A little Valentines Day humor

[pvt81pvi]

[John Dillinger]

Original photograph (which I own) taken in December 1929 (description on reverse side). The 2 Thompsons were the ones used in the St Valentines Day Massacre according to ballistic reports or so the story goes.

 

Edited February 22 by John Dillinger

[gijive]

John Dillinger,

I have seen you post this original photograph before, with the statement that the guns are original, or so the story goes.  Don’t worry, the guns are the original Thompson Submachine Guns used in the massacre.  I have Calvin Goddard’s original report detailing the identification of the two guns.  If you want to send me a Private Message with your address, I will send a copy to you.

GI Jive

[TD.]

John Dillinger,

+1 - Thank you for sharing! 

[John Dillinger]

On 2/16/2026 at 12:17 PM, gijive said:

John Dillinger,

I have seen you post this original photograph before, with the statement that the guns are original, or so the story goes.  Don’t worry, the guns are the original Thompson Submachine Guns used in the massacre.  I have Calvin Goddard’s original report detailing the identification of the two guns.  If you want to send me a Private Message with your address, I will send a copy to you.

GI Jive

Hi GI Jive now that would be a really nice bit of provenance to accompany this lovely old photo.

I’ll message you with my details.

Many thanks.

JD

[John Dillinger]

On 2/16/2026 at 3:03 PM, TD. said:

John Dillinger,

+1 - Thank you for sharing! 

Thanks TD. It is such a cracking old photo that I was fortunate enough to come across and purchase.With the history of those 2 Thompsons pictured it puts the icing in the cake you could say 👌

JD

[gijive]

Hi John,

I just sent you a private message.

Best regards,

GI Jive

[gijive]

John Dillinger,

I just sent your package and also a Private Message.  Hope you enjoy it.

GiJive

[John Dillinger]

You’re a gent Sir!

I’ll scope out getting a copy of the photo.

Much appreciated 

Paul

[rpbcps]

Good to see members of the Forum helping each other out with things. We have a great community here.

[John Dillinger]

Absolutely Richard 👌

[HANS]

I've been researching this and many other gangster guns for a dozen or so years now and I my view on the whole affair veers a bit from the official account; gijive and I have debated the whole thing several times, including when I was over in Chicago some years ago and he very graciously showed me around with John B.

My issues are with details, but as we all know details make things interesting. I agree that No. 2347 and No. 7580 were used, although I believe the commonly accepted route of No. 2347 to the killers was a bit different. My main concern is the number of shots. Goddard made a very cursory examination of the bullets as far as I know, basically stopping after he matched one (!) bullet to each of the guns, rather than the 38 or so that were retrieved. He also made assumptions about the number of shots and especially the type of magazines used based on incomplete data -- but note that he worded his assumptions more carefully than is commonly reported, indicating that he knew they were assumptions. Given the state of crime scene examinations of the time generally and this one specifically, it seems that these issues are far from iron-clad. This is also supported by the coroner's reports, which by my tally indicate more holes than there should be if just 70+2 shots were fired. 

The outcome, of course, is still the same, but it is the small stuff that makes it fun

 

Cheers

 

HANS