This rare first edition of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” was used to conceal a .32-caliber pistol.
It was found in 1941 by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona then sent to the FBI for examination.
Firearms examiners compared test bullets and cartridge cases from the gun to similar samples but could not identify the weapon or match it to other evidence.
Published in 1936, this copy of the book resides in the [FBI’S] Laboratory Division’s Reference Firearms Collection in Quantico, Virginia—the gun housed in its 1,037 pages.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/artifacts/gone-with-the-wind
Ian’s video [15:31]:
I think the mistake was mine in calling out that specific crime lab… you’re probably right, the only guarantee is that all the guns there have a bit of blood on them —both metaphorically and literally.
I was definitely thinking more old or weird more than murder-weapon. I half remember an old palm pistol nicknamed the lemon squeezer from a childhood book, looked a bit like the reel that’s attached to a plumb bob and chalk-line with a stubby little barrel intended to stick out between the fingers.
The other artifact that comes to mind was some kind of weird revolver like shotgun from a tour of some FBI building in Boston, MA. We never got close, they just sort of walked you past a big cage full of guns without fielding any questions.
I was picturing Warehouse 13, but for weapons.
:-)