Click on photos to enlarge! Gun as art had seemed to have had its heyday in the 1970s. A lot of historic guns were engraved and are priceless today. There are engraved guns that are not so special, and there are the Rembrandts and DiVincis that belong in a well guarded museum. In the 1970’s a private collector had two unfired and perfect early manufactured blue Smith & Wesson, Model 27s in .357 Magnum caliber. These were chosen for this art project of a wild imagination. That was the gun chosen by J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men of the FBI . A large frame gun that could handle the increased pressures of the Magnum cartridges used to penetrate the vehicles of the infamous motor bandits of the Great Depression. John Dillinger and a short list of bold bank bandits were hunted by the FBI. The crimes were indeed notorious and they inspired an endless stream of books and movies. They also inspired the Leonardo DiVinci of gun artists, Leonard Francolini to create one of the finest master...

Who is that handsome lad in front of the Biograph Theater? Click to enlarge the picture. Los Angeles, CA —This is a film I had to see. It culminates in Chicago with the ambush and killing of John Dillinger on a warm summer evening. Dillinger was one of the more ruthless of the motor bandits that engaged in takeover robberies of banks during the Great Depression. Make no mistake, innocent people were killed and cops were murdered in the line of duty. Despite it all, Dillinger became a folk hero and icon because he went after what was perceived as the evil and greedy bankers. J. Edgar Hoover built the FBI based on smoke, mirrors and some of the slickest public relations moves ever. He wisely used the intelligence his bureau gathered to extort funding for the FBI and his own professional longevity. Our sleazy politicians were and are always ripe for extortion. Anyone wiretapping them can own them. Melvin Purvis was the real hero of the War on the Motor Bandits. When Purvis’ profile bec...