The first recorded instance of a bullet catch was described in the late 16th century. According to Conjuring Arts, it came via a man named Jean Chassanion who, writing on the subject of folks living outside of the boundaries of God's societal lines in the sand, talked about a man who would have pistols and rifles fired at him, but somehow manage to catch the bullets in his hand. His fate, as relayed in the original text, was the stuff of perturbed stage assistants' dreams: "...his servant, who was angry with him, fired such a pistol shot at him that he killed him."
Then there was Torrini, aka Edmund de Grisy, a performer in the early 1800s who performed an act called "The Son of William Tell" in which his young son would (this gets uncomfortable) hold an apple in his mouth, then have a bullet fired at him, only to mystically stop the projectile in the heart of the fruit. The bullet fired was a fake, likely made out of wax so as to evaporate after being fired. Then one day, an actual ball was loaded into the gun during a performance. Torrini's son was killed, and the magician was arrested on charges of "homicide through imprudence."
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