Saturday, May 9, 2009

Poll Question Answers

The old clock on the wall says it's time again, to reveal the latest batch of B&C History poll question answers. So here we go--

The Rosborough car, stolen from Marshall, Texas-- was a 1932 Ford B-400 V-8 Convertible. That was an easy one.

Ted Hinton and Bob Alcorn's nickname for Bonnie Parker's shotgun was "Bonnie's Sweet 16". (updated) This weapon attributed to her, was found by her side in the death car. 2 sawed off shotguns were found in the Warren car-- this 16 gauge and a 20 gauge.

In the famous pic of Clyde sitting on the bumper of their car, the rifle Clyde is holding on top is a Krag-Jorgensen 1898 (likely a carbine). This one I thought might be somewhat of a challenge-- as within both the Joplin and FBI Files, this gun is mis-identified as a Springfield rifle. As noted in the Theo Money letter within The Joplin Files-- this rifle is said to have been the property of Alva Hall, a bootlegger-- who Clyde and the Gang visited near Waldron, Arkansas. Clyde traded Hall for this gun, however in an odd twist, Mr. Hall forgot to remove his hunting license from the stock. Therefore when this gun was later recovered, it was easily identified-- and the law was able to trace it back to Hall, and his encounter with the Barrow Gang.

Although this rifle is twice noted by the authorities to have been a Springfield rifle, some research will reveal the reason for this mis-identification. In 1892, Krag had been selected as the new supplier of rifles to the US military-- replacing Springfield. Then in an interesting turn of events, in 1894 the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, began making
American made versions of these Norwegian weapons. Thus during this period, both Norwegian Krags and Springfield made American Krags were in circulation. The US models, were identified on the rifles as being from the Springfield Armory. These markings I believe, prompted the error on the part of the law, in mistakenly calling the rifle Clyde had, what it said it was-- a Springfield. The side loading magazine (a Krag trademark)-- is a dead giveaway, to the proper identification of this weapon. Thus I believe Winston Ramsey had it right in his book, On the Trail of Bonnie & Clyde Then and Now. The law in 1933 in my view-- had it wrong.

Please check out new You Tube video links to both the BAR and the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, down the right side of the blog. The Krag-Jorgensen video is immediately followed by piece on the Springfield 1903-- so you can see the difference. Video shows firing of an 1896 Krag-Jorgensen Carbine, very similar to the rifle Clyde is holding-- only this video is better than the video for the 1898 model, and includes the Springfield piece.


Related to the Krag question, Clyde got this gun from a bootlegger, in exchange for $7.50 and a .22 High Power.

John Callaway was Blanche Barrow's 1st husband. Blanche married Buck Barrow, after she apparently escaped an abusive relationship with Callaway. Blanche of course later married Eddie Frasure-- and never re-married after his death. Caldwell was Blanche's maiden name.

870 swatches of Clyde's death pants, were said to have been cut to be sold by Marie. A number of these were sold originally. It's also thought, an unknown number may have disappeared when Marie's son Shawn, landed in trouble with the law. It's my understanding some of the Clyde pant Swatches "may" still be available for sale. The B&C Ambush Museum currently has none available, but may be able to supply them if requested. I saw recently, that a memorabilia house, sold one of these swatches for $750. So if you can still get one for the original $200 asking price-- good deal. If anyone's interested, let me know-- I'll see what I can do to find some.

Thanks for your participation. Please look for the new poll zingers tomorrow.

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