The revolver is a .44-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 3 Russian First Model Single Action, serial number 2800g. Thomas Coleman (Cole) Younger, with brothers Bob and Jim, rode with Jesse and Frank James in a desperado's dream team that held up stagecoaches, banks, and trains in Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and elsewhere from roughly 1868 to 1876.
With Pinkerton detectives hot on their trail, the gang took a 370-mile train ride from Missouri to Minnesota, posing as wealthy cattlemen for the purpose of sizing up area financial institutions. Cole Younger, 32, was relieved of his gun and his fugitive past following the gang's robbery of the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, on September 7, 1876.
Two weeks later a posse led by Sheriff Jim Glispin caught up with the bad guys near the town of Madelia, where they surrendered after a shootout.Cole Younger was found to have been shot once by the residents and at least ten more times by the posse. Nevertheless, he survived, went to trial, and served 25 years in prison.
Cole Younger's gun, taken by the sheriff after the shootout, had remained in his family until this auction. The consignor was Phillipp Stoker. His grandfather was the husband of the niece of the sheriff's wife. Ironclad provenance was supported with a scrapbook, news clippings, photos, and a note by the sheriff himself attesting to the gun's authenticity. |
