Gunshots echo in downtown Bangor Thousands cheer Brady re-enactment

The streets of downtown Bangor were once again filled with the sounds of gunshots and throngs of curious onlookers Sunday as the city marked the 70th anniversary of one of the most sordid but noteworthy days in its history.

Thousands of spectators turned out to watch men in pinstripes and fedoras re-enact the events of Oct. 12, 1937, when FBI agents staged a bloody sting operation for three wanted gangsters who had come to Bangor seeking more firepower.

When the shooting stopped, the most wanted man in America, Al Brady, and one other gangster lay dead in the middle of Central Street. One other member of the Brady Gang was captured, and an FBI agent acting as a store clerk was severely wounded.

The third gang member was later executed. But the FBI agent survived and, on Sunday, returned to Bangor to be recognized for his role in the shootout.

Now 100, Col. Walter R. Walsh told the crowd that he was surprised and honored by the reception.

“It’s absolutely overwhelming, and I appreciate it more than I can express,” said Walsh, who went on to a career in the U.S. Marines.

Brady and his associates had risen to the top of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s wanted list after a string of big-money robberies and scuffles with police, including one in which an Indiana patrolman was killed.

They came to Bangor with the false expectation that they could buy a machine gun without drawing police attention. But Dakin Sporting Goods owner Shep Hurd tipped off police to the suspicious characters.

Pictures of the aftermath of the October 1937 shootout, which were splashed across the front pages of this and other newspapers the next day, show hundreds of Bangor residents crowded on Central Street. The bodies of Brady and his associate Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. are clearly visible in the street.

On Sunday, crowds once again clogged the sidewalks and pavement of Central Street for a much-publicized re-enactment of the Brady Gang’s final moments.

The event began with a parade of vintage cars from the 1930s and earlier down Railroad Street, Main Street and Central Street. Then re-enactors took the stage to set the scene as Brady Gang members discussed their plans and police prepared for the sting.

A little after 3 p.m., a 1937 Buick 8 rounded the corner onto Central Street from Main Street and parked a few buildings down from the former site of Dakin’s Sporting Goods, now Top Shelf Coin and Comics.

One of the re-enactors, representing gangster James Dalhover, left the car and walked into the store draped with a Dakin’s banner. He was apprehended by actors playing the parts of Walsh and another FBI agent when the Shaffer re-enactor opened fire from outside the store.

Recordings of pistol shots and machine gun fire echoed off the Central Street buildings – most of them the same that stood in 1937 – as the crowd cheered. Moments later, the Brady re-enactor emerged from the Buick only to be gunned down in the street.

The two men were then covered with blankets before being placed in wicker caskets and driven off in a vintage hearse. The re-enactment ended with an antique Bangor Fire Department truck hosing down the street, as was done in 1937 to clean up the gore.

Richard Shaw, the local historian who played Brady, said he was pleased with the heavy turnout. Asked why the city should remember such a bloody day in its history, Shaw said the shootout was Bangor’s part in what were the final days of the gangland era.

“We thought of it more as a commemoration than a celebration,” Shaw said.

The unexpected size of the crowd did complicate the re-enactment and led to a few exchanges of verbal taunts – but thankfully no gunshots – among spectators.

People who had arrived early to Central Street and set up chairs along the curb became upset when newcomers filled the middle of the street, obscuring their view of the events. Re-enactors and a few Bangor police officers repeatedly shooed the crowd out of the street, but without barricades to hold the crowd back the street quickly filled up once again.

Feisty shouts of “Get out of the street!” occasionally drowned out the voices of the event speaker. Arguably the loudest cheers of the day – with the exception of the hearty applause for Walsh – came when the street was repeatedly cleared.

The crowd didn’t detract from many people’s enjoyment of the re-enactment, however.

Lucus Baker, a 29-year-old Bangor resident, had heard about the shootout from his grandmother and others while growing up in the city. After Sunday’s event, he asked several of the re-enactors to sign a special newspaper section commemorating the event.

“It was impressive. I thought they did a very good job,” Baker said.

Central Street remained closed Sunday afternoon for a street dance and refreshments.