I was curious as to the provenance of the Billy the Kid gun.
El Paso Times article establishing that Mrs Garett got the pistol back from the Saloon that had it on display
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/n...-will-be-returned-to-garretts-widow/31521121/
This is the Coney Island Saloon, (the owner obviously thought the name would be a drawing point in El Paso!) which Ms Garrett had to sue to get the pistol back.
https://www.facebook.com/LostElPaso...ner-of-sheldon-oregon-street/570471359748342/
https://truewestmagazine.com/the-gun-collector/
Here is the auction house
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/27262/
Provenance is everything. The Pat Garett gun had a solid enough provenance to be worth $6 million. I really don't know how they established that the pistol was the one Pat Garrett left to the Saloon owner. The original could have walked off, and been replaced with something close. The buyer should have established that before spending $6 million for the pistol.
Now this one, was "attributed", and only sold for $64,350.
An historic Colt single action army revolver attributed to famed outlaw William H. 'Billy the Kid' Bonney
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16016/lot/2120/
I did read Pat Garrett's book about Billy the Kid, and after the shooting, Pat wrote about the National attention the shooting received. And how many people he met that made claims of having faced down Billy the Kid, etc. Given the publicity and the notoriety (there were dime novels about the Kid) I would consider any story about a Billy the Kid gun, stored in a tree, to be a fish story. Someone though, paid $64,000 for it.