LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2006 October Grand Format Autographs #629  / 

25486

1933 Blanche Barrow Writes Her Father ALS

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
1933 Blanche Barrow Writes Her Father ALS
<B>1933 Blanche Barrow Writes Her Father, Autograph Letter Signed</B></I> "<I>Mrs. Blanche Barrow.</B></I> Six pages, 5" x 8", lined paper, Platte City, August 28, 1933, to her father, Matt Fontain Caldwell. A very touching letter written after Blanche was captured but just before her trial at which she was sentenced to ten years in prison for assault with intent to kill based on her participation in a shootout in Joplin in which Bonnie & Clyde and the gang killed two police officers. Blanche always loved her father very much and the letter is very sweet and tender reading, in part: "<I>...and dear I am so sorry you have not received my last two letters and it caused you to worry more about me...all my letters are read by the pr. att. before they are sent to you...don't worry about me because I am alright. I'm getting along fine. My eyes are well...</B></I>" This is a reference to the medical treatment she had received; her left eye was cut by glass in the Platte City shootout and she eventually lost vision in that eye. "<I>...Dear, I don't know just when I will be tried, some time next week...I have hopes of being free in a few short years, then I can be with you. and try to make you happy and forget the sorrow and grief I have caused you...the people here are kind to me and I have never been mistreated since I have been here...</B></I>" Blanche became close friends with the Platte City prosecutor as well as the local sheriff and his family, maintaining these friendships through life. <BR><BR>Next she writes about her late husband Buck who had died from a gunshot wound and pneumonia less than a month before this letter's date: "<I>...I miss my darling so who has gone from this cruel old world. but I know he is in heaven. at rest. so I will do the best I can. and pray that God will take me up there with him when I leave this cold world of pain and unhappiness...</B></I>" She again reassures her father not to worry too much and tells him that some visitors had given her some money the other night, "<I>...I had $5.00 left so you see I don't need any thing. I get plenty to eat and am gaining in weight...</B></I>" This was certainly a good thing- she weighed only 81 pounds when arrested! The letter closes with: "<I>...I will close with lots and lots of love to my Dear Dad. Please try not to worry about me. I hope that this finds you will [sic]. Your loving and lonly [sic] daughter...</B></I>" Fine condition with mailing folds.
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