By all official accounts, John Dillinger was armed with a .380 Colt (no serial number) the night he was killed at the Biograph Theater.  A loaded magazine which would fit this type weapon was found in his pocket.  The fact that the original gun has been missing, misplaced or simply lost, for literally decades provided critics of the FBI the opportunity to re-write history as to what happened at the Biograph that night.  Conspiracy theorists enjoyed the stories of the FBI gunning down an unarmed man, carrying out a Hoover "assassination plot," a "planted gun" and more. 

Dr. John Fox, who is the current FBI Historian,  and I had been looking for the misplaced Dillinger gun he had at the Biograph.  Sometime in 2006, through other discussions, John and I discovered we were both looking for the same thing.  Dr. Fox had been searching some areas around FBI Headquarters and was pretty certain the gun had gotten misplaced over time.  My review of the Dillinger file for clues to the gun's whereabouts was already underway.  So was my own review of the statements of the Agents present that night.  These statements would reveal critical evidence of what happened and what the scene looked like. 

Before the review of the Dillinger FOIA file started, knowing it encompassed some 30,000 or so pages, my own preliminary checks with both insiders and outside writers and historians revealed that while many had examined the file previously for "the characters involved," no one had actually examined the file for evidence of the Dillinger gun's whereabouts.   While I didn't relish the review, it had to be done to find a paper trail.  In hindsight, the review did provide extensive documentation now used in other areas of this website.  

The search for the gun involved searches of vaults and old tour items at HQ; a review of thousands pages of old Dillinger files, photos and old media reports; contacts with outside historians/writers/collectors and some contact with former FBI Lab, Crime Records, and Exhibits Section folks still around. Also, some contact with those close to Mr. Hoover and those still alive who worked in the Director's telephone room.

Dr. Fox had also been checking locations at Washington D. C. housing old tour exhibit items particularly one warehouse where the search narrowed.

We had been examining "secondary files" in addition to the Dillinger file where, from being an insider, documentation may be known to exist.

For at least a year, John and I have been comparing notes on the search for Dillinger's gun.

Having been a tour leader prior to becoming a Special Agent with the Bureau, myself and others already knew in about 1968-70 that Dillinger's gun was missing and replaced in the Dillinger tour exhibit at the FBI's headquarters in Washington, D. C.  We thought nothing of it at the time and rumors spread that Hoover gave it to comedian Red Skelton. (During our search, it was found this rumor was still in existence and had to be resolved.)

It was established through file review that there was sufficient evidence indicative Dillinger's gun, hat, cigar and glasses were no doubt taken to Washington, D. C. at Hoover’s specific request to Purvis. The press in Washington was chomping at the bit to see the exhibits. The gun and other items made their way to a small exhibit in the Director's reception room and a few years later, along with other items, they were made part of larger exhibits in light of the Bureau's public tour program, circa about 1937.  

We know that "later" the Dillinger gun was replaced in the tour exhibit with a "replica" of a .380 belonging to gangster Volney Davis, a Dillinger associate.  The early tour exhibit also "morphed" into a smaller exhibit as time went on, thus causing another movement of various weapons in and out of exhibits. 

The immediate problem is we don't know when that "replica" was inserted.  The Dillinger file didn't reveal the answer to this question.

It had to be PRIOR TO 1970 when authors Jay Nash and Ron Offen revealed the gun in the Dillinger tour exhibit was not, in fact, Dillinger's. (They were right; the Davis "replacement" had already occurred.) They used this as part of their book "Dillinger: Dead or Alive?" Very few realize that in reality, the revelation by Nash/Offen in about 1970 that Dillinger’s gun was missing from the tour exhibit was not any real news to insiders. The gun in the exhibit was clearly marked at that time as a “replica” of the Dillinger gun.

There were 2 letters found in the Dillinger file revealing that private citizens had written the Bureau about Dillinger's gun and the shooting. In those 1949 letters, each was told the "Dillinger gun is currently in the tour exhibit."

If these letters are accurate, Dillinger's weapon probably was misplaced between about 1949 and Jay Nash's book of 1970. What actually happened, we’re still not sure but there is some speculation on my part below.

All in all, the Dillinger file and other inquiries revealed some key points:

• From preliminary inquiries, especially with many retired FBI personnel and long time writers/historians etc., there was something very odd in the beginning of this search.  Namely, things were just "too quiet" in regard to the fate of the Dillinger gun.  There was absolutely NOTHING new circulating within the FBI or the outside and any rumors that were available, I had already heard as far back as 1968 or so.  The gun had been missing for decades now and surely a new inquiry on the gun would reveal something new.  Especially with those retired FBI Agents who were still alive and who would have been in positions to "hear something."  But it didn't.  And there was something wrong with this.   From an investigator's opinion, all the preliminaries gave an indication of one thing:  wherever it was, there hadn't been any additional movement of the gun.
  

