A military and cultural history of the infamous World War II firearm documents its notorious use by mobsters and NRA members as well as its ubiquitous presence in Hollywood films, charting its many names and role as a symbol of 20th-century culture.

John Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds—but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Following a bloody decade—and eighty years before the mass shootings of our own time—Congress moved to take this weapon off the streets, igniting a national debate about gun control. Critically-acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal tells the fascinating story of this famous and deadly weapon—of the lives it changed, the debate it sparked, and the unprecedented response it inspired.

This is the true tale of two brothers, sons of a successful Jewish contractor, who along with an MIT graduate and a minister's daughter once competed for headlines with John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde. The gang was led by the angry, violent, yet often charismatic Murton Millen, a small-time hoodlum and aspiring race-car driver. With his younger brother, Irv, and later joined by neighborhood buddy and MIT graduate Abe Faber, Murt launched a career of increasingly ambitious robberies. But it was only after his sudden marriage to the beautiful eighteen-year-old Norma Brighton that the gang escalated to murder. Their crime wave climaxed at a Needham, Massachusetts, bank on February 2, 1934, when Murt cut down two local police officers - Francis Haddock and Forbes McLeod - with a Thompson submachine gun stolen from state police. The killings, the dogged investigation by two clever detectives, and the record-setting trial with seventeen psychiatrists were national news. In Depression-era America this Boston saga of sex, ethnicity, and bloodshed made the trio and their "red-headed gun moll" infamous. Gorenstein's account explores the Millen, Faber, and Brighton families and introduces us to cops, psychiatrists, newspaper men and women, and ordinary citizens caught up in the extraordinary Tommy Gun Winter of 1934.

The Trench Broom. The Annihilator. The Persuader. The Chopper. The Chicago Typewriter. The Tommy Gun. The Thompson submachine gun has gone by many names, and for nearly a century the gun's image has been indelibly marked on the popular consciousness. In this broad-reaching cultural and military history, Bill Yenne charts the tommy gun's unpredictable and one-of-a-kind career, from its infamy in the hands of Al Capone and the Chicago mobsters, to its shady days with the IRA, to its indelible place in the arsenal of World War II, and its truly immortal and ongoing role in Hollywood. The tommy gun is without a doubt the most famous, and the most infamous, American firearm of the twentieth century. Since its birth in the aftermath of World War I, the tommy gun has enjoyed a varied career on both sides of the law. Though General John T. Thompson invented it for the American military, it first found notoriety thanks to its part in events such at St. Valentine's Day Massacre. But when the United States entered World War II, the gun's true power as an essential, life-saving weapon made it an iconic weapon of the American GI. Full of incredible stories from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific, America's gangland, and Hollywood studio back lots, Bill Yenne's Tommy Gun is the definitive story of this unique American icon.

Thompson submachine gun aficionados and enthusiasts always demand every last bit of information available on this now classic firearm. They will not be disappointed. Tom Davis, Jr. has researched and documented the British adoption and procurement of the Thompson gun during World War II. When was the first time the Thompson gun was put into active service with the British military? How many guns were involved? When was the first order placed? Who was involved in the decision making process? When were the first guns shipped to Britain? How many - and for what purpose? These questions and many more are answered completely in only the first few pages of this new book now available about the Thompson gun. This book corrects much of the misinformation that has been published over the years. Have you ever wondered what information the pundits used when discussing the number of Thompson guns lost during U-Boat attacks? Did you feel this topic, at best, was a guessing game? For the first time you will be able to review the documented losses of Thompson guns by ship name, date of attack and number of guns lost. Are you interested in Colt Thompsons in British service? Or the early Savage Thompson guns? This is your book. Read what the author has termed 'the war of spares' between the British Ministry of Supply and the U.S. War Department. Review five official parts lists - some published for the first time. Every piece of information is painstakingly documented via over 350 footnotes, most from information obtained directly from the National Archives in Great Britain and the National Archives and Record Administration in the United States. Learn about the Thompson gun in Great Britain... today! This is a must book for the Thompson enthusiast's library. Other books by Tom Davis, Jr. - An Amateur's Guide for the Colt's Thompson Submachine Gun

An in-depth study of the famous Thompson submachine gun. Fielded by the United States and her allies during World War II. This is the third printing of American Thunder; the Military Thompson Submachinegun Guns. The concept of the Thompson originated during World War I, by John T. Thompson. By the time the weapon was designed and placed into production, the war had ended. Post war sales were made to a few law enforcement agencies and corporations, but some ended up in the hands of criminals, earning the gun a sinister reputation. Nearly twenty years later, at the beginning of World War II, there was a desperate need for weapons, and the Thompson was placed back in production. The submachine gun was issued to U.S. and allied military forces and helped win the war. 412 pages, color and black/white photos.

Eliot Ness and his team of Untouchables work overtime taking on dangerous criminals that hide in the seedy underbelly of 1930s Chicago. Except in this world, Al Capone isn't dealing in alcohol, but in magic. With Lick, a drug that grants magical powers to anyone who ingests it, mobsters become wizards, ordinary men become monsters, and darker secrets than Ness can imagine lie at the heart of it all. A new genre-bending comic series from Christian Ward, co-creator of the acclaimed sci-fi epic ODY-C. Drawn by Sami Kivelä (Abbott), with backup stories written and drawn by Christian Ward. Featuring a sketchbook section and pinups by Declan Shalvey, Ian Bertram, Tula Lotay, and more. Collects Machine Gun Wizards #1-#4.