I've had this one in my collection for a long time. Since I don't remember ever posting it, here is a 5" .38 Special M&P from 1935 carried by Officer John F. Barnes (shield #94). From the little information I could gather, Mr. Barnes worked there from 1935-1965.

Best,
Charles

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That's a really neat gun! Did you letter it?

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PTLAPTA!

Police Officer/Collectors have a special appreciation for old police guns. We know the kind of seat time or beat time in a career of 30 years because we have experienced it. Just saying that it's special to me. Great gun and history.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Very nice gun. Glad someone who appreciates them has it.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Love guns like that with traceable history! Can't find a photo of officer Barnes, but did find his house.

And he went from errand boy for a rubber company to detective sergeant in ten short years:

1930:


1940:


His house, 5334 28th Avenue, Omaha:

AWESOME!!!

Thanks 357Magster!

A little history behind Officer Barnes house and the Omaha Metropolitan Police Department. The location of his house is within the area where the "Trans-Mississippi Exposition", a world's fair, was held in Omaha in 1898. His house would have been within the grounds of the exposition. The house was built in 1923 (Douglas County Assessor).

The exposition included most of the area in North Omaha from Pinckney St. north to Redick Ave., and 30th St. east to Florence Blvd.

At least until sometime in the 1960s the P.D did not issue handguns to officers, they were purchased their guns. In 1964 the department changed the uniform regulations to require the officers carried only a 4", .38 Special, fixed sight revolver. They did allow the officers to choose between S&W and Colt only. At this time there were a lot of revolvers being traded at local gun shops that didn't fit the new regulations for new guns that did.

At that time I was working at "Gun Haven", a LGS on 16th Street just south of Cuming St. It was managed by Jim Corbett and owned by the company that also owned "Hi-Precision" bullets and re-loading dies. I picked up a 5" round butt M&P from ca. 1918 that had been carried by, reportedly, two OPD detectives since new. I still have it. I wish I knew who those officers were, but they were contemporaries of Officer Barnes. It was one of the trade-ins for a new gun fitting the new regulations. I paid something like $25 as I recall.

For all I know OPD officers still buy their own handguns.

Thought someone might be interested!

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Gunsmithing since 1961

The sheriff's office I worked for from 1976-78 and the PD that I retired from in 2001 both required that the deputy/officer purchase his/her own sidearm. My PD did start allowing officers to check out a handgun from it's collection of lost/abandoned/confiscated arms in the 1980s.

Some officers got Pythons, 1911s, M&Ps, etc. I checked out handguns like 1917 Colts and S&Ws.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

you got me interested... I haven't heard Jim's name in a long time... he used to shoot IPSC with my father back in the 1970's... possibly even did some reloading for him (can't swear to it... I was a kid)... My father did custom leatherwork as a hobby and many officers sat at our kitchen table talking about what they wanted and then getting fit for the rig... and my dad also "sold pencils on a corner" to pay the bills... a stationary store in the Aquila Court Building... thanks for the happy memory...

robvious,

I first met Jim when he was working the gun counter at Osoff's at 44th and Dodge in the late 1950s. I was a student at Benson HS at the time and on the ROTC Rifle Team. The old building is gone and there is a "Family Dollar" store where it was. I lived at 51st and Parker, Heimie Osoff who owned the store lived just below 52nd St. on Parker.

Jim moved to Gun Haven when Osoff's became "Jerry Leonard's" a clothing store. Jerry was Heimie's son-in-law, I went to Dundee with his son in 7th & 6th grade.

From Osoff's Jim went to Gun Haven until Hi-Precision bailed out. His last stop before retirement was at "Simon's", a pawn shop on 72nd St. a couple blocks south of Dodge.

Know Aquila Court well. My father was an engineer for Metropolitan Utilities District about a block away. He and my mother became very good friends on a social level with Jim and his wife. Jim was a good friend to everyone but a bit gruff at times. He is one of the people in my life that still is remembered fondly and frequently, even though I haven't seen him face-to-face since 1966 when he was still at Gun Haven and I was in the Army.

Then there was the other Jim, owner of "Arms and Ammo" at 60th and Pacific. Don't recall his last name but I bought Colt revolver nipples, percussion caps, GI .45 Auto bullets to load and other things. Arms and Ammo burned sometime around 1970 I believe and was never re-built. The building is still there, vacant and derelict, on the SE corner of the intersection across from Elmwood Park Golf Course. At least it still was last month, when I was in Omaha for my 55th class reunion of Benson High.

I hope this stirs more good memories for you!

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Thanks for posting ,my dad carried a 38 revolver many years when his dept went to automatics he bought his service revolver for about 50 bucks my brother is the care taker of it we take it out and shoot it on dads birthday fathers day ect can't think of a more fitting tribute to him as we both learned to safely handle and shoot handguns with that revolver .

Fantastic info, Alk8944!

Thanks!!

I absolutely LOVE oral history. I has a flavor all it's own and something far and away from reading history.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your memories.

BTW that is a very nice revolver.

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Un-Reconstructed Southerner

Old cops like telling "war stories". We had 5" nickel model 10s when I first started then went to 4". Carried in border patrol holsters. I bet I am not the only officer whose revolver popped out of a border patrol holster with the strap unsnapped while chasing a fleeing suspect. Good thing about modern retention holsters. Ever wonder how those scratches and nicked grips on police revolvers came about? Happened to me twice in my career. Once on a sidewalk and once in a muddy vacant lot when it stuck muzzle down in the mud. Had to dig an inch of dirt out of the barrel! Caught the bad guy anyway after grabbing the gun up on the run.

