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Matt Warner's Marlin Rifle and Colt Revolver

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
Matt Warner's Marlin Rifle and Colt Revolver
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Matt Warner's Marlin Rifle and Colt Revolver. Two frontier weapons with provenance to the famous "Wild Bunch" member and good friend of Butch Cassidy, Matt Warner. a) S/N 45672, circa 1878, .45 LC, 7 1/2" barrel, Colt Single Action Army with “Bridgeport” stud, civilian purchase, correct barrel address, type II hammer knurling. Besides the usual civilian usage, several hundred were purchased by the Army but found unfit for field duty. CONDITION: finish over all is gray with pitting scattered over the surface, hammer knurling, patent marks and barrel address are faint, all numbers match including barrel and cylinder, action needs timing, walnut grips have shrunk. b) S/N 34969, circa 1890, .44 caliber, 28" octagon barrel, Marlin 1889 Rifle, standard Marlin rifle wood, correct Rocky Mountain Buckhorn rear sight, no elevator, special order Lyman hunting front sight. Factory letter noting shipped August 18, 1890. CONDITION: 95% blue overall that has mostly turned plum brown, bore is dark with scattered oxidation the entire length, forearm is cracked with piece missing on left side, butt is very good with plenty of use dings, mechanically very good. With original, notarized affidavit from John Oscar Anderson attesting to the authenticity and history of the guns, as they were given to him in 1935 by his friend, Matt Warner. He states in the detailed affidavit that "[Warner] said the guns were put away for emergency after the Telluride bank robbery with "Butch" Cassidy. He said he did not like the long barreled Colt to carry.". MATT WARNER BIO. Matt Warner (1864 - 1938). Western outlaw turned lawman, born Willard Eratus Christiansen to Mormon parents, he used the alias Matt Warner after he thought he had killed a cowboy in a dispute. During the early 1880's, he built his ranch at Diamond Mountain and supplemented his income by various criminal activities. During one of his criminal exploits, an unexpected chase by a local posse ran him all the way back to Robber's Roost in southeastern Utah. During this time in the outlaw hideouts of Utah, he met Butch Cassidy and Tom McCarty, (who married Warner’s sister). Between 1885 and 1889, with the Wild Bunch, he robbed the Denver & Rio Grande train lines and a Telluride, Colorado bank. After several more robberies from New Mexico to Washington State with Tom McCarty, he settled down on a ranch in Utah. About 1896, while on a prospecting trip, he was ambushed in a gunfight, killed two, wounded a third, was arrested and convicted. After serving four years of a five-year sentence for this shootout, he was pardoned and released by Utah Governor Heber M. Wells in 1900. In the early 1900's he became a justice of the peace, deputy sheriff and a detective in Price, Utah. He lived the rest of his life with his family as a respected man of the community. At the time of his death, he was one of the longest-surviving members of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch Gang.