In this section, I'll be adding guns owned by famous people. For the time being only a few models are shown here, but I am doing my best to get pictures of other famous people M-1911s.

Col. Jeff Cooper's pistols

The following pistols are from Col. Jeff Cooper's collection.

These are four of Col. Cooper's 1911s. And here is a gun I was not expecting to see.

Mind you, this is a new world first, for M1911.ORG. I do not believe (and please correct me if I am wrong) that any other publications, electronic of printed, has ever presented more than one Cooper's pistols.

I want to thank Col. Cooper for allowing us to use these pictures. I also want to thank those who helped my request reach Col. Cooper, who are Elin Ray and Jane Ann Hulen from Gunsite, as well as Mrs. Janelle Cooper, who was nice enough to call and discuss our request with my partner, Hawkmoon. Many thanks to all.

Sheriff's Bill Decker M-1911s This pair of M-1911's belonged to Sheriff Bill Decker of Dallas County, a famous law-enforcement officer, who set up the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. These pistols are made by Colt and it is unknown if they were purchased by Decker himself, or if they were presented to him as a gift. Serial numbers are C201178 and C201184. They are Government models, engraved by Colt (C-class engraving with gold inlays) and their most distinguishable feature is the fact that they have a cut trigger-guard. The factory documentation does not list the stocks found on the guns, so they were probably added later. The picture is 130 KB. This picture appeared in the 1998 Handguns Annual of Guns and Ammo magazine.

Clyde Barrow's M-1911 The story of Bonnie and Clyde, the two famous outlaws of the thirties, who were shot dead on May 23rd, 1934, by a lawmen team lead by Texas Ranger Frank Hammer, is quite well known. What is not known is the fact that inside Bonnie's and Clyde's Ford sedan, the lawmen found an M-1911, bearing the serial number 585823, with US Government marks. The gun had Clyde's last name (Barrow) scratched on its surface and was presumed stolen from the Army. The gun was lately sold at an auction for US$ 16,000!! This picture is taken from the "GUNS" magazine, issue of May 1998.

Walt Rauch Swenson-build M-1911 This gun, was made by the late Armand Swenson and is currently owned by famous lawman Walt Rauch. It features several of the modifications that made Swenson guns famous, like the square trigger guard (I can't agree with that, but... ), the Smith & Wesson adjustable revolver rear site, melted on the top of the slide, a notched barrel hood, which acts as a loaded-chamber indicator, and the barrel positioner, a small piece of metal, welded on the inside of the slide, which allows better lateral precision during lock-up.

The Dillinger Gang's Weapons This is an interesting picture. In addition to the other, more or less standard M-1911s, look carefully at the bottom left of the picture. You will notice an M-1911 with an extended barrel (it looks as if this is a compensated one) with a Thompson front grip and an extended magazine. I do not have any story behind this gun, but it sure is something wierd.

The "November 17th" M-1911s "November 17th" is a terrorist group, which had commited several terrorist acts, between 1975 and 2001, in Greece. The Greek Police managed to arrest several of the group's members and confiscate the majority of their firearms, in July 2002. Between those firearms (and rockets and explosives), there were two M-1911s that the group used to perform several assassinations. Here you can read the story of these pistols and see their pictures.