I have one police gun, probably inscribed at retirement on the sideplate with the officer's name and Chicago PD star no. It is a 5" pre- Made in US A convex stock circle stocks that have been varnished. Interesting gun . Would like to investigate further sometime.Interesting time to be Chicago PD !

I have an M&P from the era, shipped to a large Minneapolis retailer for the police department in 1923. An officer named P.B. Green had his name and M.P.D. hand-engraved on the side plate.

My internet research skills are usually adequate, but I have so far been unsuccessful at finding out anything about him. Some others here are really good at this, so maybe want to give him a try.

In the 1920s, the Minneapolis/St. Paul police forces were almost famed for their corruption, so I'll be cautious about praising the unknown Mr. Green. The revolver may have battled bad guys or witnessed pay-offs .

From a 1926 FBI memo (thanks to Wiki):
"The police of Minneapolis and St. Paul are said not to interfere with these criminals, there being an understanding between Dan Hogan and the St. Paul Police and Edward Morgan and the Minneapolis Police that if the criminal gangs controlled by them refrain from committing crime in the Twin Cities, that they will not be disturbed. It is a well known fact in the community that a very little crime such as bank robberies, etc, is committed here, the criminals are safe as long as they live up to the pledge made by Dan Hogan and Edward Morgan to the local police."

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1Absalom, found some info on P. B. Green:





1930 census info:





Where he lived in 1930:

Great info, thanks!

His apparent move West in his later years would explain how his gun ended up with a pawn shop in Reno NV

Absalom, P.B. Green's WWII draft registration card is below. He was a big dude!

(Sorry policerevolvercollector, I haven't been able to find one for Officer Barnes yet.)

That picture of Officer Green shows that he was a Navy Chief Petty Officer. Being born in 1893, he could have served in WW I and may have gone back into the Navy during WW II.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

That might explain the plentiful tattoos in his description .

Chief Bosun Mate...a hard rank to achieve at that time unless you were a lifer. I suspect he either retired from the Navy before WWII or was in the Naval Reserve after WWI.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Thanks, lots of memories...and not to make you feel old... but I was born in 1966... wish I had the opportunity to meet you when you visited... maybe next time we can hit the range...

Take Care..
Robvious

This revolver is a 5" blue .38 M&P Police Target, engraved and presented to Capt. Frank Campbell of the Denver Police Department in April of 1927. The first two pictures are of the right side of the gun, and the following two pictures are of the left side. I have tilted the gun slightly, to get a good illumination of the sides of the frame.










I believe the Police Target reference is in regards to the special treatment of the forged front sight blade. It has been contoured to have a flattened top that tilts towards the muzzle. It has special embellishments, which means the engraving with special grips. The grips, as can be seen in the picture, have pearl inlays around the grip screw, and at the top of the grips where the medallion would normally sit.

Here is the factory letter.



Regards, Mike Priwer

Running late for work, but was able to find these items regarding Frank Campbell:

WWI Draft card:





WWII draft card:





1930 census:





Looks like he might have lied about his age one time ... notice the 1879 birth year on the WWI card and 1880 on the WWII. card. Sorry, just realized I didn't write down his address before I cropped. Will grab it from the census when I get home ... unless somebody else can do it. Over & out.

Here are a couple of letters I have, from the Denver PD.





I find his WW2 Draft Registration card interesting - Capt Campbell is already 61 years old ! I have to wonder what the Draft age cutoff was .

The WW2 card is also interesting, because it documents an interesting feature of the City of Denver.
Denver is one of the 3 ( or 4 ) cities in the US that are wholly located within its own county. Denver is in the City & County of Denver; St Louis Mo is in the Country of the City of St Louis, and San Francisco is The City and County of San Francisco.

Thanks for these registration documents.

Regards, Mike Priwer

Could I enlist the sleuthing skills of our group to identify the officer who carried M&P no 399977, inscribed "Bernard P. Reilly Chicago Police Star No 5268 "? I don't have any idea and all help is appreciated.

This pre-model 10 M&P letters as being one of two revolvers having shipped to Vern D. Atkins. The only info I have been able to come up with is that Atkins served as a Deputy Sheriff as well as the Sheriff of Richardson County Nebraska. I haven't been able to find a picture of him yet, but I'm working on it.

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Well, there was not ONE "Bernard P. Reilly" who was a policeman in Chicago in 1930 ... there were TWO. (Imagine that ... Irish policemen! ) One was born in Ireland, the other in NY. I have no idea which one carried the gun in question. Best chance would be the Chicago archive which has the old police records. If you can track down his birth year via his badge number, that would make it a lot easier to hone in on the correct one.

Bernard P. Reilly #1:






Bernard P. Reilly #2:






Here's the WWII Draft Registration for the New York born one:





Good luck with your search!

this site never stops amazing me... wow...

I found good ol' Vern ...



Had to work backwards on this one:

1960 city directory ... learned from it that his wife's name was Merle. That enable me to know with reasonable certainty that I found him in the census. (Once you see his pre-war occupation, you will know why I was hesitant to believe it was him.)




1930 census (commercial fruit salesman!):






1940 census (still in the grocery business):




Can't find any wartime records (I don't have full access to them ... I'm too cheap!), but I did learn that he served in the Navy in WWI:

]

Now I can't saw with 100% certainty that's him in the center of the below photo, but the name is right, the time is right, and the uniform is right:

357magster, thank you so much!! That is way more than I have been able to find!!