For what it’s worth, this gun is accompanied by the following documentation (to be posted within the next few months on the nramuseum.com website):
1. Colt factory letter showing shipment to Colt Master Engraver Leonard Francolini, June 5, 1975
2. Letter from Francolini confirming details of engraving and casing.
3. Unidentified magazine article, stating in relevant part “Francolini … will only say that the revolver was engraved on the special order of a Dutch Physician, Abraham Van Helsing, in June 1975.”
4. Medical Examiner Report, Case No. JQ, including the following exerpts: “This woman was found shot and stabbed to death on the early morning of 23 September 1975. At the scene she was clothed in a nightgown… The body was reported to be that of a forty year old woman, but the appearance was that of a considerably older woman in an advanced state of decomposition….General inspection of the body revealed diffuse skin pigmentation and prominent elongated upper incisor teeth with a coagulum of blood in the oral cavity.” The included autopsy report goes on in some detail, omitted here for brevity and in deference to the sensitivity of the readers. It concludes with the identification of the body as a Kathryn Stroud and offers the opinion that the “Cause of Death was a gunshot wound with concurrent penetrating stab wound to the heart. (HOMICIDE).”
5. Office of the Sheriff Firearms Identification Laboratory report on specimen JQ1, including notation “[3] Further examination of the discharged bullet described in [1] by laboratory metallurgist has revealed that this projectile is not jacketed as originally reported but composed of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper”.
It was reported that there may have been at one time a CCW permit with this arm, issued in the name of a S. Stackhouse (or Stockhaus) of Bon Temps, LA, but we have been unable to locate this document, and can find no information on a Mr. Stackhouse.
I hope this information has been of interest.
Sincerely,
Jim Supica, Director
NRA National Firearms Museum
