Walter Walsh

Walter Rudolph Walsh (May 4, 1907 – April 29, 2014) was an FBI agent, USMC shooting instructor and Olympic shooter. Walsh joined the FBI in 1934, serving during the Public enemy era, and was involved in several high-profile FBI cases, including the capture of Arthur Barker and the killing of Al Brady. He served in the Pacific theatre during World War II with the Marine Corps and, after a brief return to the FBI, served as a shooting instructor with the Marine Corps until his retirement in the 1970s.

A high-profile shooter, Walsh won numerous tournaments within the FBI and the Marine Corps, as well as nationally, and participated in the 1948 Summer Olympics. He received awards for his marksmanship until the age of 90 and served as the coach of the Olympic shooting team until 2000. At the FBI's 100th anniversary celebration he was recognized as the oldest living former agent and noted as being a year older than the organization itself. Aside from some hearing and memory loss, he remained physically fit at his 103rd birthday and, in March 2013, became the longest-lived Olympic competitor.

Early life Walsh was born on May 4, 1907, to Dolinda (nee Invernizzi) and Walter Brooks Walsh in West Hoboken, New Jersey (later merged to form Union City). Walsh’s father was a firefighter and for a period operated a saloon. Walsh attended Emerson High School. When he was 16 years old he lied about his age in order to join the Civilian Military Training Corps.

FBI career After graduating from Rutgers Law School in 1931, Nelson had killed two FBI agents prior to fleeing the scene, wounded, and later died at his wife's side. The FBI, unaware of Nelson's death, continued a broad search for him, which included several home raids, through the night and into the following day. The search was not called off until a tip led them to Nelson's body, which was lying in a ditch in what is now Skokie, Illinois.

Walsh was on the team that tracked criminal Arthur Barker, son of gangster Ma Barker, to Chicago in 1935. A subsequent search of Arthur's apartment revealed information that eventually led to locating other members of the Barker family.

Walsh was later involved in the tracking down of Public Enemy Number One Al Brady in 1937. On October 12 of that year, he was with a group of FBI agents who ambushed Brady’s gang at Dakin’s, a Bangor, Maine sporting goods store. Warned by the store owner that some men was wanting to purchase some Thompson submachine guns and would be returning in a few days to collect them, the FBI believing them to be Brady and his gang decided to set a trap. The gang’s car drew up at 8:30 a.m. and when Brady Gang member James Dalhover entered the store he was apprehended by Walsh and taken to the back by other agents. As Dalhover was being interrogated, Brady and another gang member, Clarence Lee Shaffer, Jr., emerged from their parked car with guns in their hands. Walsh was approaching the front of the store with a gun in each hand. Upon reaching the glass front door he saw Shaffer looking though it at him. Both men fired simultaneously through the glass. Mortally wounded Shaffer collapsed to the sidewalk, while Walsh had been shot in his right hand and into his chest. Despite this he stepped outside firing with the gun in his left hand at Brady, who was still moving after having already been hit by the other law enforcement officers. Brady was killed.

World War II At the urging of friends on the Marine Corps Reserve Team, he applied to join the Marine Corps in 1938 and was given a reserve lieutenant commission. Walsh remained in the FBI until 1942, when he took a leave to serve with the United States Marine Corps during World War II. After he left, Hoover refused to allow any more active agents to be members of any military reserve. Commissioned as a lieutenant, Walsh spent his first two years of service training snipers at New River, North Carolina.)

Leaves the FBI After the war ended, Walsh served with Marine Corps in North China, protecting railroads and supplies. In total, during his tenure with the FBI, he killed between 11 and 17 suspects.

He went on to serve as the Officer-in-Charge of the Security Subsection, G-2, Headquarters Marine Corps, as the Assistant G-3 with the 2nd Marine Division and to later command the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. and won the individual eastern regional pistol championships in 1939 and 1940 and placing second in 1941 after leading for most of the tournament. He placed 12th in the Men's Free Pistol, 50 metres competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. and a silver in the individual version of that event.

In the late 1970s Walsh took up muzzle loading and black powder shooting, serving as both coach and active shooter on several U.S. international muzzleloading teams. Walsh also served for many years as a director of the National Rifle Association and served on several of its committees. At the age of 100 he was present at a re-enactment of the Al Brady shoot out in Bangor, Maine. At this event, he was presented with a plaque and the key to the city. At the age of 101, he was the FBI's oldest living former agent and was in excellent physical shape, aside from some hearing and memory loss. He credited his longevity to luck, listening to his parents and blessings from God. At the 100th anniversary celebration of the FBI, it was noted that Walsh was older than the agency itself.

Walsh died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, on April 29, 2014, at the age of 106.

Personal life In 1936 Walsh married Kathleen Barber (March 31, 1913 to December 21, 1980). The couple had five children: Walter, Gerald, Kathleen, Rosemary and Linda and by the time of Walsh’s death seventeen grandchildren. On May 26, 2007, a grandson, Sergeant Nicholas R. Walsh, a reconnaissance team leader with Charlie Company, First Platoon of the First Marine Division, was killed by sniper fire in Fallujah, Iraq, three weeks after Walsh’s 100th birthday.