Farewell, Sonny
What can I say, everyone loves wheelguns, right? (And yes, that is my Colt Dick along with same-period Roscoe switchblade, thanks for noticing!)
Famed Gotham detective and noted crime writer (Murder at the Harlem Mosque, Point Blank, et. al) Salvatore Anthony “Sonny” Grosso died late last week, aged 89.
Grosso and his NYPD partner Eddie Egan famously severed the “French Connection” heroin ring in the 1960s, then had a hand in not only the book but the acclaimed Gene Hackman film that followed it. This allowed Grosso to pivot from working a precinct detective pool to become a technical advisor on the Godfather and go on to have a hand in many of the best cop shows of the 1970s including Kojak.
As noted by the NY Times in his obit, he was a snub-nosed fan.
“Until he died, Mr. Grosso carried his off-duty .38-caliber Colt revolver, the very same gun that was taped to the tank of a toilet and fired (using blanks) by Al Pacino in a mob hit in “The Godfather.””
If you check the Godfather Movie Scene and the still photos of the gun it is clearly a S&W Model 36 with
square butt and larger grips and not a Colt Detective Special. Perhaps the mistake is that Grosso did carry this S&W and not the Colt as they were both approved carry for NYPD Detectives.Some detectives had both of these models as one was for off duty or a second carry.Don’t know how this “story” started but I believe a newsaper article was the first with this error. Check it out !