Gangster Gats: “Red” Barker’s Ghouls

A band of ghouls seeking to rob the grave of George (“Red”) Barker, slain claimant of the gang power of Al Capone, was driven from Mount Carmel cemetery in a heated gun battle early today.

– News Journal, “Gun Battle Is Staged Over Grave of Gangland Leader” (22-JUN-1932)

 

I have previously expressed doubt whether gangsters and Mythos investigations are a good fit. I am still not entirely convinced, but you could probably make it work. Recently I stumbled over an article in the Chicago News Journal, which reported that on 22-JUN-1932, shortly after midnight, four or five “ghouls” had tried to disinter the body of Chicago Outfit member George “Red” Barker in Section 26 of the Mount Carmel cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Investigator Weapons: The Thompson Gun in Great Britain between the Wars

Here, one would say, is an arm that is useless for sport, cumbrous for self-defence and could not serve any honest purpose …

     ‒ Hugh Pollard, “Gun Running and the Traffic in Arms,” Saturday Evening Post (24-NOV-1923)

 

Captain Hugh Pollard was mainly talking with the Irish Revolution fresh on his mind, but he certainly did not think that an “honest” Briton could see any non-military use for the Thompson submachine gun. And yet, despite what the sorry state of today’s British gun laws would make one believe, British investigators of the Mythos could most definitely kit themselves out with a Thompson gun in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Investigator Weapons: The Strange Case of Harold Severy

Everything had gone fine until 1915, [Harold Severy] said, when he noticed that people were sticking their tongues out at him. Severy believed that his persecutors had a ringleader, and that lodges had been organized in various cities to torment him. His enemies, he thought, obtained advance information of his whereabouts and plans, apprising each other by underground communications. He tried to escape them by moving from New York to Baltimore, he said, but they caught up with him. Still trying to escape, Severy fled to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago … Returning East, he came to Albany, where his tormentors soon caught up with him and began to cluck their tongues at him. Severy decided finally, he said, that the only way to stop the persecution was to shoot with a … gun.

‒ New York Herald Tribune, “Albany Terror of ʻ16 Dies Mad at Matteawan” (22-JUL-1936)

 

On 01-FEB-1916, 25-year-old Harold Severy, dubbed “Jack the Shooter” by the press, was arrested in Schenectady, New York, for the murder of James Irving and the assault of three others. He had shot them on 28-JAN-1916 in Albany, New York, with a .22-calibre Stevens single-shot rifle without stock that had been fitted with a Maxim Model 1912 sound suppressor and a wire assembly to trigger the shot with the gun concealed up his right sleeve and the wire being pulled by a twist of his right hand.

Shopping Spree: Bannerman (1927)

Few are the sights that Gotham has to offer

Of greater interest and instructive aid,

Than the rare contents of this famous coffer

From all the earth’s ransacked corners here displayed.

‒ Francis Bannerman Sons Military Goods Catalogue (1927)

 

Between 1865 and 1959, Francis Bannerman Military Goods ‒ from 1918, Francis Bannerman Sons Military Goods ‒ was probably the largest and certainly the most important military surplus store in the entire USA. From 1905, it had its primary outlet at 501 Broadway in New York, New York (GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1, p. 5; GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 2, p. 24; Investigator Weapons 1, p. 25).

Ultra-Tech: Armat M41A

OK, I wanna introduce you to a personal friend of mine: This is an M41A pulse rifle, 10mm, with an over-and-under 30mm pump-action grenade launcher.

‒ CPL Dwayne Hicks, 1st Platoon, A Company, 2/9 USCM, in Aliens (1986)

The Armat M41A is the famous weapon arming the US Colonial Marines in Aliens (1986) and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation security forces in Alien 3 (1992) ‒ also, for some obscure reasons, the bank robbers in The Simpsons #13.12 (2002) … It accounts for a lot of the pseudo-realistic setting of Aliens, giving the main characters a mean-looking yet functional weapon to combat the dangerous Xenomorph XX121. Ultimately, the powerful, effective carbine ‒ and all the other ultra-tech gear of the year 2179, from nukes to sharp sticks ‒ does not mean much against the swarm intelligence, evolutionary perfection, and insidious breeding habits of Internecivus raptus, giving the Alien saga a distinct, rather desperate Lovecraft-esque vibe.

