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Category: Cops
American politics have become decidedly polarized in recent years leading up to lamentable episodes of violence.
The American political scene has become particularly acrimonious of late. Thinly veiled calls to physical violence have driven the less stable among us to act rashly. While the details are adequate to induce the gyrating fantods in the news media, our antics have absolutely nothing on those of Pakistan.
Pakistani politics have been characterized by chaos and mayhem for generations.
Pakistani politics is a bucket of snakes.
Benazir Bhutto was an anomaly. As the world’s first elected female Prime Minister in a majority Muslim country her very existence attracted controversy.
Benazir Bhutto was both the 11th and 13th Prime Minister of Pakistan. Her professional life was enigmatic, dangerous, chaotic, and inspirational. Accused of corruption and officially ousted from her post twice, she yet remained the first democratically elected female leader of a Muslim-majority nation. Imprisoned, exiled, persecuted, and ultimately murdered, Benazir Bhutto came to represent both the best and the worst of her part of the world.
Origin Story
Benazir Bhutto was born into politics.
Benazir’s father was himself the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Benazir Bhutto was born into a life of privilege. Of mixed Kurdish and Sindhi origins, her father was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1973. Four years later he was overthrown in a military coup and hanged.
Bhutto studied both in the United States and Great Britain.
Benazir was classically educated at both Harvard and the University of Oxford, returning home shortly before her father’s death. The coup leader Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq imprisoned her for a time before exiling her to Great Britain in 1984.
Margaret Thatcher served as one of Benazir Bhutto’s prime inspirations.
Bhutto returned to Pakistan in 1986 having been heavily influenced by Margaret Thatcher’s economic platforms.
Bhutto devoted herself to liberalizing her nation’s culture and society.
Determined to import these concepts to her home country, Benazir Bhutto was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988. However, Pakistan was and is the home of some of the most politically and theologically primitive people on the planet. Conservative political forces, as well as radical Islamists, did not accept the idea of a liberal female leader with grace or restraint.
Benazir Bhutto was a controversial but tirelessly persistent politician.
What followed was a labyrinthine mess of charges and countercharges accusing her administration of both nepotism and corruption. History has become so muddled that we will likely never separate truth from fiction. In 1990 the President of the country, Gulam Ishaq Khan, dismissed the Bhutto government via an overtly rigged election.
Bhutto continued to influence Pakistani politics while both at home and abroad in exile.
After her successor was also given the boot due to corruption Bhutto was elected Prime Minister yet again in 1993. This time she threw herself behind economic privatization and the expansion of women’s rights, earning a whole new slate of political enemies in the process. After the murder of her brother and a failed coup attempt, the President dismissed her a second time. She subsequently accepted voluntary exile in Dubai and continued to influence the government via proxies.
Benazir Bhutto’s radical policies marked her for death.
In 2007 with the support of the United States she returned to Pakistan intent on running for Prime Minister yet again in 2008. Central planks in her platform emphasized civilian oversight of the military and opposition to Islamist violence. Despite powerful public support, a 15-year-old suicide bomber cut her down at age 54.
The Killing of Benazir Bhutto
Bhutto enjoyed widespread popularity and drew massive crowds.
Bhutto had already survived one assassination attempt via suicide bomber two months prior to her death. This attack took place immediately upon her return to Pakistan. As she left the airport her security detail formed a human chain to keep assassins at bay. The resulting suicide bombers claimed between 139 and 180 lives, including fifty of Bhutto’s security detail. There are conflicting reports of the ultimate death toll. Bhutto herself escaped unscathed.
Allegations of intentionally substandard security arose from several sources in the days before Bhutto’s death. Professional security contractors such as these likely could have changed the outcome.
Bhutto had repeatedly decried her lack of effective security.
President Pervez Musharraf came to power in a military coup and had little use for Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held her in no great esteem, and rumors swirled regarding sundry plots and lethal schemes. However, none of these dark portents was sufficient to dissuade her from campaigning in public.
Bhutto had requested private Blackwater security personnel in the weeks leading up to her assassination.
She had reached out to the UN, the CIA, and the Mossad, as well as to the private security firms Blackwater and ArmorGroup for assistance. Her security on the day of her death was both local and inadequate.
Bhutto traveled in an armored Land Cruiser with a sunroof.
Bhutto had just completed a political rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and was traveling exposed and upright in the open sunroof of her armored Toyota Land Cruiser.
In this shot taken immediately prior to her assassination, you can see how exposed Bhutto was to potential attacks.
