Back in the days when robbing banks got you fame and glory — and ultimately a body full of FBI bullets — John Dillinger was rigging his 1911 the full-auto way.
“During the bank robber era, some guns-savvy outlaws had gunsmiths make select-fire handguns for them. In fact, an Arizona gunsmith created a full-auto 1911 .38 Super for John Dillinger, complete with vertical forearm. In the early days, it was no big deal. It wasn’t until the National Firearms Act of 1934 that machineguns were treated any differently than other firearms.”— Patrick Sweeney, 1911, The First 100 Years,” from the chapter “Between the Wars.”
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Sorry this is a decade old but the author, Patrick Sweeney was imcorrect about the origin of John Dillinger’s full auto 1911. The gunsmith was Hyman Lehman from San Antonio Texas. You can Google his name and confirm this is indeed the case. Dillinger was not the only famous criminal he did work for because in fact Dillinger was accompanied by George “Baby faced” Nelson, who Lehman also made one of his full auto conversions for!