returning with them to the cabin.  Butch retrieved his friend from the courtyard, brought him back inside the cabin, but the damage had been done.  Sundance expired in that cabin and not long after Butch took his own life with his last bullet.  This is the most accepted of all the stories.

3.  A third story says that Butch survived somehow.  Maybe he got away from that cabin.  Maybe the two "Americans" weren't Butch and Sundance at all, there were certainly other American outlaws in the country performing the same crimes as our pair.  Some folks state that Butch and Sundance moved back to the U.S. and lived the rest of their lives in hiding under aliases.  This story is backed by many first-hand accounts saying that Butch has visited them after his alleged South American death in 1908.  These "visits" by Butch would continue to be reported through the 1930s even by his own family members, however, the accounts often conflict.  Similar evidence exists for Sundance's return to the states and eventual death in 1936.

4.  A more specific legend has Butch going to Europe for a time, then returning to the United States under the name William Phillips.  Once back, he began living in Michigan and married a woman named Gertrude Livesay in May of 1908.  They would eventually move to Arizona to live a straight life.  He would reportedly earn a little extra money by fighting with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution, but would eventually start the Phillips Manufacturing Company, watch it go bankrupt, make a few desperate trips back to Utah and Wyoming looking for buried caches, but ultimately find none.  Diagnosed with cancer, he would die on July 20, 1937.

5.  Still another version has Butch escaped from Bolivia, though Sundance was not so fortunate, underwent plastic surgery in France, reunited with a long lost love in Wyoming, and settled down in Washington State.  This version is detailed in a book called Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy written by a man named William T. Phillips - the same name allegedly used by Butch as an alias in version #4.  This means the book would not be a biography, but an autobiography!  However, this theory earns little credibility.  The book was initially considered fiction and historians say it bears little resemblance to Cassidy's real life.  Especially damning to this theory is that after Phillips died, his wife Gertrude told a Cassidy historian that the couple knew Butch personally and that Phillips was not him.

6.  Others still report that Butch was stabbed in the slums of Paris, killed after a bank raid in Uruguay, or was shot in a New Mexico brothel.  Sundance also managed to die in any number of ways between 1920 and 1940 in Venezuela, Chile, and/or Argentina.  Even William A. Pinkerton, hearing all the conflicting reports, never officially closed the book on Butch and Sundance.

Famous photo of the "Fort Worth Five"  Left to right: Harry Longabaugh ("Sundance Kid"), William "News" Carver, Benjamin Kilpatrick ("The Tall Texan"), Harvey Logan ("Kid Curry"), and Robert LeRoy Parker ("Butch Cassidy").
Whatever the ending of Robery LeRoy Parker's story, it is a tale that has stood the test of time.  It also marks the end of the last great Western outlaws and some say the end of the Old West itself.  Thankfully, this gun endures as a connection to both the man and the era in which he thrived and Rock Island Auction Company is honored to have a temporary custody of such a historic firearm.  It was given by Butch Cassidy to a small time outlaw Joe Davenport, an occasional member of the Wild Bunch.  When Joe retired from crime and went straight, he took a job as a night watchman in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  He would later give this revolver to a dentist named Dr. Breihan possibly for services rendered.  The dentist would eventually pass the revolver on to his son, who would trade it to a man named Jack Wallace for his services as a machinist.  Jack would father a Lt. Col. John W. Wallace, who would inherit the pistol from his dad and document its vast history in the included affidavit.

Butch Cassidy is truly a man of his times.  He innovated his depraved art, just as the Industrial Revolution did with so many products and the young United States.  He enjoyed a sense of adventure as did so many Western-bound settlers in those days.  Perhaps most importantly, he lived and faded right along with his beloved Wild West.  They peaked together, but all the new technologies and innovations which had been used to such success would prove the end of both.  How perfectly fitting that they should fall together.  No one could ask for a more suitable man to herald the end of this age.

Rock Island Auction Company's September 2013 Premiere Auction is absolutely rife with firearms and items that have been in the lives of men who have changed history: Lt. Col. George Custer, Gen Norman Schwartzkopf Sr., Butch Cassidy, Emmitt Dalton, Benito Juraez, Adolf Hitler, Nikita Khrushchev, Herman Göring, Fidel Castro, and more!  Visit our Online Catalog to search for your favorite weapon or any of the historic individuals just named.  You'll see high resolution photos and can bid right from our website.  We know you'll find something fascinating and your own little slice of history.







-Written by Joel Kolander






SOURCES

Phillips, William T. The Bandit Invincible: The Story of the Outlaw Butch Cassidy. Hamilton, MT: Rocky Mountain House, 1986. Print.

http://www.biography.com/people/butch-cassidy-9240908?page=1

http://www.utah.com/oldwest/butch_cassidy.htm

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Historic Spurs!

