The Lebman 1911 Machine Pistol
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
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