The Colt 1911 had seen many modifications over the past 100+ years, but one of the most interesting was by a quiet Texas gunsmith by the name of Hyman Lebman. His customers included the infamous gangsters John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson, though this was unknown to him at the time, while his ingenious revisions to the classic handgun were equally dynamic.
Mr. Hyman Saul Lebman (who is also referred to in some documentation as Lehman) was a San Antonio, Texas saddle maker and gunsmith who specialized in custom leatherwork and firearms for Texas sportsmen, oilmen and cattle wranglers for more than fifty years. One day in 1933, he met a pair of otherwise charming young men who were in need of some effective firepower.
They portrayed themselves as new money Texas oilmen and gave Mr. Lebman no evidence to the contrary. What the gunsmith did not know was that one of them was a man born Lester M Gillis, but infamous later as “Baby Face Nelson” and the other one John Herbert Dillinger. Both were master outlaws and desperados who raced to the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The two even visited the Lebman home and ate dinner with his family
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
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About laststandonzombieisland
Let me introduce myself. I am a bit of a conflict junkie. I am fascinated by war and warfare, assassination, personal protection and weaponry ranging from spud guns and flame throwers to thermonuclear bombs and soviet-trained Ebola monkeys. In short, if it’s violent or a tool to create violence it is kind of my thing.
I have written a few hundred articles on the dry encyclopedia side for such websites as History Times, Firearms Talk.com, GUNS.com, Suite 101 (where I am the contracted Feature Writer for Military History) and Combat Forums; as well as for print publications like England Expects, and Strike First Strike Fast. Several magazines such as Sea Classics, Military Historian and Collector, Mississippi Sportsman and Warship International have carried my pieces. Additionally I am on staff as a naval consultant and writer for Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine.
Currently I am working on several book projects, including a section in the upcoming Mississippi Encyclopedia (to be published by Ole Miss this summer), an alternative history novel about the US-German War of 1916, and a biography of Bennett Doty. My first novel, about the coming zombie apocalypse was released this Spring by Necro Publications and can be found at Amazon.com.
In my day job I am a contractor for the US federal government in what could best be described as the ‘Force Protection’ field. In this I am a certified Firearms, and less-than-lethal combat instructor.