Click here for lot details.
When you speak of the American West certain names seem to keep coming up:  Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, "Wild Bill" Hickok, Annie Oakley, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and of course, the Outlaw Jesse James.  The history of Jesse James is a clouded one.  Some folks call him "America's own Robin Hood," while others think of him as nothing more than a bank robber and cold-blooded murderer.  In either case, he is a fascinating character in the early history of our young nation.  Our April 2013 Premiere Auction will be offering no less than the spurs attributed to this American legend!  The items have a rock-solid documentation extending through two United States Congressmen and all the way back to the Outlaw's own progeny!  First, a little history to help separate man and myth.


Early Life
Born in 1847 in the state of Missouri, Jesse James was a product of the Antebellum Era of the United States.  It was a hostile time between North and South as legislation and talk of slavery was already beginning to tear the country asunder.  Soon enough, secession was declared by several states and the Civil War began.  The Jameses, having over half their family's wealth in slaves, was unabashedly supportive of the Confederacy.  However, in a border state like Missouri, this was often easier said than done.  Missouri's populace was largely supportive of the Confederacy, but it was taken and occupied early on by the Union.  This led to many southern sympathizes resorting to guerrilla-style fighting against the Union.  Of course, the Union didn't take too kindly to that and things spiraled quickly.  Suspected Rebels and their associates were often lynched, shot, had their homes burned, or were simply kicked off their own land.  Union loyalists were shot while they worked their fields or in their own homes.  It was in this "eye-for-an-eye" environment that Jesse James spent some of his most formative years.  The Civil War was a bitter and very personal event for the Jameses.  He was only 13 when the Civil War began and learned much in the arts violence and depravity from these guerrilla fighters or bushwhackers.  The brutal massacres, inhuman mutilations, and merciless killings that young Jesse James would have witnessed would forever alter his life.



An Outlaw is Born
After the Confederates lost the Civil War, many bushwhackers continued their terrorizing by robbing banks and other disruptive acts as a way to protest the new Republican government.  It was in this time, December 1869 to be precise, that Jesse James first found his notoriety.  In an attempt to avenge the killing of local guerrilla leader "Bloody Bill" Anderson by Samuel P. Cox, Jesse mistakenly identified a local banker, John W. Sheets, as Cox and shot him dead.  Despite Jesse's earlier involvement in some of the most infamous guerrilla massacres during the Civil War, this botched vengeance killing is what would first earn him a bit of newspaper fame, the title of "outlaw," and a bounty for his capture offered by no one less than the governor of Missouri.






From this point on Jesse James and his gang, known as the "James-Younger Gang," would go on to rob banks, stage coaches, payroll offices, and trains in a brash style that defined the gang.  Most robberies took place in broad daylight, involved murder, and were generally reckless.  It was early on in his turn to crime that Jesse was befriended by editor and founder of the Kansas City Times, John Newman Edwards.  Edwards, a former Confederate soldier himself, made no secret of trying to revitalize the politics of the Democrat party.  He appreciated Jesse James acts no doubt, but also saw him as a symbol for the South that was still fighting to right itself against a hostile North even after the War had ended.  It was this appreciation that led to much press about Jesse James, some even penned by James himself with Edwards' assistance.  Much of it plead Jesse James as innocent, but much of the column space was also dedicated to Rebel-sympathetic rhetoric of a victimized southern man robbing the radical Union banks and greedy corporate railroads that were ruining the lives of hard working Midwestern farmers.


It's not hard to see James becoming a folk hero through these articles.  There were tales of him being polite, handsome, well-groomed, religious, saving widows from foreclosure, and showing kindness to women, children, & animals alike.  Historically, the only evidence supporting any of these claims is that James' later robberies of trains only took money from the safe on-board the train and not the passengers.  However, any "Robin Hood" type claims are fanciful at best, as there is no evidence to show that the James-Younger gang gave their money to anybody's cause but their own.  




The spurs that you see below are attributed to Jesse James himself. They are both made of stamped steel with their chain studs on each side near the front.  They were originally part of a collection of Mr. Harry Hawes, a United States Senator of Missouri who had the spurs certified as legitimate by none other than the son of Jesse James himself, Jesse Edwards James!  From Senator Hawes' collection, the spurs were then procured by Alabama Congressman Frank W. Boykin, and eventually passed on to his son Richard Boykin, Sr.  The pedigree of these spurs is well documented and much of the rest of Senator Boykin's collection currently resides in the Mobile Downton Museum!



To own these spurs is to own a little piece of Americana.  It's the same reason that companies that make football and baseball trading cards with little pieces of game worn jersey inside of them.  We all seek to own a piece of history, a unique moment in time that connects us with great people or places.  We all want to be closer to someone or something that we admire.  We want to show our admiration by becoming knowledgeable on the subject, conversing with others who appreciate what we do, and by possessing something, however small, to truly make that admired subject part of our own lives.  These spurs not only put a piece of American history in your collection, but also bring with them a rarity that few people could hope to match.