American gangster films have taught us that musical instrument cases ... in my violin case? Violence!” the character Jinx jokes in the game League of Legends). 1920s America brought us flapper dresses ...

The Thompson, known popularly as a "Tommy gun," a "chopper," a "Chicago typewriter," is one of America's iconic weapons brandished viciously, or carried not that discreetly in a violin case ...

It is unlikely that any other firearm has captured the public imagination so thoroughly, both at the height of its era and continuing on long thereafter, as the Thompson Submachine Gun.

But few know the origin of the gun’s catchy nickname. “To most U.S. cineaddicts the Thompson submachine gun is a gangster’s weapon,” Time magazine observed on June 26, 1939. “The late ...