150 Years: The Lincoln Assassination

"Abraham Lincoln O-116, 1865-crop" by Alexander Gardner - Library of Congress

One hundred and fifty years ago on April 14, our country was changed forever by a single gun shot to a sitting president by a frustrated, outspoken, pro-Confederate actor.  The history that surrounds the Lincoln assassination is so rich and deep, that a book would do well to cover the topic and all its facets, let alone a humble blog.  However, there are some lesser-known historic facts surrounding that terrible day to which few are privy - a glaring shortcoming in our education considering Mr. Lincoln's standing as the most beloved and greatest U.S. President to date.  Presented here will be a highly abridged version of the events leading up to that date, the event itself, and its results.

Booth invited to the White House

It is well documented that John Wilkes Booth was a dedicated Confederate sympathizer and was technically a Southerner, being born in Bel Air, Maryland around 160 miles south of the Mason-Dixon line.  His parents (a Shakespearean trained father and his mistress) were English and had made the trip 17 years earlier.  By the 1850's Booth was performing in Shakespeare plays of his own, receiving rave reviews after a somewhat rocky start, and was generally recognized as supremely handsome.  His genius and good looks were only proclaimed more loudly after a national tour in the 1860s.  The start of the Civil War pulled Booth passionately in the direction of the South, though he continued his acting.  In fact, Lincoln has seen Booth perform on several occasions, and like most theatergoers, was quite impressed with the young man's talents.  In 1863, the president had gone so far as to invite the actor to his box and even to the White House, but Booth had avoided the visits with excuses and is quoted telling acquaintances, "I would rather have the applause of a Negro to that of the president!"

A Booth Saves A Lincoln's Life?

The two men's lives would cross again in 1864.  John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin was also a famous Shakespearean actor, arguably the most famous of the 19th century.  Unlike his brother, Edwin was a Unionist who seldom tolerated John's tirades against Lincoln and the North.  In a show of loyalty, and perhaps a jab at his brother, Edwin refused to perform in the South as the Civil War wore on.  One day in Jersey City, NJ, Edwin was taking a train to Richmond, VA with John T. Ford, the owner of the now infamous Ford's Theater.  Also at that same station was Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the president.  Robert would recall the events some years later in an interview with The Century Magazine.

"The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name."

Edwin Booth had by no small measure just saved the life of the president's son!  Robert was not keen to tell his parents the story, but made the event known to several others all of whom expressed their gratitude for Booth's courage and quick action, with many pledging him their service if needed.

Lot 1144: Outstanding Presentation Cased Set of Philadelphia Deringer Percussion Pistols with Accessories
The pistol on the left is the exact model used by Booth to assassinate President Lincoln.

Booth Plans to Kidnap Lincoln

In 1864 General Ulysses S. Grant suspended the exchange of POW between the Union and Confederacy in order to further deprive the South of desperately needed manpower.  That event gave rise to Booth's plot to kidnap the president and to trade him as a hostage for Southern prisoners.  If Lincoln's 1864 re-election didn't send Booth's loathing into a fever pitch, then his advocacy of the 13th Amendment, effectively abolishing slavery, certainly would have.  The president had made, "himself a king," slavery was now in grave danger, and the Confederacy was circling the drain.  A dramatic change would require a dramatic action.

The plan was to kidnap Lincoln while he was attending a March 17, 1865 performance of "Still Waters Run Deep," at the Campbell Military Hospital.  Booth had assembled the men necessary and must have been deflated to find out the president had made alternate plans at the last moment to instead attend a ceremony at the National Hotel involving the presentation of a captured Confederate battle flag.  It was the same hotel Booth was currently using as a residence!  Within days, Booth would lose his window of opportunity.  On April 3, Richmond would fall.  April 8 brought the surrender of the main Confederate Army at the Appomattox Court House, and on April 11, Booth attended an impromptu speech at the White House.  Lincoln gave the speech to a crowd on the White House lawn from his window and mentioned granting suffrage to former slaves.  By the 14th, Confederate President Jefferson Davis had fled the temporary capital of  Danville, and Booth had had enough.  Desperate and enraged, with no Confederacy to help him barter a kidnapped Lincoln, Booth's plan changed from abduction to assassination.

