Mafia Weapons
M1928 Thompson Submachine Gun “The Chicago Typewriter” It became notorious as the gun of choice of gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925 gangsters in Chicago used Thompsons in vendettas, finding them ideal for quick killing from a safe distance. The submachine guns were apparently easily and legally available at sporting goods stores. Notorious gangster Al Capone supposedly stopped at a Chicago sporting goods store to get a gun, and Capone’s first known Tommy-gun killing followed on April 27, 1926. The guns spread through the underworld, first in other parts of the Midwest, and then to New York. They were used in Chicago’s notorious St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 and carried by renegade killers Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s.
During the 1930s, the Tommy gun continued to be identified with desperados, gangsters, and bank robbers.