Bonnie and Clyde’s Sawed-Off Shotgun Is Hitting the Auction Block This Week

A surefire way for you and your partner to win the costume contest this Halloween is to show up dressed as Bonnie and Clyde—wielding the antique (unloaded!) sawed-off shotgun from the 1933 shootout at their Joplin, Missouri, hideout.

The Boston Globe reports that RR Auction is holding an online auction for the Western Field Browning Model 30 shotgun through 12 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, September 20, and live bidding will take place Saturday afternoon at the Omni Parker House in Boston. The auction house estimates a final sale of around $75,000.

Police detective Tom De Graff confiscated the weapon after the shootout, during which Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and their companions killed two policemen—and wounded De Graff—before escaping by ramming their car through the garage door of the apartment and speeding off. When De Graff left the department in 1941, he took the shotgun with him as a souvenir.

RR Auction is also auctioning off the wristwatch Clyde wore when he died, a bulletproof vest found in his car, and a black book of poems that Bonnie wrote in 1932 while jailed in Texas for a bungled hardware store robbery.

“With little to do other than pine for Clyde and chat with her jailer, it is no surprise that Bonnie’s fertile imagination turned to poetry,” the auction listing says. “Of the 10 poems in this book, five appear to be original compositions, largely drawn from her adventurous life on the road with the Barrow Gang.” Some of the titles are pretty much exactly what you might have expected from the rip-roaring criminal, like “The Story of ‘Suicide Sal,’” “The Prostitute’s Convention,” “The Hobo’s Last Ride,” “The Girl With the Blue Velvet Band,” and “The Fate of Tiger Rose.”

In addition to Bonnie and Clyde’s personal effects, the auction includes several artifacts from other infamous 20th century criminals. Among the items is a sterling silver cigarette case engraved with “To Al and Mae, 12-18-29, From John Torrio.” The “Al” in question is none other than Al Capone—the case was an anniversary gift from mobster mentor to mentee. There’s also a 14-karat gold pinkie ring emblazoned with a Star of David and the initials “MC,” for Los Angeles gangster Mickey Cohen.

If you’re hoping to go gangster this Halloween without dropping bags of money on accessories, you can at least learn the lingo for free.

[h/t The Boston Globe]