More Missed Opportunities

It seems by now that Booth had no shortage of opportunities to murder the president of the United States.  He missed a kidnapping, and excepting a small change in schedule, could have done so in the very building where he lived.  The previous paragraph recalls Booth's visit to the White House, which seems unbelievable.  Why was the assassination not performed then?  Did Booth, not anticipating the remarks regarding slaves not come prepared with the necessary lethal tools?  Was security doing its job?  No sources I can find can state definitively why Booth did not act that night.

For that matter, nor can they say why he did not act at Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1865.  Booth attended the event as the guest of his then secret finacée who was the daughter of a man slated as the next U.S. Ambassador to Spain.  In a small pocket calendar found on Booth's body after his death, were several damning entries he wrote while a fugitive.  They shine a clear light into the mind of a delusional, desperate zealot.  One of the entries recalls the inauguration and exclaims, "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"

Lot 1149: Pair of Philadelphia Deringer Percussion Pistols
With the exception of the silver fore end cap and the ramrod, this is another nearly identical model to the assassination weapon, right down to the checkering and engraving.

Good Friday

April 14, 1865.  President Abraham Lincoln awakes in such a cheerful mood that many note the change from a previously tired, somber, and war-weary leader.  Expecting the news of  Confederate General Joseph E Johnston's surrender, he saw himself at the end of a long ordeal and the beginning of a great peace.  Booth saw him as a target.  His urgency and desperation mixed together in a dangerous cocktail.  Upon visiting his mailbox at Ford's Theater, Booth discovered that the President, General Grant, and their wives were to attend that night's showing of Our American Cousin.  Though he didn't need the "insider information," the daily papers told the same story, much to the theater's delight.

With few other thoughts, he went to a boarding house run by Mary Surratt.  He asked her to send a package for him to Surrattsville (now Clinton, MD) and to have his guns and ammunition ready for his pick-up.  Booth had stored them there on a prior occasion as Surratt's boarding house was a frequent meeting place for the conspirators.  The package he had sent was for himself and Booth retrieved the package within hours of the assassination while on the run from authorities.  Within three months Mary Surratt would be the first woman tried and executed by the federal government.  He would also arrange a getaway horse with local livery stable owner James W. Pumphrey.  To Pumphrey this might not have been anything unusual.  His stables were located next to the National Hotel, where Booth lived, and Booth regularly hired a particular horse from him.  At some time during the day, the industrious assassin also took advantage of his friendship with John Ford and his access to the theater to create a spy hole into the Presidential Box to perform last second reconnaissance before the deed.

Lincoln had an 11 o'clock meeting with his cabinet and General Grant that day.  It was then that Grant cancelled his plans with the First Couple, though some sources say that due to tensions between the wives that the plans were never made in the first place.  In any case, a suitable guest was eventually found in Major Henry Rathbone and his finacée Clara Harris.  Allegedly, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton begged Lincoln not to go out on that night, or any night while the blood still boiled hot in Rebel veins, for fear he might be shot.  After dinner, Mrs. Lincoln was not  feeling well and debated not attending the play, but the president, tired but still in a fine mood, said he needed a laugh and would attend if she decided to stay in for the evening.  With that she elected to attend as well, but the couple would first stop by the War Department to see if word from North Carolina had arrived about Johnston's surrender.  It hadn't.  His body guard William Crook, also fearing some ill against the president, asked if he could accompany them to the theater if they insisted on attending.  Again, Lincoln dismissed his worries and declined his volunteer to serve as an extra guard.  After all, they would have guards posted in and outside their box.  Meanwhile, Booth had returned to the National Hotel to pen a letter to the editor of the National Intelligencer, in which he detailed his early plans to kidnap Lincoln, how they had changed to a conspiracy of assassination, and signed his name - also listing the names of his fellow conspirators.  He then downed a drink at the Star Saloon, next to Ford's Theater and waited for the play to begin.

The Lincolns and their guests arrived in their carriage after the start of the play.  The entrance of the parties into their box caused the play to pause and the orchestra to play "Hail to the Chief" while the packed house of 1,700 rose to give the president a standing ovation and "vociferous cheering."  Booth would arrive in an alley behind the theater around 9:30 p.m. and asked a theater employee Edmund Spangler to hold his horse for him.  Spangler, with other things to do, in turn asked Joseph "Peanut" Burroughs to hold the high-spirited mare.  No one thought twice about Booth being in the theater.  He was well known and no one would suspect anything if he were to call on the president.  The assassin was armed with his now infamous Deringer pistol and a large Rio Grand camp knife with a stag horn handle.  Acid etched on each side of its blade were the well known phrases, "Land of the Free / Home of the Brave" and "Liberty / Independence."

