Posted on 01/19/2012 9:52:06 AM PST by Second Amendment First
Too bad Christmas has passed. Here’s a gift idea for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list:
Bonnie and Clyde’s Tommy gun.
On Saturday, Mayo Auction & Realty of Kansas City will sell a .45-caliber Thompson sub-machine gun along with a 12-gauge shotgun, both supposedly left behind when the infamous duo shot it out with police in April 1933 in Joplin.
The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Jan. 21 at the Mayo Auction gallery at 8253 Wornall Road. Bids also may be placed online.
Interested? Well, get your special government permit — the Tommy gun is fully automatic and fully operational — and bring money. Maybe a bunch of it.
Auctioneer Robert Mayo declined to predict what the Thompson may bring, but safe to say it could go for more than Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow ever got away with in any bank job.
Maybe all of them combined.
Mayo said potential bidders will come from two camps: Guns and history.
First off, guns. The Tommy gun is a Model 1921A, produced in the early 1920s and made famous by law enforcement, military and legendary criminals of the Roaring ’20s and The Great Depression.
John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd blasted away with it as well as the Barrow Gang. With some models capable of firing more than a thousand rounds a minute, it was nicknamed early on the “Chicago typewriter.”
So regardless of past owners, a working Thompson is coveted by collectors, particularly those of fully automatic firearms.
“There are people who do that,” Mayo said.
According to the National Rifle Association, the National Firearms Act of 1934 requires that anyone wishing to own a fully automatic weapon must pay a fee to the IRS and then be approved by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
At the NRA convention in Kansas City in 2001, the Thompson Collectors Assn. had a booth where the sons of principal designers Theodore H. Eickhoff and Oscar V. Payne were displaying commemorative guns given to their fathers by Auto-Ordinance. Beautiful firearms!
Maybe a bunch of it?
No, you'd better go ahead and bring a bunch of it...
Too bad there is no historical evidence B&C ever using a Thompson, that’s a pure Hollywood creation.
Clyde preferred a BAR, able to shoot through the steel of the days auto bodies.
The “Chain of custody” is pretty thin here.
No witness to B&C actually owning the gun, which would most likely be stolen property.
The “Extreme value” here is being driven by hype.
In reality this gun’s true value is in it’s early manufacture and condition, the B&C connection is farcical.
Supposing you put up the millions needed to put in the winning bid, and then six months later the BATF turns you down for a license?
I suspect that this auction either will be restricted to those who already have the proper license, or those willing to take a big chance.
Probably like the Keystone Pipeline, Obama would order the BATF to hold off approval until after the election. Or maybe the EPA will get involved because this thing is capable of shooting a thousand LEAD BULLETS in a single minute.
Not to speak of custom depleted uranium bullets!
...the Thomspon’s serial number, No. 4208, matches one stolen in Ohio, a theft Barrow allegedly bragged about.
BTW...that M1921 will bring 500k methinks.....oh...and the $200.00 transfer tax ;)
That was my first thought too. However a fully functional Thompson with a rotary mag is something special no matter what it's history is.
Oooooh, what a pretty gun. I want it. What a beautiful and historical piece.
This is a good gun, from a good company, and a good price.
I would have thought your already have a Monitor! Just another gun Henry Bowman introduced to me.
I’d prefer his Solothurn, but yeah a Monitor would be fun as well.
Sheeeeet. I Wish! Colt Monitor, FG42, M1941 Johnson LMG, MKb 42(H), MKb 42(W), MP 3008, and Volkssturmgewehr 1-5 are the rarest transferables out there......and on my dream list, but all the above guns bring over 100k in museum quality condition.
Well if I had a choice .../! LOL
I’ll have to call Pioneer Press again and see if it’s back in print again. It wasn’t as of a year ago, and I want to send a copy to a friend. My son has one still in the wrapper; someday I’ll have John Ross autograph it.
Pre-sale biding is at $33,500 right now (plus a 17% buyer’s premium).
The Thompson is lot #74 and the shotgun is lot #75 (now at $13,250).
B&C’s careers came to an end on a rural road near Gibsland, Louisiana, which is nowhere near Joplin MO. I guess editing and writing for facts is a lost art.
If it’s known who it was stolen from, it should be returned to their heirs!
“Description” is meaningless as all 1928’s looked the same, unless the SN# was known, if the SN# WAS known, this is now stolen property twice over.
It should have been returned when found, cops do not lawfully get to keep stolen property as “Trophies”, although they often do so.
The buyer will be taking possession of known stolen property.
Parker, Barrow and another man escaped.
A year later, Bonnie and Clyde drove into an ambush by law enforcement along a Louisiana highway. Parker was 23, Barrow 25 when they were killed.
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