The Garrotte

The weapons used by the mafia ranged from short range weapons to long range ones. The short range weapons were discreet and deadly, while the long range ones were death inescapable. Melee weapons were used too and the infamous garrotte was used to deliver a slow but sure death by strangling the person marked for execution and it had the element of catching the enemy by surprise.

The Tommy Gun

Petty extortions could be executed with knuckles, baseball bats, lead pipes or sometimes may be during extreme conditions; the use of pistol was required. Otherwise, at times of war, weapons included the notoriously famous Tommy gun which was actually The Thompson 1927. The accuracy of this submachine gun was unquestionable. It weighed around eleven and a half pounds and covered a range of about 1500m. The magazine carried thirty shots altogether.

The Pump Action Shot Gun and the Magnum

Next in the line of favourites was the Pump action shotgun, a close range weapon, guaranteed to cause genocide and terminate anything that dared to come before it. The shot gun sprays a burst of pellets also known as buckshot. Six shells could be fired before reloading was required. The discreet weapons were the 27 Magnum and the Colt M1911 A1. The Magnum was considered the most powerful handgun, known for its stopping power. The gun was a little over 9” in length and it held 8 rounds.

The Colt M1911 A1

The Colt M1911 A1 was a gun that required a trained user. This gun also contained seven to eight rounds and weighed around a kilo and had an effective range of 25m. The magnum on the other hand weighed around 42 to 45 pounds. The Colt was not only the favourites of the mafia, but also the US army. It found excuses to stick around in the army for a little under a century!

The M10 Police-Revolver and the 442 Revolver

The M10 police revolver shot six rounds and it was pretty stylish with its nice finish and four inch long barrel length, (the revolver was around eight inches long). It was in the hands of policemen in the 1920s. The 442 revolver was small with five shots and having barrel length of little less than 2 inches. These were some of the lethal weapons used by the mafia of the 1920s to 1930s.