There were two doors between the Presidential Box and Booth.  The first was to be guarded by a man named John Parker.  Known for his hard drinking, Parker was part of Washington's Metropolitan Police Force and had a several infractions listed in his file.  His spot in a hallway outside the Presidential Box only allowed him to hear the play and it wasn't long before he relocated himself to a better seat.  At intermission, it is said that he, Lincoln's footman (Charles Forbes) and his coachman (Francis P. Burke) all absconded to a nearby saloon for drinks.  Whether Parker was at a better seat or at the pub, when the assassin came to the door, there was no one guarding it.

After entering the first door, which had been closed, but not locked, Booth quickly barricaded it with a large plank so that it could not be pushed in from the outside.  He looked through his peep hole and seeing that the president was indeed in attendance, all there was to do was steel his nerves and wait.  Booth was extremely familiar with the play showing and was waiting for the second scene of the third act when a particularly funny line would be delivered. "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!"  The resulting laughter would muffle the gun shot.  At the decided moment, Booth entered the darkened box, pulled the .44-caliber Deringer from his pocket, aimed it at the president's head, and fired.  Lincoln would have been laughing as the bullet stuck.

"The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" by Currier & Ives

The projectile entered just below the president's left ear and left little evidence of its intrusion.  From there it barreled diagonally through his brain before lodging behind his right eye.  The president instantly slumped in his chair amid a large cloud of smoke.  His theater companion for the evening, Major Rathbone, not one dozen feet away, gives the best eyewitness account of what happened.

"When the second scene of the third act was being performed, and while I was intently observing the proceedings upon the stage, with my back toward the door, I heard the discharge of a pistol behind me, and, looking round, saw through the smoke a man between the door and the President. The distance from the door to where the President sat was about four feet. At the same time I heard the man shout some word, which I thought was 'Freedom!' I instantly sprang toward him and seized him. He wrested himself from my grasp, and made a violent thrust at my breast with a large knife. I parried the blow by striking it up, and received a wound several inches deep in my left arm .... The man rushed to the front of the box, and I endeavored to seize him again, but only caught his clothes as he was leaping over the railing of the box. The clothes, as I believe, were torn in the attempt to hold him. As he went over upon the stage, I cried out, 'Stop that man.' I then turned to the President; his position was not changed; his head was slightly bent forward and his eyes were closed. I saw that he was unconscious, and, supposing him mortally wounded, rushed to the door for the purpose of calling medical aid.

On reaching the outer door of the passage way, I found it barred by a heavy piece of plank, one end of which was secured in the wall, and the other resting against the door. It had been so securely fastened that it required considerable force to remove it. This wedge or bar was about four feet from the floor. Persons upon the outside were beating against the door for the purpose of entering. I removed the bar, and the door was opened. Several persons, who represented themselves as surgeons, were allowed to enter. I saw there Colonel Crawford, and requested him to prevent other persons from entering the box.

I then returned to the box, and found the surgeons examining the President's person. They had not yet discovered the wound. As soon as it was discovered, it was determined to remove him from the theater. He was carried out, and I then proceeded to assist Mrs. Lincoln, who was intensely excited, to leave the theater. On reaching the head of the stairs, I requested Major Potter to aid me in assisting Mrs. Lincoln across the street to the house where the President was being conveyed. . .

In a review of the transactions, it is my confident belief that the time which elapsed between the discharge of the pistol and the time when the assassin leaped from the box did not exceed thirty seconds. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Miss Harris had left their seats."

Booth Escapes

Missing from Rathbone's account are several important details.  Foremost, how severly he had been injured.  After firing the Deringer pistol, Booth dropped it and drew the knife when Rathbone attacked him.  The slash that Rathbone parried cut his arm severely, down to the bone in numerous accounts.  Even still Rathbone pursued the assassin as he attempted to leap over the box ledge and onto the stage, but the young Major was not the only resolute man.  Booth, having injured his leg after landing awkwardly on the stage, still managed to stand, thrust the bloody knife in the air, shout "Sic semper tyrannis," the Virginia state motto translated as "Thus always to tyrants," and cross the stage to a backstage door where Burroughs was still holding his horse.  Booth struck Burroughs' forehead with the butt of his knife, mounted his horse, allegedly also kicked him in the chest for good measure with his functioning leg, and sped away on his rented horse.

