THE SEVEN SHOT REVOLVER

  Bad Boy John Boom may've been the worse shot with a revolver in CCSO history. He was so inaccurate, when annual qualification time came Deputies tried to find out what time he was qualifying. Then make sure they were elsewhere.

 You could count on him putting several of his shots into the targets on either side of his. And he once set fire to a blanket placed on the ground--to be used in prone position firing--by shooting a hot round into it. His gun was likely to go off at anytime in any direction. But, Bad Boy had other uses for a revolver. Dave Johnson remembers one.

 As the story goes, one hoppin' Friday night Bad Boy checked out at a Juke, one of the finer establishments of the day off South Boston.  He spotted a miscreant that was wanted for petty thievery and ordered him to come hither for some up close and personal John Boom love. 

The culprit declined and turned rabbit. Bad  Boy started after him.  Trouble was John was built like a kettle, not exactly an attribute of  track stars.  He knew he couldn't outrun his prey, so he pulled out his nickel-plated Colt Diamondback and, still at full gallop, started shooting. 

 Now, John had this particular habit that did not bode well for accuracy.  He shot a revolver with a technique which resembled someone trying to sling something nasty off their trigger finger.  Needless to say, John hit everything that night but the object of his intention. People and stray dogs scattered like flies. 

 Bad Boy, however, was not to be denied and, after his sixth and last shot, threw the empty revolver at the thief and brained him with it.  He finished up the job with a few good licks of his trusty slapper, then hauled the desperado off to the jailhouse.

 Only in Immokalee, only when Bad Boy was the Big Boss-Man.  
 Editor's Note: Bad Boy wasn't the only cop who found secondary uses for the tools of their trade. A Sergeant with the NPD and later the CCSO, who we'll call RD, was as accurate throwing a six-cell flashlight as an Aborigine with a boomerang. RD didn't like to run either and those who fled him regularly heard a whoosh in the air behind them--just before they were knocked silly--that wasn't the bird of paradise.