His submachine gun design was in many ways superior to the Thompson. It was lighter, weighing a paltry seven pounds (the Thompson tipped the scales at around eleven pounds), and more accurate.

The Thompson submachine gun was the handwork of John Taliaferro Thompson (West Point Class of 1882). It saw only limited wartime use, but the "Tommy gun" in the hands of police and gangsters achieved ...

After trials in mud and sand with three types of ammo—alongside a Sten gun and a Thompson SMG as benchmark weapons—the Own was accepted with 9x19mm rounds as its standard ammunition.

But few know the origin of the gun’s catchy nickname. “To most U.S. cineaddicts the Thompson submachine gun is a gangster’s weapon,” Time magazine observed on June 26, 1939.

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. However ...

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 … ...

Without Al Capone, Gen. John Thompson, inventor of the "Tommy gun," would be all but forgotten.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTEDCirca 1937-38, the Thompson submachine gun can be seen in front of the car on the far right with what is believed to Sheriff Edward Bourke in the middle.

If you're interested in purchasing the Thompson sub machine gun, plan to have plenty of money to spend. The weapon was recently appraised by Tracie Hill of Newark, a national expert on the gun. He ...