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Golden Era gangster Al Brady grave now marked

PrettySquareGal

I'll Lock Up
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I thought this may be of interest:

Grave of Public Enemy No. 1 now marked
By The Associated Press wire report September 13, 2007 04:25 PM

BANGOR — The grave of gangster Al Brady, the then-Public Enemy No. 1 killed in a shootout with FBI agents on Oct. 12, 1937, is no longer unmarked.

A simple gravestone placed flush to the ground in a back corner of Mount Hope Cemetery was revealed Wednesday during a brief ceremony involving a handful of re-enactors.

Richard Coffin, president of Rogan’s Memorials Inc., donated the marker to support activities leading up to next month’s 70th anniversary re-enactment of the shootout that also took the life of Brady accomplice Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr.

“This service is not to honor the person buried here, but an act of duty,” said Franciscan friar Brother Don. He said Brady’s life and death was an example of when “every good thing you may have done was forgotten and every evil act was burned into memory.”

The shootout took place outside Dakin’s Sporting Goods on Central Street, where members of the Indiana gang sought to buy additional firearms at a time when they were the target of a massive manhunt. The gang was wanted for three murders and scores of robberies.

The grave marker is not a symbol of respect, but rather a recognition of Bangor’s history, said Gerry Palmer, who was playing the role of Everett “Shep” Hurd, owner of Dakin’s at the time of the shooting.
 

LizzieMaine

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It was a pretty big story at the time -- my grandparents had vivid memories of the ruckus it caused, and had saved the issue of the Bangor Daily News from the day after the shooting. I remember paging thru it often when I was little -- there was a big gory picture spread over the front page of Brady and his henchman sprawled across the trolley tracks and an eight column headline -- G-MEN KILL BRADY AND PAL.

Ah -- here is the pic --

brady.gif


There's also a plaque mounted on the sidewalk in front of the sporting goods store that identifies the spot of the shootout. I worked in downtown Bangor briefly in the '80s, and used to walk by there looking for bullet pocks in the bricks of the buildings, but I guess they finally got around to fixing them...
 

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