I have a friend with more testosterone than sense. He and a college buddy found themselves on the Mexican border during Spring Break several years ago with some spending money and a little time. They were young, bulletproof, and immortal, so they figured they’d wander over and spend the day exploring Juarez on foot.
These two pale gringos were having a simply grand time taking in the sights. However, in short order, they got lost. These were the days before ubiquitous GPS-equipped cell phones, so they really were on their own. Soon they found themselves in a bad neighborhood with the locals looking at them all hungry-like.
Just when things seemed bleakest these two stupid American college kids happened upon a pair of uniformed Mexican police officers and innocently attempted to ask directions. In response, the two Mexican cops drew their weapons and robbed the young men of all their accumulated possessions.
You didn’t need a passport to travel to Mexico back then, so they did eventually get back over the border. However, they lost their wallets, watches, and everything else of value they had on their persons. This was their rude introduction to the realities of police corruption in a Third-World country.
Relativity
It is in vogue to denigrate and even assault the police in America these days. Quite a few politicians have built successful careers around the practice. However, we have no idea what truly bad police really look like. In America, if you get in trouble with precious few exceptions you can call 911 and some selfless guardian with a gun will show up to help you out. The rare exceptions get all the press, but when the zombies start staggering up the cul-de-sac even the most ardent police-bashing anarchist will eventually pick up the phone.
Today’s sordid episode gives us a glimpse into the dark realities of life in the favelas, the sprawling lawless slums of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In these strange spaces, drug cartel foot soldiers openly packing automatic weapons patrol the streets around police stations. The militarized police force conducts massive armed operations, but shadow organizations of current and former cops engage in extra-judicial killings at the behest of powerful figures both inside and outside of government. It is suspected that this corruption infects the Brazilian government at all levels.
The Target
Marielle Franco was born in the summer of 1979 in Mare, a slum area in Northern Rio de Janeiro. She began working to help support her family at age eleven. She had a daughter at age 19 and raised the child as a single mother. Franco was openly bisexual and lived with her partner Monica Benicio from 2017 until her death.
Franco held a Master’s degree in public administration and was an avowed socialist. Her resume included qualifications as a sociologist, feminist, and human rights activist. In 2016 she won a seat on the Rio de Janeiro city council. She used her political pulpit to speak out vociferously against police corruption. This made her some very dangerous enemies.
The Setting
Crime in urbanized Brazil is so extensive as to be difficult for the civilized mind to comprehend. Many to most of the refugees flowing toward our southern border are fleeing such sordid stuff as this. In the face of well-funded and ruthless gangs driven by drugs, murder, and rampant unfettered lawlessness, many police organizations exceed their official mandate. It’s like a bad movie.
Even if they originally meant well, absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the favelas of Rio, that means shadowy milicias comprised of trained law enforcement officers who undertake extrajudicial killings without due process. While many times this means dead bad guys, it also results in substantial collateral damage as well. In darker spaces, it also means that political activists are targeted for termination based upon their cultural and social influence.
The Hit
On March 13, 2018, Marielle Franco posted this to Twitter, “Another homicide of a young man that could be credited to the police. Matheus Melo was leaving church when he was killed. How many others will have to die for this war to end?”
The following day Franco and her driver Anderson Pedro Gomes were returning home from a round table discussion titled, “Young Black Women Moving (Power) Structures.” This event promoted the empowerment of black women in impoverished Brazil. Ms. Franco’s press officer was also in the back seat. From out of the traffic a Chevy Cobalt pulled stealthily up alongside.
The passenger in the Cobalt then produced an HK MP5 submachine gun and fired a total of nine rounds in controlled bursts. Four bullets hit Franco—three in the head and one in the neck. She died on the scene. Her driver was struck by three rounds and was also killed. Her press secretary was injured but survived.
Details
Movies would have us believe that highly-trained hitmen accepting contracts from anonymous clients online have raised assassination for money to an art form. Reality is typically far removed from this stylized image. In many places, criminals will kill in exchange for drugs or even the right to pilfer the pockets of the deceased. In the case of Marielle Franco, however, this job truly was professionally executed.
The kill zone was a city street amply covered with surveillance cameras. However, somebody with the skill and access to do so had deactivated the cameras covering the area at the precise moment of the hit. The cartridge cases recovered at the scene were traced to a shipment sent to Brasilia’s federal police force in 2006. Police officials initially alleged that the shipment had been stolen from a local post office though they later retracted this claim.
The HK MP5 submachine gun incorporates a fluted chamber to smooth extraction and enhance reliability. As a result, fired cases from an MP5, or any roller-locked HK firearms for that matter, demonstrate distinctive longitudinal lines. No other military weapon in common use marks its empties in this manner. This identified the murder gun as a fairly rarefied piece of iron.
