The Loop

Sam (Golf Bag) Hunt

May 02, 2009

The Los Angeles Times has a blog, The Daily Mirror, written by Larrry Harnisch, who revisits stories from the defunct newspaper, The Daily Mirror, and on Friday, he resurrected a story from 1959 on Sam (Golf Bag) Hunt, who was among Al Capone's henchmen. It has nothing to do with golf, other than Hunt earned his moniker by virtue of the machine gun he routinely carried in his golf bag.

On May 1, 1959, Hunt phoned a Los Angeles radio newsman, who said, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Golf Bag Hunt wrote it off to propaganda and said he'd phone later that day. In the interim, the radio newsman, Bill Stout, found a story that said that Hunt had been gunned down in New York three years later. When Golf Bag phoned back, Stout presented him with this information.

"I wouldn't be caught dead in New York," Golf Bag said.

-- John Strege