Book Review: The Cthulhu Wars

Kenneth Hite & Kennon Bauman, Osprey Publishing, 2016

The Cthulhu Wars ‒ The United States’ Battles Against the Mythos is an awesome book by H.P. Lovecraft grognard Kenneth Hite, author of relevant works like GURPS Horror (2011), GURPS WWII: Weird War II (2003), and Trail of Cthulhu (2007), and his co-author Kennon Bauman. This is not a game supplement, however, but an alternate history book in Osprey’s Dark History series. Following Hite’s earlier effort in that line, The Nazi Occult (2013), the book is written as if its subject matter were real and both authors were actual Mythos investigators; in a clear Lovecraft spoof, Hite is even presumed dead after a fire gutted his library …

Lovecraft’s “The Electric Executioner”

Part of Lovecraft’s Investigators and Their Guns.

(set in 1889, written in 1893, revised in 1929, published in 1930)

Of course I had my revolver in my coat pocket, but any motion of mine to reach and draw it would be instantly obvious.

 

Written by Adolphe de Castro and completely revised by H.P. Lovecraft, this story is set in the Gaslight era, or more exactly in the Old West. That the unnamed investigator carried his revolver in a pocket does not necessarily indicate a small pocket revolver, as many people at the time carried even rather large weapons in pockets, although often fitted with short barrels. A Colt Single Action Army revolver in the so-called Sheriff’s configuration in .45 Long Colt (11.43×33mmR) (Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, pp. 42-43) would be quite likely. A pocket weapon like the S&W Safety Hammerless revolver in .32 S&W (7.9×15mmR) or .38 S&W (9×20mmR) (Investigator Weapons 1, p. 57) would also be possible.

Lovecraft’s “The Last Test”

Part of Lovecraft’s Investigators and Their Guns.

(set in 1899, written in 1927, published in 1928)

“Shut up, you fool! Do you suppose your grotesque nonsense has any weight with me? Words and formulae – words and formulae – what do they all mean to one who has the substance behind them? We’re in a material sphere now, and subject to material laws. You have your fever; I have my revolver. You’ll get no specimens, and I’ll get no fever so long as I have you in front of me with this gun between!”

 

Written by Adolphe de Castro and H.P. Lovecraft, the Bad Guy in this Gaslight story is clinic-man Surama, a man of dubious extraction and allegiance.

Surama used a revolver of unspecified make and model. We can assume that he acquired it in America rather than brought it from North Africa. A suitable choice would be a Colt New Army & Navy revolver in .38 Long Colt (9×26mmR) or a S&W Safety Hammerless revolver (Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, p. 57) in .32 S&W (7.9×15mmR) or .38 S&W (9×20mmR).

Lovecraft’s “The Lurking Fear”

Part of Lovecraft’s Investigators and Their Guns.

(set in 1922?, written in 1922, published in 1923)

Then, in spite of my daze of fright and disgust, my morbid curiosity triumphed; and as the last of the monstrosities oozed up alone from that nether world of unknown nightmare, I drew my automatic pistol and shot it under cover of the thunder.

 

The only thing we immediately learn is that the weapon was an “automatic pistol.” To an American in 1922, the eminent automatic pistol was probably the Colt Government in .45 ACP, adopted by the US military as the M1911 (Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, pp. 37-38). We do know that the anonymous narrator was a seasoned investigator of “strange horrors” and a veteran of many “ghastly explorations.” This suggests he probably carried a serviceable weapon rather than one of the many .25-calibre vest pocket pistols that were so popular with contemporary civilians, but offer so little real power.

Lovecraft’s “The Mound”

(set partly in 1928, written in 1930, published in 1940)

Part of Lovecraft’s Investigators and Their Guns.

When they saw they could not deter me from my trip, the Binger citizens sadly did what they could to aid my outfitting. Having known before my arrival the sort of work to be done, I had most of my supplies already with me ‒ machete and trench-knife for shrub-clearing and excavating, electric torches for any underground phase which might develop, rope, field-glasses, tape-measure, microscope, and incidentals for emergencies ‒ as much, in fact, as might be comfortably stowed in a convenient handbag. To this equipment I added only the heavy revolver which the sheriff forced upon me, and the pick and shovel which I thought might expedite my work.

 

This is another story written by H.P. Lovecraft for Zealia Bishop. The anonymous narrator, an ethnologist, is outfitted not unlike archaeologist Dr “Indiana” Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (set in 1936). The “heavy revolver” could be one of several types then popular with American rural law enforcement, including the Colt New Service (Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, pp. 39-40) in .45 Long Colt or .45 ACP. The old Colt Single Action Army (Investigator Weapons 1, pp. 42-43) in .45 Long Colt was also still widely used the West in 1928. The most modern type would be the S&W Hand Ejector in .44 Special or .45 ACP. In .44-calibre, it was preferred by legendary gun fighter “Jelly” Bryce, then a detective with the Oklahoma City Police Department.