Bonnie and Clyde guns sell for $504K at NH auction

NASHUA, N.H. -- Two guns once in the possession of notorious gangsters Bonnie and Clyde when they were killed in a hail of gunfire sold at a New Hampshire auction Sunday for more than half a million dollars.

The guns were two of 134 artifacts that sold for a total of $1.1 million at the auction in Nashua. About two-thirds of the auctioned items were from Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, but items also came from other notorious criminals, including Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger.

Bonnie Parker's .38-caliber Detective Special that she had taped to her thigh when she was killed in 1934 drew the highest bid and sold for $264,000, said Bobby Livingston, vice president of RR Auction in Amherst, N.H., which held the auction.

Clyde Barrow's 1911 Colt .45-caliber automatic sold for $240,000 to the same bidder, who didn't want to be named, Livingston said.

"When rare items like that come up for sale you expect this kind of enthusiasm," Livingston said. "There was some serious bidding going on."

Many of the auction items came from the estate of the late collector Robert Davis of Waco, Texas, with the remainder coming from various other collections.

Most of the items came from famous gangsters and outlaws, but some were linked to law enforcement officials including Elliot Ness and Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who led a posse that tracked down and killed Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana.

Clyde Barrow's pocket watch sold for $36,000, Livingston said. A 1921 Morgan silver dollar that was found in his pocket after he was killed sold for $32,000