Historical Firearms Quiz 2

[Capt Hamp Cox]

When Tom Horn broke out of jail, he grabbed a handgun from Under-Sheriff Dick Proctor and made his getaway.  He was quickly recaptured when he was unable to get that handgun to shoot.

What kind of handgun was it?

(Depending on the source, I have found a basic generic description all the way to full nomenclature, to include serial number.  I'm curious to see what some of you may be able to come up with.)

[Tres Equis]

I read somewhere (fergot where) a long time ago that the pistol in questionun was allegedly a German Luger... maybe a Model of 1900.  Though I don't know of ANY other Lugers in the western USA at this time.

Then there was an article about 3 or 4 years ago in Wild West magazine that said it was a 32 auto Browning Model 1900.  

I do not know for sure which version is correct.

I do remember from various sources that Horn was supposedly captured because he didn't know how to release the safety on the pistol, or that the pistol jammed and he din't know how to clear it.  

One thing is for sure, and that is that Mr Horn was not familiar with semiautomatic pistols and didn't get far on his escape attempt.

[Capt Hamp Cox]

XXX appears to be on the right track.  I had also seen the Luger account previously, but the info below is what I found more recently:

"In the Jan/Feb 2001 issue of American Handgunner titled "Gun Grab: The Hit Man Incident." It discusses Horn's escape attempt and notes that historian Lee A. Silva has discovered the handgun in question in the possession of the deputy's grandson and namesake, Richard Proctor, listing it as a .32 caliber Browning Model of 1900, serial number 56666."

Anyone found anything drastically different?

A couple of interesting related articles are at:

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/staley/horn_vs_hollywood.htm

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/staley/tom_horn.htm