One or more assassins attacked her vehicle from a range of about three meters, initiating the assault with several quick pistol shots. Bhutto fell back into the vehicle, and a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest.
The assassination was precipitated by gunfire followed by a suicide bombing. This image was taken at the moment of detonation.
It has never been conclusively determined if the bomber was also the shooter or if there were multiple assassins. The bomber’s head was found on the roof of a nearby building.
The aftermath of the bombing was profoundly gruesome.
The result in a tightly packed crowd was unfiltered carnage. Twenty-four people died. Bhutto was rushed to the nearby Rawalpindi General Hospital. In a bizarre quirk of fate, the physician trying vainly to save her life was the son of the surgeon who had attempted the same feat on Liaquat Ali Khan more than half a century before.
Bhutto was attacked at the same spot and treated at the same hospital as a previous Pakistani Prime Minister murdered half a century before.
Liaquat Ali Khan was a former Pakistani Prime Minister who was assassinated in the same place and taken to the same hospital in 1951.
The crime scene was managed with profound ineptitude. Any critical evidence was ultimately and perhaps intentionally lost.
The cover-up was both immediate and effective. Bhutto’s body was quickly buried without an autopsy, and Pakistani investigators secured a mere twenty-three pieces of evidence before thoroughly hosing down the crime scene.
Rumors abounded concerning a coordinated sniper attack, and the specific cause of death is widely disputed to this day. The official line was that Bhutto was unharmed by the assassin’s handgun but died from a depressed skull fracture. She purportedly incurred this injury when she struck a component of the vehicle at the moment of detonation. However, eyewitnesses attested to a bloody gunshot wound before the bomb went off. The government seized all the medical records.
Images of the event have been microscopically analyzed yet a complete understanding of the attack remains elusive.
Video accounts are ambiguous, and physical evidence is intentionally scant.
Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban were ultimately blamed, but most of them died elsewhere.
The details are important. In this backwards culture, death by firearm is apparently adequate to attain martyr status, while supposedly being brained by a sunroof lever is not. Additionally, accusations have swirled implicating everyone from President Musharraf down to the local police force in the killing.
Ultimate blame was officially placed upon Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. While these two organizations were certainly awash in proper villains, the vast majority of those implicated died in drone strikes for other reasons. That trail has gone cold.
The Gun
This is a picture of the weapon recovered at the scene of the assassination.
There was a 7.62x25mm Norinco Type 54 pistol recovered from the scene. Type 54 was a Chinese copy of the Soviet TT33 Tokarev service pistol. Type 54 was a common Pakistani police sidearm, and Pakistan had no shortage of illegal arms venues.
The Chicom Type 54 is a common finding among criminals and terrorists the world over.
The TT33 was originally designed by Fedor Tokarev in 1930 and clearly drew inspiration from John Browning’s FN Model 1903 pistol.
The hammer assembly in the Type 54 is retained as a modular component that is easily replaceable in the field.
The gun included a novel removable hammer/sear module that could be replaced at the user level. This module incorporated machined magazine feed lips that would help keep the gun running reliably should the magazine become damaged. The original pistol had no manual safety.
The controls of the Type 54 are intuitive and simple, though the gun lacks a manual safety.
The TT33 first saw Chinese service as the Type 51, a hybrid firearm containing parts of both Russian and Chinese origins. Type 54 was an entirely Chinese weapon. The Type 54-1 and later Model 213 were essentially identical except that they included a manual external safety catch. The Model 213 is still in production in both 7.62x25mm and 9mm Parabellum chamberings, though it is currently restricted from importation into the United States.
The Type 54 has been found in hotspots around the globe and was a popular weapon among the Yakuza, Japan’s infamous organized crime cabal. Some Pakistani-made versions included a burst fire function.
Trigger Time
The trim lines of the Type 54 make it easily concealable.
The Chicom Type 54 is not a terribly comfortable firearm. The thin grip combined with its spunky chambering makes recoil snappy. The near-90-degree grip-to-frame angle is awkward compared to more modern offerings.
The Browning-inspired trigger of the Type 54 is entirely serviceable.
The Fedor Tokarev-designed single action trigger is nice and crisp, however, at least on my Vietnam vet bring back example. The lack of a manual safety means the gun must be carried with an empty chamber or the hammer must be manually retracted prior to firing. Neither option lends itself to fast tactical employment.
The grips of Type 54 belie its communist origins.
Magazines drop free cleanly, and the thin-architecture makes the gun eminently concealable. By all accounts, the weapon was exceptionally reliable in action. The energetic bottlenecked cartridge was well advanced for its time. Many modern antipersonnel handgun rounds aspire to its performance even today.