Booth Had Other Guns As Well

Booth had planned ahead. He and co-conspirator David Herold had made it to Surratt's tavern by midnight and picked up the firearms Booth had sent there earlier.  Waiting for the duo were a pair of Colt revolvers, an 1860 Army and an 1851 Navy pistol, as well as two Spencer repeating carbines.  Booth had also previously lent weapons to all his co-conspirators.

Lot 263: Extremely Rare Factory Documented Historical Confederate Colt Fluted Cylinder Model 1860 Army Revolver

Lot 1080: U.S. Civil War Spencer Saddle Ring Carbine

• Lewis Powell, who was to kill Secretary of State William Seward, was given a Whitney revolver and a knife.  Powell made quite a mess of things.  On the pretense of delivering medicine to Seward he encountered Seward's son Frederick, who insisted on taking the drugs to his father.  Powell then shot at Frederick and beat him with the Whitney, breaking it.  He burst into Seward's bedroom, threw aside his daughter and proceeded to stab the secretary of state about the face and neck.  He was quickly tackled by a soldier assigned to Seward, but Powell escaped and fled, stabbing a messenger en route to his getaway horse. However, hearing the ruckus from inside his accomplice had left with both horses, leaving Powell to hoof it back to the Surratt boarding house.

Lot 259: Exceptional Cased Whitney New Pocket Percussion Revolver with Accessories

• George Azerodt, assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, was also given a revolver and Bowie knife.  He was staying in the same hotel as Johnson, but couldn't muster the fortitude for the act and instead got drunk at the hotel bar.  He would wander the streets that night, throwing the knife somewhere along the way and selling the pistol in Georgetown.  He would later be captured when inquiring about Johnson's location the day after the assassination.

When examining the other weapons at the hands of the conspirators, the plan becomes much more than a simple assassination.  This was a plan to sever the head of the Union government by killing the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State, the top three officials of the executive branch.  It was a desperate, last ditch attempt to rally the South as the North reeled from an unprecedented blow.  Also targeted by the killers was Ulysses S. Grant, who having cancelled his plans with Lincoln, left on a train for Philadelphia earlier that day.  Had he not, the knife Booth used was intended for him.

After retrieving the guns, Booth would proceed to the house of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, who would splint Booth's leg and make him a pair of crutches.  After making the long escape into Virginia, the rented horses would be shot.

Aftermath

The nation was struck with grief.  Even newspapers that had previously lambasted Lincoln at every turn, expressed regret at his death, as did Generals Johnston and Lee.  Booth, in his flight, could not believe he was not a hero and lamented this fact in his final writings.  While the nation openly mourned the president, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was charging full steam ahead in an effort to round up absolutely anyone who had even breathed a whiff of the plot.  It was a huge embarrassment that not only had an assassin actually reached the president to complete his treacherous act, but that he did so in front of nearly 1,700 witnesses, escaped on a horse, and had vanished for days.  By Day 6 after the shooting, Stanton issued a $100,000 reward for Booth's capture and lesser amounts for his two associates.  It was a massive sum to fit an unprecedented crime, especially considering the average daily wage was $1.  Posters were printed and well distributed.  On Day 12, Booth would be gunned down inside a barn set aflame by his pursuers.  Of those arrested for involvement in the assassination, eight were tried by a military tribunal.  After seven weeks and 366 witnesses, all were found guilty.  Four would hang, three were sentenced to life in prison, and Spangler, to whom Booth had given his horse, would receive six years (some witness accounts say Spangler physically impeded people pursuing Booth and told them not to talk about which direction he fled).

Execution of the four condemned assassins on July 7, 1865 at Fort McNair.  Image: Library of Congress

Who knows how history may have been altered had Abraham Lincoln been allowed to finish his second term in office.  Many postulate that Lincoln would have sped along the Reconstruction of the South and further advanced Civil Rights, instead of having them flounder for another 100 years.  Lincoln was unquestionably more apt than his successor to help reconcile the nation and get her whole again.  In contrast, Johnson ignored Civil Rights, did little to reconcile, survived impeachment by a single vote, and is generally considered one of the worst U.S. presidents in history.

But today, let us not remember the ineptness of Johnson, nor the the rancor and violence of Booth.  Instead, let us recall the rail splitter, the politician, the avid reader, the self-made man, the wrestler, the abolitionist, the story teller, the lawyer, the orator, the nationalist, and preserver of the Union - Abraham Lincoln - who lost his life serving a country at the brink of dissolution.




