The years prior to World War II produced some of the most memorable characters that the shooting sports have ever seen. Not the least of these was an old handgunner by the name of J.H. FitzGerald. For quite some years, Mr. FitzGerald was a valued employee of Colt. He became somewhat of an exhibition shooter and nearly always had a booth at the National Matches at Camp Perry to work on Colt handguns that belonged to the shooters.

Elmer Keith wrote that he often hung out at FitzGerald's tent and enjoyed the gun talk that was always present. And on at least one occasion, Keith and FitzGerald worked together to put on a fast-draw demonstration for the Camp Perry crowd. But FitzGerald's main claim to fame was a custom revolver that came to be known as the "FitzGerald Special."

Sometime prior to 1926, FitzGerald came to realize that the Colt Police Positive Special could be improved if it had a two-inch barrel, a bobbed hammerspur, a rounded butt, and the front of the trigger guard cut out. The resulting revolver would be more easily carried in a pants or coat pocket and should be quicker to get into action. At that time the shortest barrel length for the Police Positive Special (chambered for .38 Special, .38 New Police, .38 Smith & Wesson, and various .32 revolver cartridges) was four inches.

According to his theory, FitzGerald cut the revolver's barrel to two inches and reinstalled the front sight. At the same time, he bobbed the hammerspur, rounded the gun's butt, and cut out the front of the trigger guard. The result impressed FitzGerald so much that he made up a pair of these guns for his own personal-defense use. And then he cast his eye on the big Colt New Service revolver.

The Colt New Service was chambered for just about all the centerfire handgun cartridges of its day. FitzGerald used a pair of .45 Colt-chambered New Services and bobbed the hammerspurs and cut out the front of the trigger guards. Colt double-action (DA) revolvers of that era had a center section in their grip frames that served as an anchor point for the revolvers' V-shaped mainsprings. The area below this center section could be easily cut, reshaped, and rewelded without the need to relocate the mainspring. Needless to say, the actions on FitzGerald's pair of Police Positive Specials and New Services were slicked up very nicely.

FitzGerald had come up with one of the earliest and slickest of the belly gun concepts. FitzGerald was a big fellow and cut out the front of the trigger guards in the belief that it would speed his acquisition of the trigger for quick DA shooting.

The demand for snubnose DA revolvers, especially in .38 Special, was so great that Colt brought out such a gun in 1926. The two-inch-barreled, round-butt revolver was given the name "Detective Special." The concept became so popular that something like 400,000 guns, in various configurations, were manufactured over the years.

The FitzGerald Special Catches On
There's no way of telling how many lawmen and defensive handgunners used a FitzGerald Special revolver. We do know that Col. Charles Askins, while serving in the U.S. Border Patrol, carried a four-inch Colt New Service in .38-40 with the hammer bobbed and the front of the trigger guard cut out. He reported that he had also rigged up a two-inch New Service in .45 Colt for off-duty carry.