Denouement
Benazir Bhutto was a groundbreaking figure in the Muslim world. She ultimately paid for her political position with her life.
The murder of Benazir Bhutto has been rightfully described as Pakistan’s JFK assassination.
President Pervez Musharraf was ultimately indicted for his involvement in Bhutto’s assassination and fled the country.
Ex-President Pervez Musharraf was indicted in 2013 for his involvement, and he remains an expatriate fugitive today. Most of the Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects are dead as a result of their other nefarious pursuits. International terrorism doesn’t offer a particularly robust retirement plan. Two Pakistani Law Enforcement officers are currently imprisoned for their roles, both convicted for mishandling the crime scene.
Benazir Bhutto packed her government with friends and relatives and was indeed quite likely guilty of graft. However, she was an undeniably committed reformer in a world where reformers seldom lived very long. In the gory death of Benazir Bhutto, we see personified the chaos that is politics in the modern Muslim world.
The Chicom Type 54 remains a timelessly effective combat handgun despite its 1930s-era origins.
Chicom Type 54
| Caliber | 7.62x25mm |
| Weight | 31 ounces |
| Length | 7.7 inches |
| Barrel Length | 4.6 inches |
| Action | Short Recoil Single Action |
| Feed System | 8-Round Detachable Box Magazine |
| Sights | Fixed Front Blade and Rear Notch |
From left to right we see the 9mm Parabellum, the .45ACP, and the 7.62x25mm Tokarev.
Ex-and-future-felon Richard “Greg” Oliver probably had another use in mind for the sawed-off shotgun stuffed in his pants, but we’re sure most American Handgunner readers will applaud the way he ultimately used it: “Greg prevented a crime in progress and captured a three-time loser — himself.
The police in Martinez, Calif., were already in pursuit of Oliver following a bungled burglary attempt when the fleeing crook leaped to the top of a fence, paused to bid the gendarmes a smug adieu, and fired a single shotgun blast — into his own skivvies.
Oliver was rushed to a nearby hospital with what was, we think, delicately understated as “a severe wound to the groin.” With a horse-choking bundle of past felony convictions, he faces some long, hard time under the state’s new “three strikes and you’re out” law.
No, we don’t know why Richard is called “Greg,” but we bet he’ll have a new nickname in the joint once his, uhm, war story gets around.
And Now For The Sequel
In Connecticut, Bridgeport police rolled in response to a report of a street-corner shooting but just couldn’t believe the prone-and-moaning victim’s story. The 18-year-old male said someone driving by had popped a cap on him.
But officers wondered: If this shot was fired from a car some distance away, why is there a big, smoking, still-smoldering hole in the crotch of this guy’s pants, a single laceration on his penis, severe powder burns down’ his thigh, a sawed-off shotgun stuffed down his trousers, and a giggling girlfriend standing nearby, saying the dummy was “showing off” when he almost blew away his chances for fatherhood?
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a case for Sherlock Holmes, but answer us this: What movie was it?
What cinematic caper convinced these clowns to experiment with the “Genitalia Gauge” concealed-carry? Or is this the kind of thing that exceptionally stupid people come up with on their own?
Man Versus Machine
He’s still on the loose, but probably not for long. Outside the Bank of Commerce in Del Mar, Calif., a suspect tried to bring armed robbery into the technological age.
After circling the bank in his car several times, our loser-of-the-month finally parked, then gingerly approached the apparently defenseless automatic teller machine.
Suddenly producing a club, he began viciously battering the ATM, not even shouting his demands, just mercilessly clubbing the lonely machine with blow after hammering blow, occasionally pausing to see if this mute fiscal representative had begun leaking money. It had not.
Trembling with rage and frustration, the brute ran to his car and retrieved a revolver. He then strode purposely back to the ATM, coolly brought the muzzle to bear, and fired — then ducked, slipped, flapped and scrambled as his own bullet came whizzing back at him!
The ricochet apparently missed the suspect by only a few inches, prompting a headlong retreat back to his car and an ignominious departure.
And how do we know all this? The entire scenario was captured on remote surveillance videotape.
After viewing the tape, bank chairman Peter Davis commented that aside from being excellent evidence for a criminal prosecution, it might be “… the beginning of a TV comedy show.”
