The Death of Jack Hamilton 4302308 219481255 2008-06-15T12:57:01Z Garion96 397881 rm per [[wp:mosflag]] using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] {{Infobox short story | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] --> | name = The Death of Jack Hamilton | author = [[Stephen King]] | country = [[United States]] | language = [[English language|English]] | series = [[Stephen King]] | genre = [[Short story]] | published_in = ''[[Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales]]'' | publisher = [[Scribner]] | media_type = Print ([[Paperback]]) | pub_date = [[2002 in literature|2002]] | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''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. ==Plot summary== The story is written in the [[grammatical person|first-person]]. [[Homer Van Meter]], a member of [[John Dillinger]]'s gang, tells of the slow, painful death of fellow gangmember [[John Hamilton (gangster)|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 [[John Dillinger#Was it Dillinger?|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. During his getaway from a shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in [[Wisconsin]], Hamilton is shot by police, and the bullet lodged in his lung, eventually creating a gruesome case of [[gangrene]]. Hamilton is refused treatment by [[Joseph P. Moran|Joseph Moran]], and Van Meter and Dillinger take Hamilton to stay at the home of Volney Davis and his girlfriend [[Edna Murray|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. {{Everything'sEventual}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Death of Jack Hamilton}} [[Category:2002 short stories]] [[Category:Short stories by Stephen King]]