THE GUN THAT KILLED BILLY THE KID: PAT GARRETT'S COLT SINGLE ACTION ARMY REVOLVER USED TO KILL BILLY THE KID.
Serial number 55093 for 1880, .44-40 caliber 7 1/2 inch barrel, one line Hartford address crescent ejector rod head. DFC stamped over serial number on frame. Walnut grip. Condition: Very good with traces of blue on barrel and cylinder flutes and other protected areas. Well worn grips.
Provenance: Billy Wilson (alias of David L. Anderson); taken by Pat Garrett when he arrested Wilson and the rest of the Billy the Kid gang at Stinking Springs; used by Garrett to kill Billy the Kid at Pete Maxwell's, July 14, 1881 (notarized copy of a 1906 letter signed from Garrett); loaned to Tom Powers for exhibition at his Coney Island Saloon (appears in Tom Powers inventory and probate); recovered by Garrett's widow, Apolinaria (Pauline) Garrett, from Powers estate, 1933 (signed and notarized letter from Jarvis P. Garrett, April 20, 1983; contemporary newspaper documentation, including pictures of her with the gun); sold to Calvin Moerbe of Round Rock, Texas, 1976; sold to Jim and Theresa Earle, July 14, 1983.
Literature: Garavaglia & Worman, Firearms of the American West, 1866-1894, Albuquerque, NM, 1985, p 293; Metz, Leon Claire, Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman, Norman, OK, 1973, p 102; Wilson, R.L., The Peacemakers, New York, 1992.
Sold for US$6,030,312.50