Why You Should Pay Attention During Gun Safety Lectures
For four long, tension-filled days and nights, Missouri lawmen scoured the Show-Me state in one of the most intense manhunts in recent area history. Their quarry: a motiveless, anonymous, nondescript suspect who was wanted for the seemingly cold-blooded random shooting of a 25-year-old Butler County Sheriff’s Deputy. Tony Dow.
Fresh-faced rookies, dreaming of locker-room notoriety, checked every bar and roadhouse while seasoned detectives pumped their snitches for a name, a license plate, that snippet of scoop that would “make their bones” and get ’em back into the captain’s good graces.
After all, it ain’t every day a hometown Missourian gets to slap the shackles on a for-real cop-shooter. Probably one of them long-haired California cocaine cowboys, whattaya bet?
Then Tony rained on the parade. Deputy Dow, faced with the snowballing effects of his subterfuge, finally admitted he had shot himself while foolin’ around, tossing his gun in the air.
It was not immediately known if he had seen the movie “Maverick,” but it was immediately guessed he may soon be considering other career options. Good guess, we guess.
If there’s a big loser in Second Amendment-related court proceedings over the past few months, it has to be California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In fact, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 24 that the state’s ammunition background check law violated the Second Amendment and affirmed a district court’s order granting a permanent injunction against enforcement of the law, Newsom shared some harsh words with the media.
“Strong gun laws save lives—and today’s decision is a slap in the face to the progress California has made in recent years to keep its communities safer from gun violence,” Newsom said in a released statement. “Californians voted to require background checks on ammunition, and their voices should matter.”
Newsom’s frustration isn’t just with the decision on ammo background checks, however. To be sure, Newsom’s and California’s anti-gun regime have seen plenty of court losses as of late, and they have been dealt with especially harshly by the 9th Circuit Court—historically a bastion of anti-gun advocacy—in recent weeks.
For one, on June 20, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court struck down the California law limiting firearm purchases to just one every 30 days. This gun-rationing scheme, the court said, not only violated the Second Amendment but had no historic precedent as required by the Bruen doctrine.
“The district court held that this law violates the Second Amendment. We affirm,” the 9th Circuit ruling stated. “California’s law is facially unconstitutional because possession of multiple firearms and the ability to acquire firearms through purchase without meaningful constraints are protected by the Second Amendment, and California’s law is not supported by our nation’s tradition of firearms regulation.”
Less than a month later, the 9th Circuit reversed a district court decision and upheld an earlier ruling that the Golden State’s law prohibiting advertising of any “firearm-related product in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors” is also unconstitutional.
“California has many tools to address unlawful firearm use and violence among the state’s youth,” the ruling stated. “But it cannot ban truthful ads about lawful firearm use among adults and minors unless it can show that such an intrusion into the First Amendment will significantly further the state’s interest in curtailing unlawful and violent use of firearms by minors.”
Note that the big losses haven’t just been in the 9th Circuit Court, but also at the district court level. On July 1, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that the state’s law banning nonresident carry permits is unconstitutional.
“Although California identifies a regulatory burden from potentially tens of thousands of new applications, the constitutional infringement pushes the balance of equities in Plaintiffs’ favor,” the ruling stated.
Ultimately, his recent court losses might have something to do with Newsom’s recent lie proclaiming he’s now a Second Amendment advocate.
“I’m not anti-gun at all,” Newsom said at the time. “I’m for just some gun safety common sense. I’m challenged by large-capacity magazine clips in urban centers, weapons of war sometimes outgunning the police. But otherwise, man, people have the right to bear arms, and I’ve got no ideological opposition to that at all.”
Hopefully, pretending not to be anti-gun made him feel a little better about all the bad beatings he’s been taking in court recently. He’s going to need it, as more lawsuits in the pipeline will continue to dismantle the state’s tangle of anti-gun laws.
The Remington Model 8 was an elegant rifle for a violent time. The weapon’s sleek architecture, reliable action and prodigious firepower made it a popular Law Enforcement tool for its era.
Clyde Barrow was partial to the Browning Automatic Rifle. His BARs were all stolen from National Guard armories.
May 23, 1934 was a Wednesday. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the first serious federal gun control law in American history, would take effect in 34 days. It was a warm, clear morning in rural Louisiana. Along a deserted stretch of State Highway 154 just south of Gibsland in Bienville Parish, a heterogeneous group of half a dozen heavily armed lawmen drawn from a variety of agencies maintained a miserable vigil amongst the nearby brush. The cops had been in place amidst the heat and the bugs for two full days.
