Artifacts connected to some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters sold for more than $100,000 at auction Saturday.
BOSTON (AP) – Artifacts connected to some of the nation’s most notorious gangsters sold for more than $100,000 at auction Saturday.
A diamond pocket watch that belonged to Al Capone and was produced in Chicago in the 1920s, along with a handwritten musical composition he wrote in Alcatraz in the 1930s, were among the items that sold at the « Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen » auction. The watch fetched the most – $84,375 – according to Boston-based RR Auction.
The winning bidder of the watch was not identified. The buyer is a collector who has an eye for interesting American artifacts, said RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston. He was among about 30 internet, telephone and in-person bidders.
Capone’s musical piece entitled « Humoresque » sold for $18,750. The piece shows Capone’s softer side. It contains the lines: « You thrill and fill this heart of mine, with gladness like a soothing symphony, over the air, you gently float, and in my soul, you strike a note. »
Livingston told The Associated Press he wasn’t surprised that lyrics written by a man better known for organized crime than his musical talents sold at the auction because of the way Capone « resonates in the American imagination. »
« The musical artifact gives insight into who this man was, » Livingston said. « It humanizes him, and shows that he had an imagination and creativity. These people had talents and they used those talents, unfortunately for criminal endeavors. »
Livingston was referring not just to Capone, but to infamous couple Bonnie and Clyde. An autographed « So Long » letter written by Bonnie Parker and signed by Clyde Barrow just before their deaths sold for $16,250. A pair of Texas arrest warrants fetched $8,125.
Parker’s silver-plated, three-headed snake ring fetched $25,000. The ring was not made by Barrow- a skilled amateur craftsman who engaged in jewelry making, woodworking and leathercraft behind bars – as originally believed, according to RR Auction’s website.
Clyde Barrow’s nephew, Buddy Barrow, and Bonnie Parker’s niece, Rhea Leen Linder, were in attendance.
« I asked Buddy Barrow what his uncle would be thinking about the auction, he felt that Clyde would have said ‘make as much money as you can’, » Livingston said.
A letter written by John Gotti, the reputed head of the Gambino crime family in New York, didn’t sell. The 1998 letter to the daughter of a mob associate urges the recipient to tell her father « to keep the martinis cold. »
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