A chilling letter, a gold watch and a shotgun belonging to notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde have been bought for $185,000 at auction.
The fascinating artefacts emerged as part of an sale in Boston relating to the American criminal couple who robbed banks across the US during the Great Depression.
The top-selling item was a gold wrist watch recovered from Clyde’s body after he was fatally shot by police in May 1934 which fetched $112,000 And a pump-action shotgun that he left at the scene of a shoot-out in which two police officers were killed sold for $68,000.
The archive, which also included a police ‘Wanted’ poster. The fascinating artefacts emerged as part of an sale in Boston relating to the American criminal couple who robbed banks across the US
A letter Bonnie and Clyde wrote to a ‘coward’ gang member who gave himself also sold for around $25,000.
The archive, which also included a police ‘Wanted’ poster for Bonnie and Clyde, was sold at RR Auction in Boston.
Other items included the gang’s torch recovered from the Joplin Missouri shoot-out and a bullet proof vest from Clyde’s 1934 Ford V8 Deluxe ‘death car’.
The top-selling item was a gold wrist watch recovered from Clyde’s body after he was fatally shot by police in May 1934 which fetched $112,000
A pump-action shotgun that he left at the scene of a shoot-out in which two police officers were killed sold for $68,000
A letter Bonnie and Clyde wrote to a ‘coward’ gang member who gave himself also sold for almost $25,000
The fascinating relics emerged as part of an sale in Boston relating to the American criminal couple who robbed banks across the US during the Great Depression
In the letter, Clyde Barrow was furious with imprisoned Raymond Hamilton for allowing himself to be captured by the police rather than going out in a hail of bullets.
The fugitive told him he would have killed him himself had he still been at large.
Despite Hamilton facing a death sentence, Clyde wrote to him in jail: ‘Due to the fact that you offered no resistance, sympathy is lacking. The most I can do is hope you miss the ‘chair’.’
And foreshadowing his own death a few weeks later, he added: ‘I know that some day they will get me but it won’t be without resistance.’
The letter to Hamilton was written in April 1934 in Bonnie’s hand but signed by Clyde.
In the letter, Clyde Barrow was furious with imprisoned Raymond Hamilton for allowing himself to be captured by the police rather than going out in a hail of bullets
The gang’s torch recovered from the Joplin Missouri shoot-out. Fascinating and poignant archive of America’s most notorious gangster couple emerge at auction
Bullet-proof vest recovered from Clyde Barrow’s 1934 Ford V8 Deluxe ‘death car’ by Charles W. Stanley
Hamilton had recently split from the couple’s Barrow Gang and was caught by police following a bank robbery in Texas.
The vest which features a bullet hole
In the correspondence, Clyde called Hamilton a ‘rat’ and a ‘boastful punk’, who had ‘cowered in the floorboard afraid to take a shot’ during one gunfight.
Clyde stated: ‘You wanted to play ‘big shot’. You only carried your guns around to ‘show off’.
‘When we got the road ‘blocked’ on us in the Ozarks and you were too ‘yellow’ to fight. You cowered in the floorboard, afraid of being shot.
Clyde called Hamilton a ‘rat’ and a ‘boastful punk’, who had ‘cowered in the floorboard afraid to take a shot’ during one gunfight
‘I hope this will serve the purpose of letting you know that you can never expect the least of sympathy or assistance from me. So long.’
Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, said: ‘Besides the timeless love story of Bonnie and Clyde, the Barrow gang was known for their massive fire power which could out gun any local sheriff who happened upon them.
‘The archive is an extremely important piece in the history of Bonnie and Clyde, and was always going to do well at auction.’
The gold Bulova watch recovered from Clyde Barrow’s body after their final shoot-out in Louisiana in 1934
Bonnie and Clyde in 1933. Hamilton had recently split from the couple’s Barrow Gang and was caught by police following a bank robbery in Texas