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The Saunders collection contained at least three guns used by Jesse James: a .36 Colt Navy, a Starr, and a Colt M1873. From Outdoor Life of October of 1923.

Belle Starr’s ‘73 Winchester .44-40 came to light in the July of 1920 Outdoor Life. Belle was the daughter of a Methodist minister, a good girl gone astray. One of the West’s great outlaw leaders, she ran with the James gang and Jim Cummings, and generally terrorized Oklahoma when it was known as Indian Territory.

Missourian Fred E. Sutton wrote in his brief note that Belle was killed at Younger’s Bend in the I.T. (Indian Territory) on February 3, 1889. Edgar Watson was credited with the deed. After Belle hit the ground, her saddle mare Venus swam the river and was intercepted by U.S. Marshal James Boles, who lifted the carbine from its saddle scabbard. Sometime later he gifted the gun to Mr. Sutton, its owner in 1920. The photograph accompanying Mr. Sutton’s essay indicated that BELLE STARR is rather crudely but conspicuously carved on the right side of the butt stock . On one side of the breech in her name in brass letters. On the other side is a brass figure of a bell and a star. One would suppose that this precious Winchester is in a major collection. On the other hand, it could still be reposing in a closet somewhere in Missouri.