Night Shift with Cirillo, NYC ca. 1970

[indiuckian]

This is part three of a series of still lifes involving smith and wesson products as they may have looked in their natural surroundings at different times and places in history. Although inaccurate I think they can best be described as "vintage pocket dumps." I have never been in law enforcement or the military. I just love guns. Now excuse me while I go into character.

How to go from a half a pack a day habit to over a pack in one eight hour shift? That's easy, just work the stakeout squad with Jim Cirillo and his crew. Someone told Jim I grew up deer hunting and he had them pull me from vice to work with him on the stakeout squad. One of my buddies in narcotics said that's like having Wyatt Earp as a mentor and I should jump at the chance. So I did. Not what I thought really. Eight hours of being strung tight as a bow, drinking bad coffee and chain smoking. Jim told me to pull a carbine from the rack with a couple of magazines and a box of ammo and just carry my off duty revolver.
Seeing my "undercover revolver" brought a nice round of ribbing, good natured ofcourse. Jim ripped my rear about my pearl grips. He said I made a nice off duty gun look like something a Greenwich Village "cowboy" would carry.However, with me being from vice he could see how these grips could give me a little more "street cred" in the village. He said if I stay on with the stakeout crew I would need to get a model 10 with the heavy barrel. That's what Jim and the crew like. I asked why and Jim answered, "Rapid follow up, rapid follow up, etc..." I know this, between myself and my carbine and Tony with his Ithaca 37 12 gauge, I would hope no perp even has a chance to see ANY of our revolvers.

Thanks for looking.

Indy

 

[ENGINE18]

Cool story, even if it is fiction! Wadcutters, tell us about wadcutters!

 

[29aholic]

Very cool Indy...let me know when the book comes out.

 

[IS-F]

Great guns, great story. What happened next Grandpa ? What happened next ?

 

[Nightowl]

I had a flashlight like that at one time. I have no idea what happened to it. It took a lot of D batteries.

 

[Moondancer]

Ya need to throw in a pack of Marlboro or Winston cigarettes.
1970 would have seen Camel Filters in my pocket with a brass Zippo.

ETA: I love these pics and stories. I've got a still-life I did to pay homage to Mike Hammer, but it's nowhere as good as these.

 

[acl864]

Cool idea! I enjoyed the post. Thanks!

 

[Arizona Commander]

Great post, I have some older items and like to think about where they may have been. Here are a few, the Remington Model 11 is from 1928 and stamped S.F.P.D., the pocket watch is a Swiss key wind, from, I am told the 1830's, the Case pocket knife was made sometime between 1940 and 65 and the serial # on the Smith Model 2 puts it as shipping from the factory in 1865.

All except the Smith are fully serviceable items and although they don't get much use each is occasionally put into service, not by necessity but just because that's what they were made for.

I sometimes wish they could talk but then I would know and at least 3/4 of the fun of owning them is in thinking about where they might have been.

The Model 11 going on raids and busting up speakeasy's, the pocket watch making the voyage to a new wolrld in the pocket of an immigrant, a man teaching his son to whittle with the Case knife and a Civil War vet returning from the conlict and buying a new Smith and Wesson revolver just like the one he took off that dead Yankee and used to save his own life at 2nd Manassas.

Well, maybe it's a little more than 3/4's of the fun!!