Faded Glory: Dusty Roads Of An FBI Era

For The Honor Of Their Fathers.......

 

".... you don't know what hell is until you are a young housewife  in Chicago with a 3-month old child and your husband gets a call to throw some clothes in a bag and go to Wisconsin at once. Later that evening a radio bulletin said that 2 unidentified FBI agents had been killed in Wisconsin. The wife of the agent across the hall and I called the Bureau headquarters all night trying frantically to find out if we were widows! .......When you have gone through that you will have been through hell." (Don Metcalfe's recollection of words from his mother regarding his father, Special Agent (SA) James Metcalfe, who had embarked to "Little Bohemia.")

The Depression Era's war on crime came on hard and it came on fast. To say that there wasn't any type of formal training for them is an understatement. As Don Metcalfe told me in a 2009 telephone interview, "It wasn't until months after the Kansas City Massacre in 1933 that my father had to learn how to shoot a gun and drive a car." 

 

Many didn't understand how much all of it would tax their home lives. Their bravery overshadowed the thoughts that they may make widows of their wives and leave their children fatherless. The relentless fatigue of extremely long hours; of being in one city one day and another the next. The all night driving or the endless train rides and living out of a suitcase. At times, on the move with only the clothing on their backs. Shacking in some motel or private room in a remote corner of 1930's America. The weeks away from friends and family who would have no idea of where they were or what they were doing. And whenever they got the chance, taking the opportunity to let the noise of a whirling bedside fan put their body to sleep..............

Winstead in 1934 (right) and in 1972 (left). Photo Courtesy Of the "Grapevine."A very small piece of information predicated this website. Months back, an online Dallas newspaper report revealed that the memoirs of former FBI Special Agent, Charles Winstead, were in a museum in Sherman, Texas. Having known the Winstead name and his role in the Dillinger shooting and many other high profile cases of the '30s, one could only wonder why a document of this value to FBI and police history had never made it out of the city of Sherman where Winstead was born. Or at least copies of it. It was important that others read it.

It wasn't just the importance and significance of the "memoirs" themselves that would cause anyone to stop and think. It was rather a follow-up comment from the reporter. "FBI Agent Winstead, who died in bed at 82 in 1973, is today widely disremembered."

It's one of those statements you need to read twice.

How could a man like Winstead and the role he played in Texas law enforcement and FBI history not be remembered? There was something that just wasn't right with this. How many others are "disremembered?" Men who were so important to the pioneering of law enforcement and the beginnings of the FBI as we know it.

1933 Underhill Shootout, Shawnee, OK: l to r kneeling are SAC Ralph Colvin, Det. "Jelly" Bryce. Standing rear; l to r are SA Paul Hansen, Det. Clarence Hurt & SA Kelly Deaderick. Photo courtesy G. Franklin from his father's collectionWho were they? Where did they come from? Can we put a name to a face or vice versa? Importantly, where are their children and grandchildren today? What do they remember of their fathers?

 Under perhaps the worst of conditions, FBI men and many local law enforcement officers of the time pioneered a new era complete with gangland Chicago, dusty Midwest roads, wooden shacks, rented rooms, running boards, snap brim and straw hats.

An entire generation of FBI Agents is gone. So is the evil they pursued. Their biographies are diverse. From immigrants to those born here; many were lawyers and accountants; former Texas Rangers, or Oklahoma and surrounding lawmen; sports legends, boxers, war veterans and more.

To the generations of today and tomorrow, most won't even know the gangsters, bank robbers, killers and others of those days. Even fewer will know the names of the men who pursued them.For most, they'll be only distant drums. No doubt as time progresses, distorted tales of two types of men; the hunters and the hunted.

 

For the early G-Men, perhaps former FBI Agent James J. Metcalfe of the 30's said it all in his writings called "Portraits; We Were The G-Men." He writes "......We helped the Bureau grow, we suffered heartaches and we lost the lives of several men. But surely every one of us would do that job again. Because today the FBI is worthy of its name and we are proud and happy that we helped create its fame."

This website is a tribute to the many FBI Agents of the '30s who have been forgotten and to a very young FBI they so proudly served.

".......an everlasting reminder to future generations that in this day and age there lived men with courage enough to end crime careers........ even if it required the supreme sacrifice..." (1935 editorial)

 

This site under constant construction as of 2009; stop back often

If you'd like to provide input, photos or personal items to this site, please contact me direct.

Website owner, retired FBI Special Agent Larry Wack (left in yellow) , spent the years of 1968 to 1972 working under Director J. E. Hoover's FBI as a support employee while attending college at night. After Director Hoover died in May, 1972, Mr. Wack continued working at FBI Headquarters until 1975. In 1975, being a graduate of American University in Washington, D. C., he became a Special Agent of the FBI and spent the next 28 years working on FBI Violent Crime and Terrorism Task Forces first in New York City and then Buffalo, NY area. He retired as an FBI Special Agent in 2003. SA Wack is shown here with his brother, "Cap," during a long overdue visit between the two in 2007.

Comments and opinions of the editor/ site owner do not necessarily reflect those of other current /former or retired Special Agents nor other law enforcement entities. The site editor/owner is not a spokesman for the FBI or any of its affiliate groups, organizations or Society.