The Weapon
The HK MP5 traces its roots all the way back to the Second World War and the German MG42 belt-fed machinegun. The previous MG34 had revolutionized Infantry combat. For the first time maneuver elements were afforded truly man-portable, rifle-caliber, belt-fed firepower mobile enough to keep pace during an Infantry assault. However, the MG34 was meticulously machined with tight tolerances. This made the gun heavy, expensive, and finicky.
The MG42, by contrast, was formed predominantly out of stamped steel pressings that could be churned out cheaply by semi-skilled workers. The beating heart of the MG42 was its roller-locked, delayed-blowback action. This system utilized a pair of roller bearings that cammed into recesses milled into the breech face. The end result was cheap, rugged, and reliable.
In the closing days of WW2, the Germans adapted this system to drive a prototype assault rifle. The StG 45 was an evolutionary development of the StG 44 and used the roller-locked system to fire the 7.92x33mm Kurz intermediate cartridge. Allied forces overran the arms factories where these guns were being developed, but the design was subsequently taken to Spain.
This effort resulted in the Spanish CETME rifle that eventually morphed into the German HK G3. This same action was rechambered for the 5.56mm, the 7.62x39mm, and, in 1964, the 9mm pistol cartridge. This pistol caliber SMG was originally designated the HK54. It eventually became known as the MP5.
The MP5 was first issued to German border police in 1966. It has since been produced under license around the world in more than 100 different variations and remains in series production today. Though its 800 rpm rate of fire is a bit spunky for my tastes, the MP5 remains one of the smoothest submachineguns ever produced. The takedown of the Iranian embassy in London on May 5, 1980, by the British SAS wielding HK MP5 SMGs on international television, sold untold thousands of the guns to military and LE users around the globe.
The Aftermath
Brazilian police investigated Ronald Paulo Alves Pereira and Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega in connection with the killings. Both men had been honored by Jair Bolsonaro, the current President of Brazil, for their police service in the early 2000s. Nóbrega purportedly headed one of these extrajudicial paramilitary groups active in Brazil called “The Crime Bureau.” He was shot to death after supposedly firing upon police who came to arrest him in northeastern Bahia state. Whatever secrets he held went with him to the grave.
Brazilian police also arrested Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Vieira de Queiroz roughly a year after the shooting. Lessa was purportedly the triggerman, while de Queiroz was alleged to have driven the Cobalt. Both men were former members of the military police. One was also a previous neighbor of current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in a gated luxury apartment complex in Rio. Both Lessa and de Queiroz denied involvement.
I read quite a lot about this sordid situation pulling this article together and still don’t even begin to understand it. Allegations of corruption run all the way up to the Presidency. Various players served together in either the military or elite Law Enforcement units and seem connected in ways that are impossible to untangle. However, the take-home point is that today’s American institutional Law Enforcement challenges pale in the face of true corruption.
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A Inland M2 Hyde in caliber .45 ACP
These were made with the purpose to substitute the M1 Thompson during WWII. They did not make the cut as the Grease Gun was about to come off the assembly lines soon. Grumpy
Gunners sometimes forget that these devices we are so excited about start as an idea in a person’s head and are turned into our beloved gadgets by a team of other people. We also forget that the entities that produce firearms are companies that need to make a profit if they are to continue to produce guns. With that in mind, let’s go back to The Great Depression.
As The Depression began to wind down, Smith & Wesson had developed the .38/44 Outdoorsman and Heavy Duty revolvers to take advantage of the heavy loads developed by Elmer Keith and Phil Sharpe for the .38 Special cartridge. This, of course, resulted in the .357 Magnum cartridge and was an immediate success for hunters as well as law enforcement. Those successes, however, were not enough to repay the tremendous debit incurred by the company during the 1930s.
Carl R. Hellstrom, a Swedish engineer, had been hired by Harold Wesson, grandson of co-founder D.B. Wesson, to redesign and update the manufacture of toilet flushing valves, one of the diversification ventures that Harold saw as the future of the family company. Hellstrom was successful in that task, but flush valves were not to be a part of the future of Smith & Wesson.
With war clouds looming again over Europe, England was in the market for a rifle. Smith & Wesson managed to convince the Brits that if they fronted the company $1 million, such a rifle could be designed and manufactured. Unfortunately, Smith & Wesson’s mouth was larger than its stomach, and the company soon found out it was overwhelmed by the idea of a British light rifle. Harold once again turned to Hellstrom to save his bacon.
Hellstrom renegotiated the agreement with the Brits to provide them with service revolvers to satisfy the contract. During this time, Hellstrom had complete control of production in the company, and in 1943 he was named vice president of the company. Harold died in 1946, and the Wesson family—undoubtedly with some elevated discussion—named Hellstrom its first non-Wesson-family president in September of that year. It was under Hellstrom’s leadership that Smith & Wesson developed and produced many of its iconic products that are revered and, in some cases, continue to be produced today.
