DALLAS – The man who owns the .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver Jack Ruby used to kill accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald says the gun is going up for auction this month in Las Vegas.
Anthony Pugliese III, who paid $200,000 for the gun at an auction in 1991, won't divulge his minimum price but will say it is more than $1 million.
The Pugliese Pop Culture Collection will go on the auction block March 15-16 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. About 150 of the items are associated with President John F. Kennedy or his assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
The Florida real estate developer said he was selling the gun because he has a new passion: To build a 64-square-mile bio-sustainable city in central Florida.
His old passion was assembling a grouping of 900 historical and celebrity collectibles.
Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, purchased the gun in 1960 for $62.50. He used it three years later to kill Oswald.
Among the collectibles Pugliese has assembled are the hat worn by the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 MGM film "The Wizard of Oz" and the white jacket worn by John Lennon on the cover of The Beatles' album "Abbey Road."
Arlan Ettinger, president of the New York-based auction house Guernsey's that is handling the sale, said he is unsure how much the gun will sell for.
Others items in Pugliese's collection range from a wooden humidor from Kennedy's desk to the toe tag attached to Oswald's body.
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