Letter from R. H. Colvin, Oklahoma City, to J. Edgar Hoover, 25 June 1933, asking for a submachine gun, rifles and pistols
Eight days after the Kansas City Union Station shootings, the Oklahoma City agent in charge writes that agents have "only the small light pistols furnished by the Bureau" and asks for a Thompson submachine gun, rifles, .45 Colt automatics and ammunition.
- Date
- 1933-06-25
- Kind
- case-file
- Source
- FBI Records: The Vault
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA in the FBI Vault. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The stored image is a grayscale render of the Vault viewer's page scan.
Part 03 of the FBI Vault’s Kansas City Massacre file, page 94 of the viewer; Bureau serial 62-28915-115. R. H. Colvin writes eight days after the Kansas City Union Station shootings that agents have “only the small light pistols furnished by the Bureau and which are entirely inadequate.” He asks for “one Thompson sub-machine gun, a couple of high-power rifles and about four 45 calibre Colts Automatic pistols and plenty of ammmition [sic] for each,” adding that “a sawed-off shotgun or two would also be useful.”
The letter also discusses paying an informant under an assumed name and a private reward fund. Those parts are left out here. The Director’s reply is filed separately.
Object: Typed letter, one page
Maker: R. H. Colvin, Oklahoma City
Date: 25 June 1933
Provenance: Bureau serial 62-28915-115, released in the FBI Vault
Appears in: FBI Vault, Kansas City Massacre, Part 03, page 94
