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 ...

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 ...