One of the keys to Hellstrom’s success as president of Smith & Wesson was his energetic research into what the company’s customers wanted. He went to the Camp Perry matches in 1954 and sought out Bill Jordan, a Border Patrolman and World War II Marine who had developed a reputation as a superb shot and gunfighter, for his recommendations for an ideal law enforcement duty revolver. Jordan, who stood 6 1/2 feet tall and had commensurately large hands, opined that a .357 Mag. built on Smith & Wesson’s K-frame with a heavy, 4″ barrel and an underlug similar to the one found on the N-frame .357 Mag. and equipped with target-style adjustable sights would be embraced by lawmen nationwide. His words were prophetic.
Hellstrom returned to Smith & Wesson and tasked his engineers with developing a revolver to Jordan’s specs—a daunting task, given the technology and metallurgy of the time. Several alloys and heat treatment options were tested during the ensuing two years to see whether they could stand up to the rigors of what was then the most powerful revolver cartridge in the world. The dream was realized on November 15, 1955, when the first Combat Magnum was made. Naturally, it was presented to Jordan.
In 1957, when Smith & Wesson changed from names to model numbers, the Combat Magnum was given the Model 19 designation. It has been one of the company’s biggest sellers from the beginning. During its first six months of production, demand was so great that the entire initial block of serial numbers—5,000—were sold. The Combat Magnum was the first revolver to be manufactured with a three-screw sideplate. First-issue Combat Magnums came with a 4″ barrel, in either bright blue or nickel finish and featured checkered walnut stocks. Target stocks made from Goncalo Alves did not come until 1959. A 6″ barrel Model 19 debuted in 1963. Lawmen of the day—especially plainclothesmen—lobbied Smith & Wesson for a snubbie Model 19, and eventually a limited run of 50 Model 19s with a 2 1/2″ barrel and a round butt were produced. It is thought that the bulk of these revolvers went to the Massachusetts State Police. Very few of these were made with a 3″ barrel and are the rarest variation of the Model 19. The 2 1/2″ barrel Model 19 became a regular catalog item in 1966.
Until the paradigm shift for law enforcement agencies to semi-automatic pistols, the Model 19 was the hands-down favorite duty handgun. Even agencies saddled with using nothing other than .38 Special cartridges as a matter of policy bought into the Model 19 because of its incredible record of accuracy and durability. Savvy plainclothesmen and regular officers often chose a Model 19 with a 2 1/2″ barrel and round butt for concealed or off-duty carry.
Like the rest of Smith & Wesson’s revolvers, the Model 19 has undergone what the company calls Engineering and Production Changes or as collectors and aficionados of Smith & Wesson call “dash changes.” Those of primary interest to collectors and users are the 19-1(1959): changing the extractor rod from a right-hand thread to a left-hand thread; 19-2 (1961): change on the cylinder stop and elimination of the trigger guard screw; 19-5 (1982): Elimination of the pinned barrel and recessed cylinder; 19-6 (1988): new yoke retention system/radius stud; replacement of the hammer-mounted firing pin with a floating pin in a frame-mounted bushing and change in the hand.
Conjecture regarding the ability of the Model 19 to handle a steady diet of heavy .357 Mag. ammunition precipitated the development of the L-frame—a slightly larger and heavier frame and cylinder retaining the grip frame dimensions of the K-frame in 1981. The L-frame guns are very accurate, as are nearly all Smith & Wessons, and the increased weight of a heavier frame and cylinder, combined with a full-length underlug on the barrel helps tame the recoil of the .357 Magnum. Regardless of the facts, the notion prevailed that the L-frame was a better deal than a K-frame .357 Mag., and Model 19 sales shriveled. The advent of the semi-automatic as a law enforcement primary pistol played a big part in the decline, as well. Consequently, the Model 19 was more or less quietly dropped from the line in 1999.
However, as we have seen numerous times, it’s almost impossible to keep a good gun down. At the 2018 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, Smith & Wesson reintroduced the Model 19 as part of its Classic series, and a 2 1/2″ barreled Carry Comp, round-butt version slicked up by the Performance Center is also available. If the wheelgun even remotely interests you, it would be wise to scarf up one or both of these Model 19s before they go away, perhaps forever.
Carl Hellstrom may have been a granite-headed Swede with a flair for engineering, but it was under his stewardship that the finest and most beautiful revolvers ever produced by Smith & Wesson were brought to market. If you doubt that statement, check any of the online gun auction sites and note the prices commanded by “gold box” Smith & Wessons.
