CHICAGO, July 22 - John Dillinger, arch criminal of the age, was shot dead tonight by a group of Department of Justice operatives as he walked out of a Chicago movie theatre, where “Manhattan Melodrama,” a film that depicts gangster’s death in electric chair, was being shown. Dillinger, who was accompanied by two young women, arose when the execution scene reached, and walked from the theatre into the Federal agents’ ambush.
He whipped an automatic revolver out of his pocket and had it half raised, when the operatives loosed a withering blast of revolver fire that dropped him mortally wounded.
Automatic Revolver?
by ~JM~, Friday, July 22, 2016, 09:45 (3034 days ago) @ LAH
Possibly a Webley-Fosbery ?
~JM~
Automatic Revolver?
by Catoosa, Friday, July 22, 2016, 10:32 (3034 days ago) @ ~JM~
Naw, it was a Colt .380. Reporters back then apparently didn't know squat about firearms, just like now.
There's a story about that gun. It's supposed to be in the FBI museum, but the gun in the museum wasn't manufactured until several months after Dillinger's death. Nobody seems to know what happened to the real one. There's a story that Hoover gave it to Red Skelton, but it has never turned up.
July 22, 1934
by Cherokee , Medina, Ohio, Friday, July 22, 2016, 10:20 (3034 days ago) @ LAH
The news media never gets it correct, even back then.
What guns in what calibers did the police and FBI use on
by Rob Leahy , Prescott, Arizona, Friday, July 22, 2016, 11:17 (3034 days ago) @ LAH
Dillinger?
--
Of the Troops & For the Troops
What guns in what calibers did the police and FBI use on
by Ray L, Friday, July 22, 2016, 21:03 (3034 days ago) @ Rob Leahy
of the three agents who fired a total of 6 shots...one colt police positive .38, one colt official police .38, and one colt 1911 super .38.....agent second in charge in charge-purvis was said to have carried a super .38 as well on that night.....clarence hurt and charlie winstead who both claimed to have made the fatal head shot were part of a texican/okie team brought in by hoover as public relations damage control after the failed purvis/cowley/baby face nelson shootout.....cowley and hollia were killed that fall in the shootout that killed nelson....
What guns in what calibers did the police and FBI use on
by Catoosa, Sunday, July 24, 2016, 23:10 (3032 days ago) @ Ray L
In his official report, Charles Winstead stated that he fired "the division .45 caliber automatic" at Dillinger. At that time, what later became the FBI was called the "Division of Investigation". It didn't become the FBI until several months later.
According to Bryan Burrough in "Public Enemies", Winstead fired three shots, Clarence Hurt fired twice, and agent Ed Hollis fired once. Dillinger was hit four times, two of which were minor wounds. Purvis carried a Colt .38 revolver that night, but fired no shots.
Also according to Burrough, the agents involved agreed among themselves to not discuss details of the shooting. For many years, the Bureau refused to release any information, but it was generally agreed that Winstead fired the fatal shot which struck Dillinger in the back of the neck as he ducked and ran.
Hoover wrote a letter to Winstead commending his (Winstead's) actions, which letter acknowledged that Winstead's shots had brought Dillinger down. Apparently there have been extensive efforts by collectors to determine the serial number of Winstead's gun, but no dice. The Bureau's records for that era were not very complete, and the Bureau was not inclined to release much information.
Apparently, Chicago PD had been told nothing about the Bureau's stakeout, did not participate, and in fact almost blew the whole operation when a couple of carloads of uniformed CPD officers responded to reports of "suspicious-looking men" hanging around the theater.
Interestingly, agent Hollis was one of the two agents murdered by Nelson during Nelson's final gunfight in November of that year.
What guns in what calibers did the police and FBI use on
by Ray L, Monday, July 25, 2016, 03:08 (3032 days ago) @ Catoosa
i think i have that book you cited somewhere in my library, i'll have to find it... but i found the trivia(probably partially incorrect) i posted in "midwest motor bandits" how the v-8 ford and the tommy gun changed history....that book also mentions the two innocent bystander women injured by the gunfire, both seriously and references the quite discreditable urban myth that one of the women contracted sypillis from dillinger via one of the pass-through bullets....