They heard the car before they saw it. The 1934 Ford V-8 was one of the fastest, most powerful production sedans on the road. With a powerplant producing a breathtaking 85-horsepower, this Ford Fordor Deluxe had recently been stolen from Jesse and Ruth Warren. Though the car left the factory Cordoba Gray, its new owners had supposedly repainted it desert tan to befuddle pursuers.
Behind the wheel was Clyde Champion Barrow, 25-year-old bank robber and professional homicidal psychopath. Riding shotgun was his cute 23-year-old paramour, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker. Over the course of two frenetic years, the legendary star-crossed lovers had accounted for at least 13 murders, nine of whom were police officers. On this brilliant Louisiana morning, Bonnie and Clyde had a date with Frank Hamer.
Frank Hamer was an old school lawman.
Frank Hamer was an old school lawman. Bonnie and Clyde were
armed to the gills when they were killed by Frank Hamer and his posse.
The Shooters
Two of the cops were from Louisiana, while the remaining four hailed from Texas. Leading the pack was a living legend named Frank Hamer. Frank Hamer was indeed one stone-cold lawman.
Born in 1884, the son of a blacksmith in Fairview, Texas, Francis Augustus Hamer was raised a devout Presbyterian. All but one of the five Hamer boys eventually became Texas Rangers. Raised in Oxford, Texas, in Llano County, Hamer later described himself as the only “Oxford-educated Ranger” in Texas.
Hamer dropped out of school in Sixth Grade to help out in his father’s blacksmith shop. Despite his dearth of formal education, Hamer had a photographic memory and a superhuman drive. He was shot for the first time at age 16 with a load of 12-gauge buckshot. At age 21 he made a citizen’s arrest of a horse thief and found he had a knack for it.
What followed was fully four decades in Law Enforcement. Frank served both with the Rangers as well as other LE agencies as the spirit led. Hamer killed his first criminal, a proper villain named Ed Putnam, while the miscreant was seeking refuge in a brothel. Hamer dropped the murderer with a single round below the eye from his Winchester Model 94 lever-action rifle. Oddly for this time and place, Putnam was carrying a German Luger pistol when he was killed.
Hamer engaged in a long-term crusade against the KKK. Over the course of his protracted career, Hamer rescued 15 African-American men from various lynch mobs. The Bonnie and Clyde hit, however, was Frank Hamer’s masterwork.
Hamer was brought out of retirement to hunt the two young killers. Along with his lifelong friend Maney Gault, Hamer tracked the pair across the American South. Gault was an old soul who was later described to be “As taciturn as a turtle in a drought.” Hamer’s mandate prior to taking this curious job was, “Put ’em on the spot, know you’re right — and shoot everybody in sight.” For this job he needed a specific weapon.
The various members of Hamer’s posse carried an assortment of rifles as well as shotguns and personal sidearms. Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton even packed a shortened Colt Monitor BAR borrowed from the Texas National Guard, one of only 130 or so produced. On this bright morning in May, 1934, Frank Hamer carried a Remington Model 8 chambered in .35 Auto. When Bonnie and Clyde slowed their Ford V-8 in response to a ruse orchestrated by Hamer, which included the couple’s erstwhile friend, Ivy Methvin, everyone made ready.
This is Frank Hamer’s posse. Ted Hinton is at the top left. Maney Gault is top right. Hamer is sitting below Gault. Below, Clyde’s Ford V-8 Fordor was properly ventilated.
The Hit
The accumulated posse had discussed this moment in detail in advance. The previous year a lawman named Smoot Schmid had confronted the pair with the nasty end of a Thompson submachine gun and commanded they halt. He received a burst of gunfire for his trouble. Considering the impressive tally of dead cops the two lovers left in their wake, the accumulated Law Enforcement shooters were not feeling terribly convivial.
There is some controversy regarding the details, but legend has it Frank Hamer likely initiated the ambush himself with a single shot from his Model 8. The round punched through the V-8’s windshield and struck Clyde Barrow in the side of the head, killing him instantly. The rest of his team opened up on cue, ultimately emptying their long guns, their shotguns and their personal sidearms, absolutely riddling both the car and its occupants.
The lawmen fired some 160 rounds over about 16 seconds, 112 of which connected with the car. Roughly one fourth struck flesh. Clyde suffered 17 entrance wounds, while Bonnie had 26. The undertaker later reported he had difficulty embalming the bodies as the fluid kept leaking out.
