Duty weapon of Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan, killed 11 October 1925 (FBI artifact)
FBI photograph of the revolver of Special Agent Edwin C. Shanahan, framed with a plaque, which the FBI says is displayed at its Chicago Field Office. Shanahan was the first special agent killed in the line of duty.
- Date
- 1925
- Kind
- photograph
- Source
- FBI, History: Artifacts
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- Published by the FBI on fbi.gov as an artifact photograph with no third-party credit; a work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The copy stored here is the FBI's web image converted to JPEG.
The photograph shows a revolver in a frame, with a plaque reading “Duty Weapon of Edwin C. Shanahan.” The FBI states that Shanahan was shot by car thief Martin J. Durkin in a Chicago garage on 11 October 1925, that he was the first special agent killed in the line of duty, and that the weapon is displayed at the Chicago Field Office.
The page does not name the revolver’s make or model, and this page does not identify it from the photograph. The record concerns a Bureau officer’s duty weapon; it is not a gangster’s weapon, and it is filed here as part of the record of what the Bureau carried.
Object: Revolver, framed with a plaque
Maker: not stated on the FBI page
Date: in service by 11 October 1925
Provenance: held by the FBI; displayed at the Chicago Field Office
Appears in: FBI, History: Artifacts