National Law Enforcement Museum Acquires High Profile Artifacts

The National Law Enforcement Museum recently participated in "Gangsters, Outlaws, and Lawmen," a live auction in Nashua, New Hampshire that had many high-profile objects up for bid, and the Museum acquired the following artifacts:

• a National Arms Co. Single Shot No. 2 Derringer, along with a badge and coin purse belonging to Pat Garrett, who was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County (NM) in 1880
  
  
• a handwritten letter penned on the back of a mimeographed list of guns for sale and dated from the 1930s that refers to Garrett as the famous sheriff who killed Billy the Kid
  
  
• the Deputy U.S. Marshal commission and badge that belonged to Ted Hinton, the youngest (and last surviving member) of the posse that ambushed and killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in Louisiana in 1934
  
  
• photographs of the posse, which included Ted Hinton, Frank Hamer, Prentiss Oakley, B.M. 'Maney' Gault, Bob Alcorn, and Henderson Jordan
  
  
• original 1930s Associated Press photos of a payroll robbery pursuit in New York. Two New York City patrolmen, Edwin V. Churchill and Walter J. Webb, were killed during the robbery. Their names are inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC.

To date, the National Law Enforcement Museum has acquired more than 16,000 historical and contemporary artifacts, dating back to the 18th century. These recently acquired "Gangsters, Outlaws, and Lawmen" artifacts will help the Museum tell the story of law enforcement in America, particularly how law officers dealt with violent crime during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The Museum is expected to open in Washington DC in 2015. Read More About the National Law Enforcement Museum.

Photo © NLEM

Related Washington DC Attractions

Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

National Museum of Crime and Punishment

International Spy Museum

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