Art News

Bonnie and Clyde guns to be auctioned in Missouri

By: Alan Scher Zagier, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY (AP).- Eighty years after their Depression-era robbery and murder spree captivated the country, Bonnie and Clyde continue to fascinate crime and history buffs. At least that’s the hope of a Missouri family selling a pair of rare weapons believed to have been seized from the outlaw couple’s Joplin hideout in 1933. The weapons are owned by the great-grandchildren of a Tulsa, Okla., police detective who was given them by a police officer involved in the April 13, 1933 raid. The .45-caliber , fully automatic Thompson submachine gun — better known as a Tommy gun — and 1897 Winchester 12-gauge shotgun had spent the past 40 years in relative historical obscurity, stored in a Springfield police museum that didn’t acknowledge the cache’s pop culture significance. “People