Posted on 10/06/2007 7:16:10 AM PDT by metesky
BANGOR - People who come downtown for Sunday’s re-enactment of the shootout between the infamous Al Brady gang and the law will find themselves transported back to Central Street as it appeared 70 years ago, or so organizers promise.
"There are going to be a lot of surprises on Sunday," said Gerry Palmer, a Bangor city councilor and executive director of Northeast CONTACT, the nonprofit consumer advocacy group the event will benefit.
"We have been planning this for nine months and our goal is accuracy," said Palmer, who along with Richard Shaw, a Bangor history buff who has had a longstanding fascination with Brady, organized the event.
Shaw grew up hearing about the shootout. His mother, a 22-year-old college student at the time, was a witness to the aftermath. She was on a trolley about a block away when a policeman climbed aboard and asked, "Anybody want to see blood and bullets?" Her boyfriend at the time passed, but Shaw’s mother ran to the scene, where she saw the bodies.
The two aren’t just organizers; they also will play leading roles in the re-enactment. Shaw will portray Brady and Palmer will be Everett "Shep" Hurd, who owned the sporting goods store and who, suspicious that the gang members were here to hunt as they claimed, tipped off authorities.
"This is not a theatrical event. This is a re-enactment. This is a ‘wow’ event and we have a lot that has to happen," he said. "I can tell you that when you step onto Central Street Sunday, it’s going to be 1937."
The dramatic end to Brady, once known as "Public Enemy No. 1," and his notorious Indiana gang took place at 25 Central St. on Oct. 12, 1937.
In a shootout between Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Brady and fellow gangster Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. were killed. Rhuel James Dalhover was captured and returned to Indiana, where he was found guilty of killing an Indiana state trooper and sentenced to death.
At the time, 25 Central St. was home to Dakin’s Sporting Goods Co., where G-men had laid a trap for Brady and his cohorts. The storefront that once housed Dakin’s now houses Top Shelf Coin and Comics.
The owner of Top Shelf has agreed to let re-enactors use the storefront for Sunday’s event.
"We’ll be creating a storefront very similar to what was there in 1937," Palmer said. Because all but one of the Central Street buildings that were there in 1937 still stand, the streetscape remains virtually unchanged. Planners, however, have re-created the Ballentine Ale advertising sign that appears in many of the photographs taken after the shootout.
Adding to the atmosphere will be nearly 50 re-enactors in period attire, playing roles ranging from gangsters and G-men to store clerks and party girls.
Given that their special guest for the day is one of the federal agents credited with ending the Brady Gang’s reign of terror, the pressure is on to accurately portray what went down on that fateful October day.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Walter R. Walsh was one of the FBI agents who took the Brady Gang down. He was shot and wounded in the process, but recovered to go on to a distinguished career in the FBI and the military, including service in Okinawa, Japan, during World War II.
Walsh also was a world-class marksman, competing for the Marine Corps and as part of the U.S. Olympics team in 1948. He also coached the Olympic team in 1972. He still shoots skeet today.
"He’s a hero, a real, bona fide American hero," Palmer said of Walsh.
Walsh, who turned 100 in May and is a resident of Arlington, Va., has been tapped to serve as honorary chairman and parade grand marshal. He will be making the trip to Bangor this weekend with family members, including his son, Walter Walsh Jr.
In a telephone interview on Thursday, Walsh Jr. said that his father’s role in the Brady shootout has become part of the family’s history.
"Those guys were only feet apart, and I think that being a good shot was part of it, but I think it was more [due to] his self-possession and self-control," Walsh Jr. said. "He remained cool and collected under fire. He didn’t get rattled. He was just that kind of guy — he’s still that kind of guy.
"When Dad was wounded in Bangor, the FBI was still quite small and it was very close-knit in those days. J. Edgar Hoover himself came and got Mom [who was pregnant at the time] and escorted her on a plane to Maine," he said.
Brady isn’t the only gangster whose career Walsh helped put to an end. Walsh also was involved in the capture of Lester Joseph Gillis, better known as Baby Face Nelson, and was the agent who arrested Arthur "Doc" Barker of the infamous Ma Barker Gang.
Though some criticize the event as one that glorifies gangsters, Palmer sees it differently.
"This is our history. This is not being done to celebrate Al Brady and his henchmen. It is to honor Maine people, who diagnosed the problem, got law enforcement involved and ended their reign of terror, so we’re not glamorizing this in any way."
"This is just history," Shaw agreed. "It’s about good versus evil. We knew who wore the white hats and who wore the black hats in those days. I guess when you live by the gun, you die by the gun."
The re-enactment begins
at 2 p.m. with a parade of pre-World War II vehicles, including a replica of the "Brady Buick" and a vintage hearse, and wraps up with a street dance. Central Street will be closed to vehicles from noon to 6 p.m. so the event can take place. Those who attend are encouraged to wear 1930s attire and to arrive early, as space on Central Street is limited. For more information, visit www.albradygang.comNever ask Ted Kennedy if he’s going to Bangor.
I hope we can drag our grandson downtown for this.
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