Conception -- Trench broom -- The annihilator -- Ready, aim -- Rebellion -- The Chicago piano -- Wild tigers -- Valentines and violins -- Attack and intimidation -- The war on crime -- Cops and robbers -- Public enemies -- Recoil -- Reload -- The end of an era

John Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds, but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Blumenthal tells the history of this famous and deadly weapon

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