MovieChat Forums > Boomerang! (1947) Discussion > The gun

The gun

posted 12 years ago by hermanator74301
3 replies | jump to latest

In the preliminary hearing Dana Andrews attempted to discredit one witness who's testimony was that he saw something shiny in the murderers hand. He explained that the .32 Colt revolver had a dull non glare finish such as that used by the military so as to not give away the users position. Like a parkerized finish. My question is did Colt ever market a .32 revolver with such a finish? Also I noticed that while the barrel and frame did appear dull it almost looked like something had been put on the gun to achieve that. At one point however you could see the backstrap of grip frame and it looked pretty shiny to me. I know I'm knitpicking.

[–] BKinzeys 12 years ago

I don't know if Colt made .32 revolvers for the military or marketed one. I do believe during WW1 some soldiers carried personal sidearms. So this guy could have had his revolver parkerized or bought one for personal carry.

[–] CaperGuy 9 years ago

Interesting question about the gun. But I think a more pressing question is whether the gun contained a fired shell when it was found. I have seen Boomerang! several times and each time I see Attorney Harvey hand the gun and ammo over to the judge and ask him to examine the weapon and ammunition, I want to know whether six unfired rounds are in the envelope. The judge is seen to insert the rounds into the six chambers but I don't see whether any of the rounds have been fired. It seems like this would be good information to have if we are evaluating the guilt or innocence of the accused. I don't know whether Harvey handed the judge six new rounds for demonstration purposes or whether he handed over the actual rounds that the accused was found to possess in the gun when he was arrested. What happened to the original ammo?

Another thing that bothers me is what I read in the Wikipedia article on Harold Israel. The crime occurred in 1924 but in 1954 a witness came forward after 30 years to state that he had seen the murder committed and that Israel did not do it. The witness stated that he was threatened with death if he talked about the murder. I guess that after 30 years, he felt safe in coming forward. I would like to think that witnesses could come forward to report a murder without fearing for their lives but I can see how a witness would be frightened. The murder went unsolved and we will never know how many other victims fell to this same murderer.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. - Proverbs 23:7

[–] trprt77 8 years ago

Two issues you raise are easily explained.

1 - The empty casing. Since Waldron was caught several states away, long after the crime was committed, it is not unreasonable for him to have reloaded the gun if in fact he was the perpetrator.

2 - Regarding the real life witness not coming forward for 30 years, sadly that still occurs in this day and age. Witnesses are reluctant to come forward for many reasons, including community pressure (snitches get stitches), fear of the perps or their associates, or just plain selfishness.