• Both Mr. Cartha DeLoach, Hoover's #3 Man from the late 40's on, and retired FBI Firearms examiner, Bob Frasier, debunked the myths on the part of outsiders that the Dillinger gun, or any gun in fact, was any type of "trophy" or "treasure" to the Director or anyone else.  Mr. DeLoach had mentioned that in all of his day to day contacts with Hoover and Tolson, the subject of this gun or any others just never came up.  "They were not interested in that stuff," he said.  Bob Frasier, the chief FBI Firearms examiner at the Lab from 1941 on said "one gangster gun was no more important than the next one.  We were Agents, scientists and examiners....we were not historians."  In 2007, Frasier said to me, "Until your call, I didn't even know Dillinger's gun was missing from the tour exhibit!"  (As unfortuneate as it is, the condition and drilling/demilling damage done to the Dillinger gun clearly revealed it was no trophy of any type.) 

• With regard to the actual review of the Dillinger file, from my own thirty plus years, familiar with FBI paperwork and the flow of things after a major capture or shooting event, revealed initially that the "spontaeous" nature of FBI internal events of the 1934 "on scene" reporting was no doubt accurate and relatively consistent.   Much of the reporting process, in fact, was still similar later when I joined the Bureau. 
  

• The paper trail consisting of Agent statements, memorandums and phone calls was too extensive and involved too many people to be indicative that the gun "never existed" or that some type of coverup and/or conspiracy was afoot.  (Not that I ever personally believed this to begin with.)
  

• The paper trail and media accounts clearly revealed the gun and other items, after the incident, traveled from Chicago, FBI to the FBI in Washington.  

• A photo of Dillinger's gun being inserted into the Dillinger tour exhibit, possibly in the late 30's, reveals there may have been a mis-labeling of the gun at that time.  If the 1949 letters, above, to the public were accurate then as of that time, the "real" Dillinger gun was in the FBI's tour exhibit and the possible mislabeling had been corrected.    (The questionable photo mentioned here is still unexplainable as of 2008.)
  

• The story that Hoover gave the Dillinger gun to comedian Red Skelton was quickly "debunked" because it was inconsistent with insiders who should have heard of it, and there wasn't a shred of evidence in other files that the Director had any special relationship with Skelton.  The one important aspect of this "Skelton story" is that it was an unsubstantiated rumor and was NEVER part of our official training during the FBI tour process.  The story was "legend" and nothing else.

• Finally, along the lines of the Skelton story, evidence WAS FOUND of a "give-away" on the part of Hoover.  It was proven he gave away one of the guns taken at the Little Bohemia shootout to a friend.  Needless to say, this found evidence caused some concern on the fate of what happened to the Dillinger gun.  In essence, it caused the question of "if he did it with one, why not another?"
  

Between Dr. Fox's research at FBI headquarters, coupled with some old photos and documents in the Dillinger file, one thing became very clear in all of it.  The gangster weapons and the tour exhibits CHANGED on multiple occasions since the '30s.  And this periodic changing left room for MISTAKES to happen. 

By all accounts, the FBI's tour program began in 1937 and ran down the corridor across from Hoover's office.  From that time on, it's clear that weapons of all types were moved in and out of the exhibits, including the Dillinger weapons.  In 1958 the tour exhibit was moved in the Department of Justice Building to an exhibits area adjacent to the side of the building at 9th and Penn.  

If the above letters found to the public, dated in 1949, revealing the Dillinger gun was still in the Bureau's tour exhibit are accurate,  then I personally suspect that Dillinger's gun was possibly misplaced during the move of the tour exhibits in 1958.  We know it was missing as of 1968 at least.   

On or about November 1, 2007, Dr. Fox contacted me regarding the finding at FBIHQ of a .380 Colt among old tour exhibits in a warehouse used by the Bureau. With regard to the newly found Colt .380:

One key question lingers on this: What is the date the Volney Davis .380 is used to replace an apparent misplaced Dillinger gun? And where is the documentation to show it?

Based on the totality of facts known, and markings etc. on the found gun, Dr. Fox and I believe there's a 99 per cent chance this is Dillinger's missing weapon from the Biograph.  Several outside Dillinger writers and researchers who have seen the photos of the found gun believe the same. The search for proper documentation of the newly found gun continues.

I want to especially thank Dr. John Fox at FBI Headquarters for his persevereance in resolving this decade old matter.  I want to also thank  Bill Helmer, Rick Mattix, Sandy Jones, & Ron Morgan, for their continued assistance on this over the last year;  their photos provided me and their input.

The 2 photos of what now is believed to the actual Dillinger weapon he carried at the Biograph Theater are here:

See photo 1 of the November, 2007 recovery

See photo 2 of the same

The news article with Director Hoover's comment about the "dent" in the barrel is here. 

See the July 23, 1934 photo of the gun taken by the media