-Written by Joel Kolander



SOURCES

http://www.fords.org/john-wilkes-booth-s-escape

http://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/artifact-gun-shot-lincoln

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-blood-relics-from-the-lincoln-assassination-180954331/?no-ist

"President Lincoln is Shot, 1865," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2009).

Rise and Fall of the Whitney Wolverine

The design of the Whitney Wolverine might have some thinking it's a bit out of place among the other collectible and antique firearms that usually grace Rock Island Auction Company's catalogs and articles.  After all, this is no antique, Western, or military arm made with steel and wood!  It looks like it would be more at home with Buck Rodgers, the crew of "Lost in Space," or in the pages of an old "Speed Carter" or "Flash Gordon" comic book.  Yes, the Wolverine owes much of its design, method of manufacture, and untimely demise to the era in which it found itself birthed.  That post-WWII era was what the New York Times and many others dubbed, "The Atomic Age."

In that age was a man named Robert "Bob" L. Hillberg.  Bob had an interest in firearms from an early age, an interest he credits largely to his outdoorsman father and his gift of a Browning Auto-5 20 gauge shotgun to the high school junior that endured countless disassembling and reassembling in his Minneapolis, Minnesota boyhood home.  Through the years he purchased more firearms, became familiar with mechanical drawing thanks to his father's accomplishments as an artist and draftsman, and obtained early employment in machine operation for large local companies such as Ford, Minneapolis Honeywell, some local flour mills, and others.  With this basic experience, Bob began building some firearm accessories and still had a passion for the internal workings of a firearm.  It was always a hobby for him, even after he graduated high school and left for the University of Minnesota's School of Mines as an student of mining engineering.

While attending college his career as an engineer, machinist, and gun designer encountered an unexpected and pleasant opportunity.  In 1936-37 Bob had designed and developed a new submachine gun that utilized the Colt .38 Super and actually built a working model of it at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Wold-Chamberlain Field, Minneapolis where his duties as a reserve member gave him access to the machine shop.  Well, in 1938 summer vacation rolled around and with his working prototype and drawings in hand, Bob ventured up to Connecticut to sell the gun to Colt.  The legendary manufacturer, already manufacturing Thompsons (which were selling poorly), and with no war going on, didn't have much need for a new SMG design at the moment, but they instantly recognized Bob's ability and offered him a position.

Snatching this opportunity of a lifetime by the tail, Bob accepted and began working in many various positions for Colt resulting in a wide variety of skills and training in many different areas of firearms manufacture.  Obviously, this would be a huge benefit for the young designer as his career developed.  Two years later, in 1940, Hillberg would turn that experience with Colt into a position in the research engineering department at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corporation.  In his time there he developed a new 20mm aircraft cannon and began work at home on a personal side project of a new military carbine to enter into the U.S. government's competition for just such a rifle.

"Reciprocating barrel carbine designed by Bob Hillberg while working at the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Corp. during World War II.  It was never brought into production."  - Taglienti, p. 17

Two years later, and taking the designs for the cannon and the carbine with him, Hillberg left for the Ordnance Department of Bell Aircraft, returning him again to his aspiration of working with firearms.  Now he was a project engineer and was up to his eyeballs in firearms ideas and projects, which author Antonio J. Taglienti, who penned the authoritative work on Hillberg & his Wolverine, lists as: "Boeing B-17 turrets, .50 cal machine gun feeding systems, gun mounts, boosters, gun sight systems, bomb racks, rocket releases, and a 20 mm continuous belt feed mechanism for submarines and ant-aircraft guns."  Hillberg even had a prototype of his carbine made and interests were piqued in both Canada and Russia, but WWII ended before any further headway could be made.  In fact, Bell closed their Ordnance Division after the war and Hillberg went to work for Republic Aviation again making the feed systems, gun mounts, and bomb racks that he had familiarized himself with at Bell.

Hillberg's employment at Republic bears special mention because even though he was again working in the aviation sphere, his heart still remained true to firearms engineering.  At his home, Hillberg realized that the three most popular cartridges at that time the .22LR, .32 ACP, and .380 ACP were all .006 inch different in overall length.  Combined with his passion for small arms, Hillberg set about designing a single pistol utilizing replaceable barrels and magazines that would be capable of firing the three distinct cartridges.  His new compact pistol was called the "Hillberg Tri-Matic" and it used many characteristics revered by Hillberg: simplicity, efficiency, easy assembly/disassembly, and low cost of manufacture.  These qualities made Hillberg a good designer favored by his employers, but they also would be his calling cards for many of his designs, including the Whitney pistol.