What followed was a macabre display of mankind’s innate inhumanity. Once word got out the pair was dead, gawkers flocked in from all over. One woman fresh on the scene produced a pen knife and began cutting bloody locks of Bonnie’s hair along with scraps of her blood-soaked dress away for souvenirs. The cops stopped a man before he could remove Clyde’s ear and trigger finger as keepsakes. The shell casings, shattered glass and bloody bits of clothing were all snatched up in short order.
Hamer and his posse recovered a variety of weapons from the ventilated vehicle.
There were seven .45 Colt 1911 pistols, one .32 caliber M1903 Colt automatic pistol, one sawed-off 20-gauge Remington Model 11 shotgun purportedly favored by the petite Bonnie, three .30-06 Browning Automatic rifles, one double-action Colt M1909 revolver, one sawed-off 10-gauge Winchester 1901 lever-action shotgun, one .25ACP Colt automatic pistol, and one .38-caliber Colt Detective Special revolver. They also found 100 loaded BAR magazines and another 3,000 rounds of assorted ammunition.
The Remington Model 8 used the long recoil operating system
conceptually similar to the Browning Auto-5. The gun shown here
is a nearly identical Remington Model 11 Whippet like the one
wielded by Bonnie Parker.
The Model 8
Frank Hamer’s Remington Model 8 was the first commercially successful autoloading rifle sold on the civilian market. The weapon’s modest weight and fast handling made it a popular cop gun as well. The rifle sported a simply fascinating design.
The Model 8 was yet another remarkable brainchild of John Moses Browning. The common genetic influences shared by such Browning classics as the Auto-5 shotgun are obvious if you look for them. Browning first patented the Model 8 design in 1900 before selling the U.S. production rights to Remington. FN in Belgium marketed a very similar weapon for the international market titled the Model 1900. More than 80,000 copies were produced.
Not unlike the Auto-5, the Model 8 operated via the long recoil system. In this case, the barrel slid rearward inside a drawn steel tube during the firing cycle. The bolt locked to the barrel via a rotating bolt head. The bolt and barrel recoiled back as a single unit when discharged. At the rearmost point of travel the bolt was secured to the rear, while a separate spring system returned the barrel forward to its rest position. This action extracted the empty case. Once the barrel settled back into place, the bolt was released to pick up another round and lock it in position for firing again.
The top of the receiver cover was milled to accept stripper clips. The right-sided ranch gate safety lever was remarkably similar in appearance and function to the Kalashnikov rifle. Given its era, the Model 8 was an exceptionally advanced design.
The Model 8 was offered in .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington, .35 Remington and .300 Savage loadings. The five available finish options included Standard, Special, Peerless, Expert and Premiere. My 1914-vintage .32 Rem Model 8 was a serendipitous auction find. I was thrilled to land it at a good price.
Captain Hamer owned several Model 8 rifles, one of which was a heavily engraved version that was a gift from the Remington Company after a shooting exhibition. The customized Model 8 Hamer used in Louisiana that fateful day was serial number 10045 chambered in .35 Remington. Hamer purchased this specific gun through Petmeckey’s Sporting Goods Store in Austin. Hamer had replaced the standard fixed magazine with an extended 20-round version he had obtained through Peace Officers Equipment Company in St. Joseph, Mo.
Denouement
Hamer’s posse had been promised a serious reward for the neutralization of Bonnie and Clyde. However, many of the private businesses pledging funds ultimately reneged. Each member of the team ended up with about $200 or roughly $4,400 today. The half dozen cops did end up keeping the seized criminals’ firearms as war booty.
The posse returned soon thereafter and recreated the shooting at the actual site with the same weapons they used on the hit. Period film of the recreation can be found on YouTube. In it, Frank Hamer flinches when hit with a piece of hot brass.
Clyde’s mother unsuccessfully attempted to have the crime guns returned to her. She claimed as her son had never been convicted of a crime, the weapons were still her son’s property. Considering all of the weapons were stolen, many from National Guard armories, it was a bold though ultimately unsuccessful move.
Like many of his era, Frank Hamer lived a hard life. He was a heavy smoker who suffered a stroke in 1953 at age 69. The legendary lawman died two years later. At the time of his death, Hamer had been shot 17 times and left for dead after shootouts with criminals on at least four occasions. He had killed somewhere between 53 and 70 people in the line of duty.
Frank Hamer was the product of a different time. Not unlike General George Patton during World War II, such a flamboyant personality would not have lasted long in today’s woke environment. However, in 1934 during the era of the notorious motorized bandit, Frank Hamer was the man the country needed for the gory task at hand. He was a “Break Glass In Case Of War” sort of policeman.
This guy sure has a hard on for the LAPD! Grumpy