Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Star
We know the FBI got some snub Victory Models....
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TS:
Actually, we don't know that to be true. While it has been so stated in various publications over the years and has thus become accepted by some, the fact is that no 2 inch Victory Model is known to have been lettered as having shipped to the FBI or the Justice Department during WW2.
If the FBI and/or the US Justice Department received 2 inch Victory Model revolvers in WW2, where are they? Why is it that not a single example has ever surfaced? How can it be that in the 72 years since the end of WW2 not even one 2 inch Victory has become known in the collecting community as a proven FBI gun?
Proponents of the theory that the FBI got 2 inch Victories usually point to the notes created by Carl Hellstrom which make this cryptic reference:
“US Dept Justice 10/19/42 2in .38 Spl 300 guns to OSS.”
However, those notes were created in the late 1950s, more than a decade after the end of the War. Since then the factory records have not revealed any such shipment to the FBI or Justice Dept. during WW2.
While I suppose that anything is possible, I prefer to rely on evidence and facts that can be proven. The FBI connection to the 2 inch Victory has not been proven. Unless and until a genuine 2 inch Victory surfaces that can be proven to have been shipped to the FBI during WW2 (or confirmatory factory documentation is located) then I am going to continue to consider the FBI/2 inch Victory "story" as unfounded speculation.