Deadshot Mary Shanley
Atlas Obscura has a great piece up on an iconic gun-slinging NYPD Detective, “Deadshot” Mary Shanley. An Irish emigrant who joined the force in 1931, Shanley was apparently a fan of the .32-caliber Colt Detective (as shown below) and off-body purse carry (also shown below) but not of trigger D (hey it was the 1930s).
She was a colorful character who apparently pulled her piece a lot in the rough and tumble streets that were the Diesel crime noir era, although she suffered at least one apparent negligent discharge (while in a bar off duty, see trigger D above).
Still, the 5’6″ 160-pound tough Irish cop was formidable and something of a press darling, as her Wiki entry notes more than a dozen articles on her from the NYT and Brooklyn Eagle and she has inspired at least one off-Broadway play.
From the AO piece:
During the first half of the 20th century, policewomen in America often worked undercover, on so-called “women’s beats.” “They are called upon regularly to trail or trap mashers, shoplifters, pickpockets and fortune-tellers; to impersonate drug addicts and hardened convicts, to expose criminal medical practice, find lost persons, guide girls in trouble, break up fake matrimonial bureaus and perform special detective duty,” wrote the New York Times.
For most of her career, Mary would be assigned to the NYPD pickpocket squad. By the time of her retirement in 1957, she would be a first grade detective, with over 1,000 arrests under her belt.
