The Colt .45 revolver was a favorite weapon of the notorious outlaw, who terrorised America’s Mid-West in the 19th Century.
After the Civil War, James gained celebrity status by holding up banks, stagecoaches and trains with his gang of bandits. He was shot dead, aged 34, in 1882 by Bob Ford, a gang member secretly hired as a hitman by the Missouri state governor Thomas Crittenden. The Colt then passed to James’s son Jesse Junior, who gave it to a doctor in 1923 as a bond after he was hurt in a car crash. Congressman Frank Boykin owned the pistol until 1975 when he sold it to a US collector.Bidding will start at £250,000 at the sale in Los Angeles on November 24.