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FNC "Strange Inheritance" Bonnie's .38 & Clyde's .


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Arthur,

I was just about to mention the Jamie Colby show. You beat me to it. I hope that Sandy and Darryl were watching.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Jim C

PS, you have a really great looking dog. What is his name??

Edited by jim c 351
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@ Jim C ,

Much obliged. Nash. The guy who inherited the B&C firearms said his parents bought them at auction 1986 for around $40K total. Seems a bargain considering the name recognition of these Depression era gangsters. Perhaps the auction price back then is reflective of the number (21+) of firearms associated with the Barrow Gang

 

.38 Colt Model 1902

Colt New Service .45 revolver

Colt Model 1911 .45 of which there were 7

Colt .38 Special New Army revolver

Colt U.S.Army New Model 1909 .45 revolver

Krag Rifle

Winchester Model 1887

Winchester Model 1897

Remington 20 gauge Model 11

BAR of which there were 3 (?)

Edited by Arthur Fliegenheimer
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They had so many guns it was ridicules. Lots of stories about Bonnie carrying guns. Marie Barrow, who knew Bonnie well, told me, " Bonnie never liked the guns, it was my brother's thing " ( use your best Texas accent here ) A Colt 45 auto is a pretty big gun for a 4'11" something girl. I don't know, wasn't there, but kinda side with what Marie has said.

It's been said Bonnie could fire a BAR as good as any Marine. Shoulder a 1918 BAR and that will solve that.

 

Dutch- I think he had at least 4 BARs, been a long time since I thought about that, tho. Jim Knight would certainly know, he's still up on the odd couple.

 

Clyde with guns...

 

Also a stripper clip and BAR magazine that was in the death car- Had these in my collection at one time.

 

 

Note: could not upload the photo of the death car guns- ?????

 

The VERY yellowed photo was one that Marie carried around- Clyde & Joe Palmer- Clyde is holding two Colt 45s , nickel with pearl grips.

 

 

OCM

005.jpg

clydebar.jpg

clydejoe.jpg

Clyde BAR Photo101.jpg

Edited by OCM
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The auction house was so anxious to sell the 2 handguns I wonder why they didn't also want the sawed off shotgun. Perhaps the shotgun lacked documentation,

 

Sandy,

If Bonnie didn't like the guns then I'd say she had the wrong boyfriend and occupation. When the shit hit the fan, Marie wasn't there any more than you. Just hear say.

While I'm sure Bonnie couldn't handle a BAR as well as a Marine, I imagine she could hold it at her side and pull the trigger as well as your 12 year old niece.

If you missed the show last night it may replay tonight. Don't know.

Jim C

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Actually Marie was there when the shit hit the fan. The famous Sowers Ambush, for one. She was in the backseat when they met Bonnie & Clyde, then Hinton and the gang opened up with a Thompson , Winchester 351 and Alcorn had a BAR. The BAR fired through the Clyde Barrow car and caught both in the legs. Marie was looking out the back window while all this was going on, from the other car with the family. Clyde & Bonnie were visiting the families almost daily/nightly. This was late November ,1933.

One more- Marie was also the one that ran outside with a pistol when Baldy Watley came to the Barrow filing station with a shotgun looking for LC, Clyde's brother. The shooting put one of Clyde's mother's eye out.

Marie pulled an armed robbery on a farmer in I think 36, got busted for that on the run with two bank robbers. Lots of stories like this nobody has heard much about. She absolutely idolized Clyde & Bonnie.

I can say I was very good friends with Marie and her husband. We visited her there in Mesquite and she was out here in Colorado a couple times.

I still talk with the family, probably monthly. Marie passed away some years ago now, was 84 I think .

Yes, Marie said the only bad thing that Bonnie did was fall in love with my brother.

 

( my niece firing my BAR was in her mid 30s )

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Most people don't understand this, just go by the Beatty film or scattered newspaper articles and wrong TV programs, auction houses and etc. . I've wasted way to much time in the last 45+ years researching this stuff, a hobby that got out of hand. However, very gratifying, and not got in the way of a " normal " life's work.

 

There could of been a book on Marie-

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@OCM,

 

Is the nickel Colt 1911 .45 with pearl grips in the Texas Prison museum one of the Colt's Clyde is brandishing in that photo? Were they actually both Clyde's that authorities assumed one was Bonnie's because it was found in her lap after the ambush? In the Alan Ladd movie "The Blue Dahlia," his murdered wife is found with a Colt 1911 .45. The hotel detective dismisses the fact that it could be a women's saying "Too much gun." The actress Doris Dowling who played the wife was 5' 0" tall.

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I can't tell you that, I don't know if it was the same set of Colt 1911s. I didn't even know the Texas Prison museum had these ?

 

The picture was taken in March-April 1934 with Joe Palmer and Joe's 1932 or 1933 Pontiac. Clyde is even sporting a mustache. There is another photo taken the same time with Bonnie.

The couple was killed a month later, May.

 

There is a fairly common photo of Deputy AB Rogers displaying the weapons found in the death car . I also have one with the pistols and one of the BARS- Same as stills from the death car ambush site- ALL seem to show 3- Colt 1911 autos, all with wood double diamond grips and appear blue.

 

More historical Bonnie & Clyde mystery I guess. They seem to have created a lot of that- As I've said here before, Marie told me " half the State of Texas claim to be my kin "

 

 

OCM

Edited by OCM
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I stand/sit corrected- In one of my photos of the weapons from the death car, there are 4 ( four ) 1911 Colts, I assume in 45. Two have the solid wood grips, two with double diamond. Not pearl. But two could be nickel, hard to tell.

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No I don't. The one recovered at the Platte City battle , that is on display at the Missouri State Highway patrol display is a Winchester, this is the famous scattergun, # 78447.

4 more were left behind ( another scattergun) at the Dexter battle, then he has one at the Sowers shooting in November when Marie was there.

 

These were all BARs stolen from US armories- One for sure a Winchester , possibly the Army contracted the Winchesters, this may open the door to your query, if that is of record somewhere.

 

The armories somehow don't have record of any of these, that I've ever heard and most my research stuff is in DC now.

 

Police weren't used to seeing a military machine gun rifle , used in outlaw gun fights. Some didn't know what it was.

Clyde's BAR # 78447.png

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Sold at auction $260K & $240K. The .38 had the serial number filed down and ATF stamped a new one on bottom of grip frame. The show also shows Bonnie's nickel .45 at the Texas Prison Museum that Jamie Colby, the host, wished to take with her.

I have a .45 identical to that one. It's a nickle 1911, not an A1 model.

I't the one in my profile picture.

Edited by jpw43
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JP-

scratch it up a bit, send it to a Texas auction house, claim it's from Clyde Barrow, and make $200,000. Tell them it was found in a pot of red beans and rice, in Texarkana- Had to belong to Bonnie & Clyde. Had too. Just cause.

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Dutch-

Maybe you could do letters of provenance , signed with a paw print- Up your price, 100 clams a pet. Better provenance then most things I've seen lately. Go on the road with it. You & the dog retire in that manner which the dog deserves. Nice villa in Obersalzberg.

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  • 2 weeks later...

21Navy,

Thanks for the tip. I watched it a second time.

It may have been my imagination but I thought I caught a flash of two TSMG vertical grips in a wall cabinet. Only a second and the film moved on.

Did anyone else have the same hallucination?

Jim C

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