This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/18/2024
[OUTLAWS]. BARROW, Clyde (1909-1934) and Bonnie PARKER (1910-1934). Calendar pages allegedly inscribed by Clyde Barrow, with supporting documentation from a former criminal associate, James Mullen. Framed display, 508 x 445 mm overall, with a TLS from Mullen stating that he had taken the calendar out of Clyde’s car as a souvenir and vouches that the writing on the pages was that of Clyde Barrow, or as “he was known briefly” to Mullen as: “Dallas sheriffs office No. 6048”. The first calendar page is dated 1 October 1933, and is inscribed “Bonnie Birthday”. The other is dated 21 March 1933, and is inscribed “your Clyde’s birthday”; an error lost on its owner as Clyde was born on 24 March. These pages were most likely a ruse by Mullen who saw a moneymaking opportunity after the couple was slain by police officers on 23 May 1934 and the romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde was quickly being ingrained into American popular culture. On 23 February 1935, 20 people were charged with harboring the slain Bonnie and Clyde, including Mullen, and were asked to take the stand during the government’s prosecution of the “bloody gunfight” between the gang and police in Platte City, MO. Mullen testified concerning the Gang’s activities, the break at Eastham State prison farm, and to identify a Browning machine rifle as the sort used by Bonnie and Clyde during the shootout (these were military grade guns that they had stolen from the National Guard armories). Corsicana Semi-Weekly Light (26 February 1935) describes Mullen’s testimony, more specifically, the famous prison break which Ray Hamilton (brother of “Public Enemy Number One”, Floyd Hamilton) promised him $2,000 to effect his release: “[Mullen] came to Dallas and plotted with Floyd Hamilton, Ray’s brother, and Clyde and Bonnie to free Hamilton from the prison farm. Pistols were cached near the farm by Barrow, Bonnie and Mullen… three days before the break. On the day of the break Mullen and outlaw couple drove to within a mile of a stretch of woods where the convicts were working”. Mullen described the scene that unfolded: “We had been there only a few minutes when we heard two shotguns fire and a lot of hollering. We stay there ten minutes. Soon, three men in white prison clothes and one in stripes approached us. They were Raymond Hamilton, Hilton Bybee, Joe Palmer and Henry Methvin”. Included with a later printing of Bonnie and Clyde’s wanted poster and an original broadside ad for a movie about the outlaws, promising pictures taken immediately after their deaths.