Bonnie Parker’s Colt Model 1908 .25 caliber Pocket Automatic, #50625, cal. .25 A.C.P., 2 1/8″ barrel, dark bore with faint rifling. The pistol retains almost all of a good looking nickel plated refinish with the only wear a small bare spot on the unmarked floorplate of the magazine and a couple of tiny spots on the front of the slide. The factory slide markings have been polished off but the frame serial number is very legible. The factory checkered black hard rubber grips are in fine condition. The pistol is complete and in operating condition.
This transfers as a modern firearm.
This pistol comes from the grandson of Jesse Orville Pinkston, Sr., who was a county agricultural agent in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. A notarized letter from his grandson Edwin S. Pinkston (a well-respected retired college professor who taught at Louisiana Tech University and was named Professor Emeritus upon his retirement in 2004) relates how his grandfather obtained the pistol. In May of 1934 Jesse Orville Pinkston, Sr., was driving from Gibsland in his Ford when he was passed by a similar Ford going in the same direction. Shortly thereafter he came upon the Bonnie and Clyde ambush scene which had just occurred. Although he didn’t witness the ambush, the grandfather said that dust and smoke were still in the air. At this point the grandfather realized that it was Bonnie and Clyde that had passed him on the road. J. O. Pinkston, Sr., knew both Sheriff Henderson Jordan and Deputy Sheriff Prentiss M. Oakley of Bienville Parish, who participated in the ambush. As they were looking at the bodies and the ambush car, one of the officers found this Colt .25 in Bonnie’s purse. Deputy Sheriff Oakley gave the Colt .25 to Jesse Orville Pinkston, Sr., and said something like ‘We were so trigger happy before the shootout, if Bonnie and Clyde hadn’t passed you, that when we saw your Ford we might have shot you; how would you like a souvenir of the day you almost got killed?’ The grandson relates that his grandfather died six months later and the family kept the gun in a sock drawer until 1950 when upon the advice of a local gun ‘expert’ they had it nickel plated. An interesting observation that Professor Pinkston remembers his grandfather commenting was ‘that some of the officers were crying, because as one explained, men simply didn't shoot a woman in cold blood, especially since they were not given a chance to surrender.’
Also included is a notarized statement from Charles E. Amman who has lived in Monroe, Louisiana, for 87 years. He states that his father-in-law was Earnest Thomas Oakley, the brother of Deputy Prentiss Morel Oakley. Earnest said that Prentiss remembered that ambush very well and that he had many nightmares about it. Prentiss also told him about a man driving up minutes after the ambush in a car identical to the one Bonnie and Clyde were driving. Prentiss said he told the man if he had driven by the spot a few minutes earlier he might have been shot and killed. In addition a notarized statement from Charles E. Amman’s daughter Katherine Amman Vellard is included. She states that Prentiss Oakley was her great uncle and that she is a lifelong friend of Professor Pinkston and believes him to be a man of the utmost honor, character, and integrity. A small photo of county agent Jesse O Pinkston, Sr. is also included. RR Auction COA.
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