Hillberg's 1949 drawing of the Hillberg TRI-MATIC pistol from p.19 of the Taglienti book.

It wouldn't take long for the man with firearms design in his blood to return to that industry and in 1951, Hillberg went to work for High Standard with the intention of making the Tri-Matic.  However, High Standard kept him busy with projects ranging from gas operated sporting shotguns, to the military applications such as a .308 NATO tank machine gun and the U.S. military's brief flirtation with replacing the M1911-A1 with a sidearms capable of firing a 9mm Parabellum utilizing a delayed blowback action.  In his development of these military arms, he became familiar with a machining company called Bellmore-John Tool Company, a much smaller organization than the established High Standard, but one that had an excellent reputation.  Long story short, working for BJT would give Hillberg much more control over his own direction, so he approached the company and began working for them in 1954.

Already having a desire to design and make a new .22 caliber pistol, Hillberg's first order of business after this hire was to begin putting pen to paper and making his long time ideas a reality.  Working out all the kinks took Bob into 1955, when the first prototype of the Whitney pistol (still dubbed a Tri-matic at that point) was made at the BJT facility entirely by hand, it functioned flawlessly and was given the serial number 1.  Hillberg now had full drawings and a functioning prototype with a sleek, space-age appearance.  It was time to make some money for all his hard work and what would happen next would determine the fate of the company and the pistol.

Image of Hillberg's patent from p.100 of Taglienti's book

BJT being a small company, Hillberg wanted to either sell the gun outright to an established manufacturer or "else have it produced and marketed by one of the leading gun companies on a royalty basis" according to Taglienti.  After all, BJT was just a machinist shop.  They made dies, tools, and patterns.  They didn't have the production facility, workers, marketing team, etc. necessary to successfully bring a new sporting pistol to the American public.  Despite these setbacks, BJT decided to produce the new pistol themselves, which meant they were going to need a lot of capital to build a new factory, hire new skilled workers, machinery bought, and marketing to be done.  The two men had plenty of experience with the engineering portion of firearms, but were somewhat helpless when it came to sales and marketing.

To that end, Hillberg and Howard Johnson, execs at BJT, were referred by a friend to see one Mr. Jacques Galef, a nationally known firearms distributor who was able to help said friend when he was in a jam.  Galef was immediately impressed with the pistol and even more impressed with its performance at a local firing range where the gun was fired by Hillberg so quickly that Galef swore it was the fastest firing pistol he'd ever seen!  Never mind that Hillberg could make most any semi-auto fire that quickly and tried to tell his potential client just that, Galef was won over.  He would market the gun and placed an order for 10,000 pistols.

One of the Whitney pistols to be sold at Rock Island Auction Company's 2014 July Regional Auction in Lot 2384.

Hillberg and Johnson left the demonstration in New York City as elated as any two men should be who have just completed a major step toward success.  Soon thereafter, April 1955 to be specific, a contract was drawn up and agreed to by both parties.  In it Galef agreed to purchase 10,000 pistols as originally offered and to furthermore purchase no less than 10,000 in every subsequent calendar year.  For his guaranteed repeat business, Galef would maintain exclusive distributorship over the pistol.  The men at the newly formed Hillson Firearms (named by combining HILLberg & JohnSON) had also determined a market strategy.  Hillson Firearms was intended to manufacture an entire line of sporting arms using this little .22 pistol to get their foot in the door of the firearms industry.  That in mind, they priced their pistol for wholesale at $16.53/piece.  In their minds, it would realize minimal profit in turn for getting their name out there at a price attractive to firearms enthusiasts.  In the authoritative book, "The Whitney Wolverine," Taglienti states, "It appears somewhat amazing in retrospect, that Johnson and Hillberg felt they could produce a pistol and wholesale it to the distributor for $16.53 each, and realize a reasonable profit from this, even considering the relative value of 1955 dollars.  Nevertheless, their cost studies had shown this to be entirely possible, and they eagerly entered into the agreement."

