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South Bend, Grand Rapids, Saginaw and Wisconsin for a variety of crimes. It would be safe to say Richard Burke

was a habitual criminal and all around bad guy. Subsequent to his arrest and conviction on various firearm charges,

Richard Burke was incarcerated in the Michigan State Prison at Jackson.

Mike Wank made initial contact with Undersheriff Christopher Kuhl at the Jackson County Sheriffs office.

Undersheriff Kuhl and was able to confirm

that the Colt Thompson was still in their

possession. A direct inspection was gra-

ciously arranged for Mike and I in October

2011. The Sheriffs office believed the his-

tory of the Thompson was attributed to a

1920 hold up at Grass Lake, which was not

correct based on our information and

Melissas library research.

In December 2011, Undersheriff Christo-

pher Kuhl allowed a second inspection, this

time to remove the barrel and look under the

grip mount. Arrangements were made by

Undersheriff Christopher Kuhl to do this at

Schupbachs, a popular firearms and sport-

ing goods dealer nearby the JCS office. After

first gathering at the sheriffs office Under-

sheriff Christopher Kuhl, Mike, Melissa and

I were off to Schupbachs. There we used

their vise and proper Doug Richardson tools

to remove the barrel and grip mount to find

the original serial number 5518!!

Now elated to have this number 5518, we

shared our find with Gordon Herigstad for his extensive database. Gordon was able to point out that this particular

Thompson was identified in the very famous Coroners investigation for the St. Valentines Day Massacre (SVDM)

and initially shipped to Von Lengerke & Antoine (VL&A), a Chicago sporting goods store.

SVDM Coroner testimony records show that number 5518 was later shipped to Gopher State Mines Company

Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with 6 others. Police investigations by both the Minneapolis and Chicago

departments indicated that Gopher State Mines Company (GSMC) was a non-existent corporation. Later, newspaper

articles stated that it was believed all

Thompsons shipped to GSMC, including number 5518, were received by the

Touhy gang. The Touhy gang was a rival gang to the more famous Capone gang

and no small feat survived.

So we have been able to answer most of the original questions and more. On how

Richard Burke obtained the Colt Thompson, we can infer, but not prove a

connection to the Touhy gang. Although there is no known and more likely no

relationship to Fred killer Burke of SVDM fame, there was a slight crossing of

the paths within the coroners investigation.

Here are a series of photos that show the Colt Thompson as found on our October 2011 visit. On the left side upper