Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Paul Shively family

I'm hoping today's post gets picked up by someone in the family of Capt. Paul Shively, who served the Lincoln Police Department from 1923 to 1955.  A comment was left a few weeks ago on another post from someone who said he was Capt. Shively's grandson, so maybe he has a Google Alert set on the name.

I would like to find Paul's family because the owner of this remarkable firearm has contacted me. He is going to auction this rare revolver, but would prefer to see it go to a family member. I have checked this person out, and I am convinced he is legitimate.

It would certainly be nice to see Capt. Shively's custom Colt (ordered from Lawlor's Sporting Goods, no less) in a shadow box on his grandson's mantle. If there is anything to do to facilitate putting these two in touch, I would love to do so.

5 comments:

Steve said...

I can understand the idea behind the open trigger guard, but that looks like an accident (and lawsuit) waiting to happen. I would hope the trigger pull was a bit stiffer than some of the more modern pistols, and I assume it is like my hammerless S&W Airlite .357 magnum and the trigger pull both cocks and fires the gun. Still...

Hope you locate a family member who wants it, and they are careful in handling it (if they decide to use it rather than put it in a display case).

Anonymous said...

You have to put things in perspective Steve. Of course it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen now days but that was back in the early 1900's before lawyers had messed things up with their lawsuits.

Steve said...

I totally agree, but we're talking about what to do with it now.

Nyfty said...

Steve, a "Fitz Special" type revolver besides having the forward part of the trigger guard cut away. Often times has the hammer spur cut off and the single action notch on the hammer ground off. That make the revolver a "double action" only, so the only way it will fire is to pull the trigger through a fairly strong hammer spring to fire the revolver.

Anonymous said...

I happened to stumble on this article while trying to find more information on my great-grandfather J Paul Shively. The man who was asking about the custom Colt was my father.

Do you know if the Colt was sold already? We would love to get in contact with the seller to learn more about the gun.