Machine Guns and Typewriters

From time to time, we introduce new Maine writers to our readers. Today’s guest, with his debut crime novel, is Rob Wallace.

On a brisk February day in 1934, a stolen state police weapon is in the guile hands of an unstable criminal. From his perch inside the bank, he sees a policeman sprinting toward the front door. With the officer in his sights, the gunman steadies himself at the window and places his finger purposefully on the trigger.

  For the first time in Massachusetts history, a machine gun is used in a crime.

  “Machine Guns & Typewriters” is the story of heroism and sacrifice entangled with bureaucracy antiquated investigative tactics during a bloody spoor of sensational robbery and brazen murder. On the outside two of Boston’s top crime reporters form an unlikely alliance which places them directly in the machine gunner’s nest.

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The last time I sat for a professional photoshoot was for the yearbook in high school. I never imagined a photo of me was so important among the checklist items gathered for the cover layout for my first book, “Machine Guns & Typewriters.”

It turns out, a headshot is an essential part of the process as critical as the acts in the story arch. Well, not that dramatic of course, but along with the book cover and bio, my headshot is a standard request when pitching “MG&T” for distribution and marketing. In a way, it feels like those three items are “proof of authorship” where the 100,000 words I hammered into shape and fussed over for months could only be confirmed as my own when accompanied by a photo including my widow’s peak and the crow’s feet creasing around my eyes when I smile.

I decided to have my photo shoot at the Thos. Moser Furniture showroom in Boston. All the showrooms are beautiful, not just because of the craftsmanship of the handmade chairs and tables, but the walls are adorned with the beautiful art from local artists. It provided a variety of colorful backdrops.

I chose the Boston location partly because the Public Gardens across the street offered another unique locale in a tranquil park surrounded by old-time Boston buildings raised in the background.

I didn’t realize just how perfect this particular Moser showroom was until the photographer needed a moment to change lenses. Holding my posture for the next set of shots, my eyes wandered out the plate glass window at the front of the store. I describe the moment like in the movie, “The Usual Suspects” when the detective dropped his coffee mug realizing he had been duped by the criminal himself spinning lies inspired by objects around the office as he fabricated a spontaneous story about “whodunit.”  As I sat recalling chapters and scenes from “MG&T” the 1934 universe I have come to know clicked into place and I realized key story moments unfolded just outside the doors of the showroom proximity.

In 1934, the detective bureau for the Massachusetts State Police was stationed on the second floor of the state house which was a short walk away through Boston Common.

Around the corner at 135 Columbus Ave., a prime suspect owned a radio and electronics repair shop. This owner and operator, Abraham Faber, was a graduate of M.I.T. and the mastermind of the gang’s most daring and deadly heists. The Columbus Ave. location stands less than a mile from the Moser showroom.

The stolen Packard automobile turned murder car was hotwired outside the Statler Hotel (now the Hilton Boston Park Plaza) just around the block.

The gang’s leader and strongman, Murton Millen lived in two apartments less than two miles from the showroom.

Of course, a half mile beyond the state house was Newspaper Row. In 1934 everything printed was set in ink block along Washington Street. The Boston Globe and Boston Post operated here as two powerful papers in the city.  This is where hard-nosed crime reporters Joseph F. Dinneen and Lawrence Goldberg most likely punched typewriter keys writing weighty columns exposing the truth behind the murders and robberies of the Millen-Faber Gang.

Ninety years on, a Maine legacy brand sits upon the porch of history based on true crime which changed Boston forever.