Eli Whitney

After securing their financing at the First National Bank and Trust Co. of New Haven with their signed letter from Galef, Hillson Firearms began not only choosing a location for what was to be their factory, but also began considering a name change.  Those two birds were to be taken with a single stone, when they renamed Hillson Firearms to Whitney Firearms, Inc., inspired by historical inventor Eli Whitney.  Not only is his name well known to school children everywhere for his invention of the cotton gin, but the Whitney name is especially well known to firearms collectors thanks to Whitney's manufacture of U.S. Model 1785 muskets (among others) at the turn of the century as well as being an innovator behind the interchangeability of gun parts.  It didn't hurt that the name was public property, enjoyed rich associations with American history and invention, and was already revered locally.  To Hillberg, there was also the added symbolism of Eli Whitney's innovation combined with his desire to produce high quality guns at a low cost, while remaining easily serviceable.  The upstart company with its new moniker even sought to obtain the land that the old Whitney Armory had occupied.  However, that land was now owned by the New Haven Water Company, who had no desire to sell.  A new property was quickly discovered within a mile, but the location was technically in neighboring North Haven, Connecticut and not the manufacturing center of American firearms, New Haven.  It mattered little.  The company would still list New Haven on most of its materials and even on the side of the pistols.  If only the problems to come were as simple to resolve.

In 1956, production started slowly, as it does for many manufacturers until they get their feet wet.  The good news was that it was ever increasing and profits were expected to be seen soon.  Only when summer rolled around, so did the grim realization that by selling the pistols at $16.53 per unit, they were lucky to break even.  They changed a few things to cut costs, but the only thing that could have truly saved the fledgling gun maker would have been a +$3.00/unit change to their contract with Galef - not exactly something a savvy businessman would agree to.  That summer the factory was pumping out around 330 guns per week and with each one, the company was losing money.

The second Whitney Wolverine in RIAC's July 2014 Regional Firearms Auction appearing in Lot 2430

The problem with selling on the cheap and making marginal profit is that one's success is based on sheer volume.  The hopes are to supplant the mark up with the sheer number of items sold, even if each one earns a minimal amount.  Undercutting the competition is one thing, selling for a bargain is another. The situation became even more dire when Galef sent word for the company to hold back on their deliveries to him.  He already had a warehouse full and they weren't exactly selling as well as anyone had hoped they would.  Taglienti describes it succinctly when he writes, "This was a devastating blow to Whitney.  They were locked into Galef by the exclusive distributorship contract and weren't permitted to sell to anyone else.  But now Galef didn't want anymore!"  Whitney needed to expand their sales and quickly or they'd become bankrupt more quickly than their little pistol could shoot.

Finding new prospects seemed promising at first with interest coming in from the West Coast and large chains such as Sears and Montgomery Ward.  Any new contracts would've paid a royalty to Galef and saved the company from going under, but the deal fell through.  They even had an offer to sell them in Mexico, but poor sales and new import laws squashed the deal.  They even tried to redesign the gun, changing the very cosmetics which gave the Whitney its appeal.  However, not wanting to risk the headache and fund drain of a legal battle with Galef the pair simply decided to sell what they could to repay their debts.  They sold to a Charles E. Lowe Sr. in 1957, a fellow machinist who owned a shop in neighboring Newington, Connecticut, and who was made fully aware of the current company's situation.  Hillberg and Johnson walked away from the business they had built after constructing only 10,793 pistols of which 10,360 were delivered to J.F. Galef & Son.  It would have been a crushing moment for the lifelong small arms designer who was on the verge of seeing his dreams come true.

Lowe changed the name from Whitney Firearms, Inc. to Whitney Firearms Co. and was keen on resuming production of the pistol, the design no longer being bound by agreements.  Production began slow, but was slowly gaining momentum as ads began appearing in some of the nations most well-known firearms magazines.

However, in February of 1958, J.L. Galef & Son brought suit to the new company claiming breech of contract.  Whitney claimed they were in no violation: not only had the prior agreement been satisfied with the delivery of 10,000 pistols, but they weren't even the same business.  They claimed that Lowe had not purchased the business, but had personally bought only the physical assets and patents and then leased those to the new company.  The lawsuit threatened to go on for some time and sales were slow for the new company and its owner.  Besides, if Galef won the suit, all the profits from the pistols piling up in the Whitney warehouse would be awarded to him.  Production stopped.  The case was eventually settled, but all the excitement and energy surrounding the pistol had vanished.  Instead of picking up manufacture again, the new Whitney Firearms Co. decided to liquidate and sold the remaining 1,100 pistols wholesale to miscellaneous distributors.  It was the end of a journey once as promising and bright as a shooting star, but that faded just as quickly.

Why Did It Fail?

