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Bonnie & Clyde's Thompson


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The auctioneer was absolutely terrible and certainly poorly informed on the subject. Didn't know B&C died in Kentucky, history is being made.

 

Mike Hammer

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I see Mike Hammer picked that up right away. Maybe this is a another Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie Walker & Clyde Beam, the moonshining couple from Kentucky ??? I wasn't aware.

To be extremely brief on this subject and toss in some IMHO, I asked Clyde's sister, who was a fairly good friend of mine, if Clyde ever used or did you ever see Clyde with a Thompson Submachine gun ?

She said she asked her brother one time why he never had a John Dillinger type gun ( meaning a Thompson ) . His response was why would I want one of those ?

Only thing close to this that I recall, was a Thompson was accidently listed as being one of Clyde's guns after the Joplin shoot-out. It was a police Thompson from the Joplin PD, not Clyde's. A mistake.

 

Next: A Derringer that was found in John Dillinger's sock at the arrest in Tucson in 1934- Maybe the same person bought that too ?? Be quite a collection. Ma Barker's brassiere, you never know ?

 

OCM

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For Barrow, it was a car to car, house to car etc. battle. This was with a 18 BAR. I used to have people sit in my 34 Ford and give them my BAR or even BAR replica scattergun. OK, try to use this or even get it up inside the car-

Nope, the BARs sat in the back seat with the rest of the Barrow armory. This was a battle weapon, not a bank robbery tool.

Barrow was a survivor, not a organized bank robber like Dillinger. His deal was finding something to eat and picking up some cash register cash.

Strike me dead for saying this, but I believe John Dillinger's interest in the Thompson was more for play and show as a 1930s major outlaw. His tool of choice was the Colt 45 or 38 Super. Much like us, very interested & infatuated with the Colt Thompson Submachine Gun, in his case a great show tool.

Press helped this out a lot, John Dillinger ( cool name ) bank robber, outlaw, Thompson Submachine gun, good looking guy and all. Jump over the tellers cage, kiss the girl and leave.

Barrow had Bonnie Parker as the front story. As his sister told me, her only mistake was falling in love with my brother.

Anyway, some observations on my part. Or IMHO too.

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Seems like pretty thin provenance.

 

Some guy said they belonged to Bonnie and Clyde and gave them to another guy.

 

Not exactly carved in stone is it

Exactly. 130K large plus premium for a beat-up Chicago Typewriter is a lot of cabbage. The buyer apparently bought the story, however thin it seems. But perhaps he frequents these pages and can give us some better details on the provenance of this gun, maybe some pictures too since the auctioneer was fumbling so badly with his notes on the history of the gun.

 

Mike Hammer

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Here is the kind of provenance you want to have, when looking at purchasing 1930s outlaw items. 100% !

chi-dill14swim-20130909.jpg

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Here is a web sight that has some very interesting information on bonnie and Clyde like the fact Bonnie was pregnant at the time of here death a fact that was kept from the public to prevent any sympathy they might get from the public, This was only released a couple years ago in concealed files from law enforcement. It also has a lot of information about their guns. Hope you enjoy ...

 

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

Edited by GUTTERRATT
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This will need to be transferred to the outlaw / Gangster/ Law enforcement forum to be continued.

 

Thanks,

 

OCM

barrowboys.jpg

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I believe they ended up paying over $150K with the buyer's premium. They overpaid by about $125K, IMHO. The "provenance" is not credible. This gun has no documented connection to Bonnie and Clyde, and I place full confidence in OCM's opinion on the subject, which is shared by Helmer. The potential buyers in this auction should have done their homework, but hopefully they are happy. Maybe someday they'll see this, and comment on the board, and we can have some more discussion on the subject.

 

David Albert

dalbert@sturmgewehr.com

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Ah ha! I've found the provenance everyone was looking for, definitive proof that Bonnie & Clyde used Thompsons. There, that should jump this Thompson gun price another 100K!

 

Mike Hammer

 

Edited by Mike Hammer
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Ah ha! I've found the provenance everyone was looking for, definitive proof that Bonnie & Clyde used Thompsons. There, that should jump this Thompson gun price another 100K!

 

Mike Hammer

 

Mike,

The truth is, if a person had proof that he owned the Tommy that Warren and Fay used in the movie, he could get a hefty premium when he sold it.

Jim C

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