A bloodstained tan stocking was unrolled across a Manhattan cafe table the other day. It had belonged to Bonnie Parker, the murderous robber, and was found in her getaway car in 1934 after she and her partner, Clyde Barrow, died in a hail of police bullets.
ArtsBeatA waitress at the cafe was told about the clothing’s notorious past. “That is awesome,” she replied. Then she asked, “How much is it worth?”
The stocking had arrived in New York in the company of Bobby Livingston, a vice president at R R Auction in Amherst, N.H. The company has organized a “Gangsters, Outlaws, and Lawmen” memorabilia sale for Sept. 30 in Nashua, N.H.
Souvenir hunters descending on crime scenes had saved many of the objects now in the auction, with estimates into the six figures. The stocking is expected to bring $1,000 to $2,000, in a group lot with Parker’s empty aspirin tin, an engraved metal eyeglass earpiece and a screwdriver useful for repairing guns.
Law officers and vigilantes who had gunned down outlaws would routinely hand out bloody relics as crowds gathered. “There was a mania or whatever about collecting that stuff,” Mr. Livingston said.
The R R sale is part of a torrent this fall of exhibitions and sales of artifacts connected to felonies.
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