The Death of Jack Hamilton
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The Death of Jack Hamilton is the fourth short story in the collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King. The story is based on the true story of the death of a member of John Dillinger's first gang.
The story is written in the first-person. Homer Van Meter, a member of John Dillinger's gang, tells of the slow, painful death of fellow gangmember Jack Hamilton. Van Meter begins by describing Dillinger's death outside the Biograph Theater at the hands of Melvin Purvis's men (who is referenced several times throughout the story as the character's nemesis), as well as addressing the theory that it wasn't actually Dillinger that was killed. Van Meter debunks the theories, citing that the causes for arguments happened during his witnessing the death of Jack Hamilton. After escaping from a shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin, Hamilton was shot by police during the getaway, and the bullet lodged in his lung, eventually creating a gruesome case of gangrene. Hamilton is refused treatment from Joseph Moran, Van Meter and Dillinger take Hamilton to stay at the home of Volney Davis and his girlfriend Rabbits, two members of Ma Barker's gang, as well as Ma's son Arthur. King's narrator spares no detail, as the man lapses into dementia before his agonizing, but merciful expiration.