There are many supposed reasons the pistol fell short of success. Obviously the binding agreement with Galef was a huge contributing factor for several reasons: nonadjustable price, little to no profit, and a factor not yet discussed was that Galef was only selling them via the mail (a legal and common practice at that time).  Whitney had expected to see their guns in the windows and cases of firearms and sporting goods stores across the country, but the young manufacturer had no idea of Galef's mail order practice until they began receiving their warranty cards back from their buyers.  Whitney had zero input or knowledge on how Galef was going to conduct sales and marketing of the pistol.

Another issue may have been the lack of a consistent name.  Most guns, or products in general, go by one name during their lifespan.  The Whitney pistol went by many.  It began as a product by Hillson Firearms and was at that time still known as the Tri-Matic, even though the design of the original Tri-Matic and the Whitney pistol had little in common and the original was only ever built as a prototype.  When the deal was first struck with Galef, the company still bore the Hillson name and briefly an ad appeared for the Hillson-Imperial.  Nevermind that the Hillson name never appeared on one of the Whitney pistols, it is likely the marketing efforts of someone at Galef.

If you recall from earlier, Galef was extremely impressed at the pistol's initial demonstration.  So impressed, he exclaimed that, "it shoots like lightning!"  He all but insisted it should be called the Lightning, so this name too appeared in advertising placed by Galef.  The name was never placed on any of the pistols.  At long last the name "Wolverine" was given to the little plinker, but there is no single reason as to why.  Some again give the origin's credit to Galef and him wanting the pistol to be associated with wild animals and the outdoors, things that were commonly used in their marketing.  Alliteration is never mentioned as a reason for the name "Wolverine," but it's hard to imagine it had no bearing on the decision.  The other possibility is that because Bob Hillberg himself was a college football fan, specifically that of the university of Michigan Wolverines, he chose the name in honor of his beloved team.  It would be a short-lived tribute as a business only miles away from the original Whitney plant, the Lyman Gunsight Company, had already used the name for one of their scopes.  The owners being friends, Whitney dropped the name to preserve the friendship and avoid legal battles.

Note the designation as the "Lightning Model" and the J.L Galef name in the bottom right.

Here designated as the "Whitney Wolverine" it still lists J. L  Galef as the exclusive distributor.

The third reason can perhaps be more generally summed up as, "the market."  The Whitney pistol had some stiff competition from any number of sources:

• Other more established plinking pistols could be obtained at the same cost or cheaper than the Whitney
• Other handguns were carried in stock and didn't have to be ordered like the Whitney
• A boom of military surplus rifles and pistols were available on the cheap, giving buyers more variety and bang for their buck.

It also had a style that the market may not have been ready to support and an aluminum frame that may have felt "cheap" and light to a market accustomed to heavy steel which was associated with durability and quality.

Ultimately, the gun and the company tied to it would flounder after less than three full years of on again off again production, robbing Hillberg of his much deserved success.  In fact, much of his early work would indicate the man was to receive no accolades at all!  His work on several prototypes all seemed to miss going to full production.  The weapons that he developed designed for insurgencies, such as the Winchester Liberator shotgun, saw no real lifespan and another compact weapon, the Colt Defender Mark I, an 8 barreled, 20 ga. shotgun designed for law enforcement, was introduced during the national recession and put out to pasture in 1971.  Trying again with the COP 357 Derringer, a back-up break action pistol for law enforcement, Hillberg's design again bit the dust as it was too bulky and had a heavy double action trigger pull (a design feature that Hillberg considered essential for simplicity in use).  Thankfully his work with various firearms and aeronautic companies throughout the years had earned him many patents such as several pistols, shotgun components, safeties, early gas operated shotguns, barrels, grips, and what appears to be a folding shotgun stock extremely similar to that popularized by the Franchi SPAS-12.

Patent diagram for the Winchester "Liberator" shotgun

Hillberg is an absolutely brilliant engineering mind that deserves much more recognition than he receives.  His was a labor of love that never really saw the success that he desired and some say deserved.  Robert L. Hillberg passed away on August 12, 2012 at the age of 94, but not before he got to see his Wolverine design reborn in 2005 from black polymer courtesy of the Olympic Arms Company.  To see the rekindled interest in his old pet project would be a source of pride for any engineer or designer.





SOURCES

Taglienti, Antonio J. The Whitney Wolverine: .22 Caliber Semi-automatic Pistol. Woonsocket, RI: Mowbray, 2008. Print.