# Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to SAC Dallas, 8 September 1933: no Division recommendation to the War Department on armory thefts

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-barrow-hoover-reply-1933-09-08/

Director Hoover answers the Dallas letter of 29 August, restating its suggestion that, since the Barrow brothers were armed with Browning automatic rifles stolen from National Guard units, the War Department be asked to protect armories, and says it would be inappropriate for the Division itself to make that recommendation.

Part 02 of the FBI Vault's Bonnie and Clyde file, page 83 of the viewer, with the received stamp 26-4114-95, Dallas Office, 11 September 1933. Hoover restates the Dallas suggestion: that "inasmuch as the Barrow brothers were armed with Browning automatic rifles stolen from National Guard units," representations be made to the War Department to protect armories from criminals who thereby become "armed with Government weapons." The description of the rifles is the Dallas letter's premise as the Director summarizes it, not a separate finding of his. He writes that it would be inappropriate for the Division itself to make a recommendation to the War Department, and that the matter had been referred to the appropriate Department of Justice official.

The letter answers the Dallas letter of 29 August 1933, filed separately.

**Object:** Typed letter, one page  
**Maker:** J. Edgar Hoover, Director  
**Date:** 8 September 1933  
**Provenance:** Bureau file 26-4114, released in the FBI Vault  
**Appears in:** FBI Vault, Bonnie and Clyde, Part 02, page 83

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/Bonnie%20and%20Clyde/Bonnie%20and%20Clyde%20Part%2002%20/view