Donald Bateman Hope Coates, shown here firing an M1921 Thompson submachine gun on a trip to Mexico in the 1950s, claimed to be the first man ever fired at by someone armed with a Thompson.

INTRO: Tommy guns and Chicago bad guys are on the big screen again. Johnny Depp stars as John Dillinger in the new film "Public Enemies," which opens in theaters today. "Eight Forty Eight ...

The Thompson sub-machine guns remain, in cold steel, the only witnesses to a lurid chapter of Chicago crime lore. But, how the guns came to be in Michigan is a story in itself.

The United States Marine Corps had first tested the Thompson in 1920, but only in the mid-20s did the Corps finally commit to buying 700 of the new submachine guns.

The Thompson machine gun was designed for use in the trenches of World War I, but it came too late for the war and soon found its way onto the open market.

NEW PHILADELPHIA — The bidding started at $40,000, and went sky high from there. The prize? A Thompson Model 1921 submachine gun that was purchased by the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office on … ...

Thompson, John Taliaferro Description During World War I, machine guns were heavy, crew-served weapons. Their operation required several soldiers. Even so-called light machine guns could not easily be ...

William Shoemaker of the Chicago Police Department aims a Thompson machine gun, or tommy gun, in Chicago in 1926. The gun, developed for World War I, was very popular with gangsters due to its ...