FBI RM

'James' instead of 'Jomer' is a reasonable alternative name. It occurs to me that maybe his real or legal name was 'Jerome', and friends and family might have called him 'Jomer'. I wonder if Don actually found a document with the name 'Jomer' in it, or if the name in whatever he found was barely legible, and 'Jomer' was his best guess.

Regards, Mike Priwer
 
Mike,
Post 18 has a pic of the SWHF document. From Potchernick's to S&W. Requesting repair and names the agent as Jomer C White. Agents name I believe was James. If the typist was looking at something written in cursive an "a" could be mistaken for an "o" and an "r" for an "s" quite easily.
At any rate the FBI historian Dr. John Fox says there was never an agent named Jomer.
In 1936 there were about 400 special agents. 7 in San Antonio. No name is close except James C White.
 
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DARE said:
ImprovedModel56Fan,
I had the same idea. Plus they called the gun a .375 instead of .357. Maybe not a careful typist.
Click to expand...

I'm an interested bystander on the topic of RMs. Weren't the RMs pretty much hand-built early on? I'm curious how one left the factory "out of time", as the letter claimed in 1936.
 
Borderboss,
The repair order was about a year after the gun shipped, so maybe it got out of time in a year rather than being shipped that way. The gun shipped 12/24/1935. The repair letter dated 12/11/1936.
 
DARE said:
Borderboss,
The repair order was about a year after the gun shipped, so maybe it got out of time in a year rather than being shipped that way. The gun shipped 12/24/1935. The repair letter dated 12/11/1936.
Click to expand...

Thanks David. The wording and tone of the 1936 letter is such that it intimates that the revolver arrived that way.
 
Mike,

From a newspaper article in the Austin American-Statesman 7 April 1906.

State Rangers Doc White and M H Wright will leave today for San Antonio where they have been summoned as witnesses in the Monk Gibson case, which will be called for trial for the second time Wednesday. Rangers Wright and White will bring some of the state mules to Austin on their return, for the use of the Rangers.

Don't you just love history?
 
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Truckman, hold on. Years ago I had a mule, Lilly, on the farm. She was a sweet heart and rode her all the time. She had free range of the farm and came right to me when I whistled. I didnt have a Texas Ranger Star and carry two SAA Colts. Its like that Eastwood movie when he rides into town and the bad guys laugh. You remember the outcome?
 
Venom6 said:
Dude, you rock. Thank you!
Click to expand...

He kind of doesn't look like someone who would be working another 40 years in that picture, does he? I'd want to say he was late 30s or 40 in that pic....
Didn't someone say he retired in 1947?
 
gmborkovic said:
Truckman, hold on. Years ago I had a mule, Lilly, on the farm. She was a sweet heart and rode her all the time...Its like that Eastwood movie when he rides into town and the bad guys laugh. You remember the outcome?
Click to expand...
I didn't say anything against the mules, it's the walking I object to...:eek:...Ben
 
Borderboss said:
I'm an interested bystander on the topic of RMs. Weren't the RMs pretty much hand-built early on? I'm curious how one left the factory "out of time", as the letter claimed in 1936.
Click to expand...

My experience is hardly the end all-do all when it comes to RM's, but I've had five of them over the years. As was my practice, they came all apart---completely apart for their welcome bath. There was never anything about them to suggest or lend any credibility to what I regard as the myth they were "hand-built". Any and everything about them was exactly the same as any other target grade N frame of the period. First class examples of careful craftsmanship? Absolutely, but not a nickel's worth of difference---except for the barrel rib and the checkering of it and the top strap. And as an aside, don't overlook S&W's cost to make one of them----$17. The cost to make a 22/40---and a grip adapter-----and ship it to Maine was $14.55.

If you sit and stare for a bit, considering all aspects of the times and the impact of the RM program, you may very well decide it was a carefully crafted and undeniably successful marketing plan to raise desperately needed cash.

That's my take on the matter.

Ralph Tremaine

And as an aside, the Triple Lock----deep down inside, is a vastly superior example of craftsmanship, care, and wretched excess---deep down inside where a lot of folks have never been-----and where it really doesn't make any difference when it comes to function---that from exactly two examples----which is all I ever had.
 
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Ralph,
You make some good points.
1935 was of course during the Great Depression. $60 for a gun was a lot of money. Think I have read that the next most expensive S&W during that time was about $45.
Agent White with 10 years experience made about $75 per week as a Special Agent. Imagine that was a pretty good pay check for the times. A lot of people did not have a pay check at all.
 
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