CLYDE HISTORY ON SALE Lots stock and barrels
spree came after Clyde was released on parole in 1932. Schmid, who died in 1963, made it his personal crusade to nail them. He laid an ambush after a tip-off. But as Clyde approached he sensed a trap and hit the accelerator. The lawmen opened up with machineguns and peppered the car with bullets. It slewed to the side, but the wounded pair escaped.
Bonnie suffered further crippling injuries in a car crash. She was 23 when shot dead in a Louisiana ambush in 1934 – and Clyde was 25.
Schmid’s family was also selling the lawman’s gold and diamond sheriff ’s badge, a pair of his boots and his .45 Colt service revolver – with bids for the gun topping €2,900. The auction was run online and finished with a live sale in Boston yesterday. Also for sale, and fetching bids over €17,000, was a letter written by Bonnie, signed by Clyde and sent to Raymond Hamilton, who double-crossed them. Clyde told him: “I’m sorry to hear of you getting captured, but due to the fact you offered no resistance sympathy is lacking. This is to remind you of all the dirty deals you pulled. I should have killed you.”
Dozens of other fascinating pieces of American crime memorabilia were up for grabs in the Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen sale. There were several pieces from Chicago mobster Al Capone – including his art deco diamondstudded platinum pocket watch. It has the initials AC picked out in 23 cut diamonds and surrounded by a further 26. Bidding had topped €16,000. Some €12,000 was bid for a page of music and lyrics to Humoresque – written by Capone after he was locked up in Alcatraz in 1934. Capone was in a swing band, playing the banjo with notorious Machinegun Kelly on drums. But Mr Livingston said: “Capone was sacked for upseting the saxophonist, who then stood up to him. It diminished Capone in the eyes of other prisoners.” Other lots included a watch, razor and overcoat owned by Meyer Lansky, instrumental in setting up America’s national crime syndicate. There were also letters from John Gotti, dubbed Teflon Don and jailed in 1992 for five murders. One, to family of mafia hood Gregory “Big George” Decicco, addresses Gotti’s treatment for cancer, which would kill him in 2002, at 61.
Gotti wrote after surgery: “I started six weeks of radiation and though it’s no picnic I feel like a lion. Tell George to keep the Martinis cold.”
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BOBBY LIVINGSTON ON UNIQUE CRIME AUCTION
Sheriff Schmid in holster and his gold and diamond badge. Above and right: Watch and music penned and wat in jail by Al Capone