My Carbines, Old and New - with a twist

[Sleeplessnashadow]

Yeah, I know, he didn't invent the carbine let alone do it in prison. But I find it somewhat comical that Clarkson typically gets all the credit for the Winchester .224 entry for the light rifle trials that chose the Armalite design.

Being a retired cop I got fed up with all the "Carbine Williams" bravado and decided to make Williams a special needs project to document what his real involvement was in killing the deputy sheriff that landed him in prison, what he really did in prison, and what he really did afterwards.

The research took me to the NC Museum of History, NC State Archives, Fayetteville Court House, the Williams homestead, the MGM Collection by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library, Beverly Hills, ... along with the Cody Museum and their McCracken Research Library in Cody, WY.

When the American Rifleman issue with Canfield's article on the G30 hit the mail boxes, I was literally doing a photo shoot of the G30 and parts at the NC Museum of History.

The end result was a heck of an experience and the six web pages I have on Williams with what I found, including downloads of copies of many of the documents.

http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/Williams.html

Check the 4th page for what he did during his time at Winchester. I was able to shoot a limited number of pics of a few of the prototypes and carbines. Would have liked to have done a photo spread at Cody and the NC Museum of History as it only needs to be done once but they have the rules they do for a very good reason. And their own photographers who are rightfully territorial about their means of income.

My main goal at Cody was to get pics of the carbine prototypes and others concocted by Williams to show people which carbine he did invent. That carbine prototype and the rifle that preceded it were the design Clarkson came up with for the Winchester .224.

The Winchester G30 Rifle

NC Museum of History


Pic I shot with their permission

The Williams .30 Carbine Prototype

McCracken Research Library


On display at Cody Museum, pic I took

A Williams prototype for a .30 Carbine for sporting use

Cody Museum


Pic I took. This one is in their vault and not on display. More pics on the website.
Very educational research project.

And yes, there was ample proof beyond a reasonable doubt and unto a moral certainty Williams was the one who murdered Deputy Alfred Pate of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. The hung jury was a sanity trial, not a criminal trial that would have followed. 11-1 for sanity. Retrial on sanity was set to go when Williams wisely took the guilty plea for the jail term instead of going for the death penalty. Check out the documents on my web pages. I was also able to locate a couple family descendants of the deputy and shared what I found with them.

Though you may or may not know me for my websites, I would much rather be doing these kind of research projects and photo shoots. But to not share them would let all the work and history die with me. Which would negate the value of all the work I did.

Jim