# Did gangsters from the 1920s really carry their Tommy guns in banjo cases? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424 "2003-01-09T02:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b782af/32.png) [@Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermann_Cheruscan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/1 "2003-01-09T02:12:35Z")
Ever see those movies depicting gangsters from the Prohibitition era, where they uncase their submachine guns from musical instrument cases and let the “G” men have it? Is that all just bullsh!t or what! ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/2 "2003-01-09T02:55:54Z")
BANJO CASES!!! Banjo cases! What the hell kind of grade Z movies cursed your formative years? It’s VIOLEN CASE, VIOLEN CASE. And the answere is no. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/3 "2003-01-09T03:02:50Z")
ShitFuckPissGodDamnButtLickItAllToCunnilingualHell I get to be first in line for an obvious joke and hose it all up. Violan should be violin. Answere should be answer. Damn wine. This is it. This is the last time I drink a whole bottle at one shot, today. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/4 "2003-01-09T03:04:51Z")
My WAG - how else would they walk around in public carrying a sub-machine gun? The machine-gun-toting gangster of the future could just carry it under their coats, but they were too big back in the 20’s and 30’s for that. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/5 "2003-01-09T03:10:06Z")
_This is the last time I drink a whole bottle at one shot, today._ Yeah, good idea, I wouldn’t do it again today either. But there’s always tomorrow… _Violan should be violin._ No, _VIOLEN_ should be violin. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/6 "2003-01-09T03:39:37Z")
I think the violin case is a hollywood myth. A Thompson will not fit in a violin case and I have my doubts that it will even fit in a viola case. I’ve seen a faux violin case but even then the gun has the buttstock removed. I’ll see if I can dig up a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b782af/32.png) [@Hermann\_Cheruscan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermann_Cheruscan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/7 "2003-01-09T03:40:35Z")
Well, I was goiing to write “violin case”, but having shot a submachine gun, I knew that it was too large to fit in a violin case. ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/8 "2003-01-09T04:01:39Z")
I think the real question is: [can you really fit a rocket launcher into a guitar case?](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0112851) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/9 "2003-01-09T04:28:29Z")
Yeah, that’s the problem with these Twenties Jazz-era bands: too much sax and violins. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/10 "2003-01-09T04:41:48Z")
I’ve shot Thompsons a couple of times and they are fairly large. BTW, A friend of mine does have a short barrelled folding stock AK-47 in a violin case. He also built what he calls the micro-CAR - a short barreled telescoping stock CAR-15 that fits, with the upper and lower separated, in a normal looking briefcase. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/11 "2003-01-09T04:46:52Z")
Take a look at this [photo of a Thompson machine gun in its case.](http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976046887.htm) It’s not really a violin case, but it looks like one. Hence the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/12 "2003-01-09T05:00:05Z")
The Thompson submachine gun was popular with Prohibition-era gangsters for a variety of reasons: 1. It used a readily available variety of ammunition. 2. It’s an excellent short-range weapon with loads of stopping power. Its accuracy at long range is a joke, but whatever you hit with it goes down and stays there. 3. It was originally classified as a handgun, legally speaking. Yup. This made it about as easy to BUY as a handgun, and Chicago’s mobsters bought them by the carload. I have seen photos of Thompson submachine guns carried in musical instrument cases – not the ones pictured in the above link, but in a case that looks very much like a violin case, but slightly bigger. The forward box magazine was not in place, by the way, but was in the case alongside the gun. Presumably, you’d pop the case open, yank the gun and magazine out, slap the magazine into place, and start blazing away. I assumed that it was an instrument case originally meant for some other stringed instrument of some sort… and that this was originally because a buncha guys in pinstriped suits carrying violin cases would be taken for a band, not a gang, so to speak. At least until the movies got hold of the idea… ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/13 "2003-01-09T05:42:18Z")
Well, you could carry one around in a cello case, but that would be rather unwieldly, as would trying to play the cello while in a marching band. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/14 "2003-01-09T05:48:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Take a look at this [photo of a Thompson machine gun in its case.](http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976046887.htm) > > It’s not really a violin case, but it looks like one. Hence the confusion. \*\* Please note that is a _minature gun_ and the case is less than 9" long. ---
**Author:** ![EasyPhil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@EasyPhil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EasyPhil)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/15 "2003-01-09T06:16:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*Please note that is a _minature gun_ and the case is less than 9" long. \*\* I can see why they were classified as finger guns. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/16 "2003-01-11T01:51:49Z")
my uncle played violin so badly that when he opened the case people were hoping it was a machinegun. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/17 "2003-01-11T02:01:09Z")
I used to keep my AR-15 in a guitar case. I thought it was funny. (No, I never took it out of the house like that.) ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/18 "2003-02-05T18:58:37Z")
Hi, all. This is my first post here. Being new to the site I have been reading many of the old threads. Back in the day, tommy guns were sold with carrying cases (or maybe you had to buy them separately) much like hunters have carrying cases for their guns. Because in the early days so few people had a ever seen a Tommy gun and its cylindrical feed is so distinctive, you could walk around with one its carrying case and no one suspected it was a gun. The curious might even have supposed that it was some unfamiliar type of musical instument because the similarity to musical instrument cases. But that similarity did indeed spawn the misconception that they were carried in musical instrument cases. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/19 "2003-02-05T19:12:55Z")
I was thinking pf posting this question myself—the other night I saw a woman on the subway carrying a violin case, and people were eyeing her nervously. The 80-year-old supposition lives on! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424/20 "2003-02-05T20:41:19Z")
In the early Sixties, _Baseball Digest_ carried a short item about Earl Averill, Sr.–famous for breaking Dizzy Dean’s toe with a hard-hit grounder in the 1937 All-Star Game–causing a serious scene when he was boarding a plane to go to an old-timers’ game. He insisted on carrying his own bat; the trouble was he insisted on bringing it onto the plane in a gun case! :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-gangsters-from-the-1920s-really-carry-their-tommy-guns-in-banjo-cases/147424.md?page=2)