Walter Rudolph Walsh (May 4, 1907 – April 29, 2014) was an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent,

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

shooting instructor and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

shooter. Walsh joined the FBI in 1934, serving during the

Public enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

era, and was involved in several high-profile FBI cases, including the capture of

Arthur Barker Arthur R. "Doc" Barker (June 4, 1899 – January 13, 1939) was an American criminal, the son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang, founded by his brother Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis. Barker was typically called on for violent ac ...

and the killing of

Al Brady Alfred James "Al" Brady (October 25, 1910 – October 12, 1937) was an Indiana-born armed robber and murderer who became one of the FBI's "Public Enemies" in the 1930s. He and an accomplice were shot dead in an ambush by FBI agents in downtown Ba ...

. He served in the Pacific theatre during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

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 The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. 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 West Hoboken was a municipality that existed in Hudson County, New Jersey, from 1861 to 1925. It merged with Union Hill to form Union City on June 1, 1925. The town is notable for being the first city in which Mallomars were sold.Barron, Jam ...

, which merged with Union Hill to become Union City in 1925. Walsh’s father was a firefighter and for a period operated a saloon. When he was 16 years old he lied about his age in order to join the Civilian Military Training Corps. He subsequently joined the

New Jersey Army National Guard The New Jersey Army National Guard consists of more than 6,000 Citizen-Soldiers. The New Jersey Army National Guard is currently engaged in multiple worldwide and homeland missions. Units have deployed to Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Germ ...

in 1928.

Joins the FBI

After graduating from

Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...

in 1931, Walsh joined the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

in 1934, becoming a member of the first cohort of agents permitted to carry firearms. His first assignment was to the Bureau’s office in St. Paul, Minnesota, covering four states. Later that year, he discovered the body of gangster

Baby Face Nelson Lester Joseph Gillis (December 6, 1908 – November 27, 1934), also known as George Nelson and Baby Face Nelson, was an American bank robber who became a criminal partner of John Dillinger, when he helped Dillinger escape from prison, in Crown P ...

, who died of injuries sustained in a gun battle with the police in Barrington, Illinois, on November 27, 1934. 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 Skokie (; formerly Niles Center) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. Its population, according to the 2020 census, was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately north of Chicago's do ...

. Walsh was on the team that tracked criminal

, son of gangster

Ma Barker Kate Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark; October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935), better known as Ma Barker (and sometimes known as Arizona Barker and Arrie Barker), was the mother of several American criminals who ran the Barker–Karpis Gang ...

, to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1935. A subsequent search of Arthur's apartment revealed information that eventually led to locating other members of the Barker family. Later that same day Walsh became involved in an attempt to arrest bank robber Russell “Slim Gray” Gibson. Putting on a bulletproof vest and armed with a

Browning automatic rifle The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the . ...

and a .32 calibre pistol Gisbon attempted to escape out the back, where he encountered Walsh, armed with a .351 Winchester Self-Loading rifle. Walsh was later involved in the tracking down of

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

Number One

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 lung 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. Despite being shot multiple times Walsh quickly returned to work.

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 A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

commission. Walsh remained in the FBI until 1942, when he took a leave to serve with the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

during

. 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.) After requesting combat duty in 1944, Walsh was sent to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, specifically with 1st Marine Division on

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. In one incident, he and his comrades were pinned down by a sniper on Okinawa, whom Walsh was able to kill from 90 yards away with a single shot to the torso from a M1911 pistol.

Leaves the FBI

After the war ended, Walsh was served with Marine Corps in North China, protecting railroads and supplies. Following the completion of these duties Walsh active duty in 1946 and returned to the FBI. Believing that his days as an active agent were behind him, he resigned in 1947 to return to active duty with the Marine Corps. 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 The 2nd Marine Division (2nd MARDIV) is a division of the United States Marine Corps, which forms the ground combat element of the II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF). The division is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Caroli ...

and to later command the

1st Battalion, 8th Marines 1st Battalion, 8th Marines (1/8) is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The battalion consists of approximately 1000 Marines and sailors and is nicknamed "The Beiru ...

. In 1962 Walsh was assigned with the rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

as the Commanding Officer of the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico, where he remained until his retirement in 1970.

Competition shooting

When Walsh was 12, his father gave him his first rifle, a .22-caliber Mossberg. He honed his markmanship shooting rats in the New Jersey Meadowlands and clothespins off of his aunt's laundry line. It was while a member of the Civilian Military Training Corps, that Walsh received his first formal training. During his subsequent service with the New Jersey National Guard Walsh won a spot on its rifle team which led to him in 1928 engaging in his first competitive shooting at national matches at

Camp Perry Camp Perry is a National Guard training facility located on the shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio near Port Clinton. In addition to its regular mission as a military training base, Camp Perry also boasts the second largest outdoor rifle range ...

, Ohio. By 1930 Walsh was good enough to win both rifle and pistol titles at the 37th Annual Sea Girt Interstate Tournament. He also won the Governor's Champion Marksman Match, the miss-and-out Swiss Match, and the 15-shot, 1100-yard Libby Trophy Match, which established him as one of the best rifle and pistol shooters of the period. Despite a lack of experience with this type of shooting, Walsh competed in the smallbore rifle event at the National Matches in 1932, and did so well that he was selected as an alternate on the elite Dewar Trophy Team. In that same year he won the Wimbledon and American Legion Smallbore Matches. In 1933 Walsh was selected as a firing member of the Dewar Team, and broke the Dewar smallbore rifle record. In that same year he set a new record in the smallbore national match course at

Rumford, Rhode Island Rumford is the northern section of the city of East Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The Rumford section of East Providence borders Seekonk, Massachusetts, Pawtucket, Rhode Island and the Ten Mile River (Seekonk River). Rumford has been part of thre ...

, and became the New Jersey State Pistol Champion. In 1935, he joined the FBI pistol team. Within three years of joining the FBI, he had been presented with two marksmanship trophies from director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

. In 1939, at

Camp Ritchie Fort Ritchie at Cascade, Maryland was a military installation southwest of Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania and southeast of Waynesboro in the area of South Mountain. Following the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, it closed in 19 ...

, he set the world record in pistol shooting with 198 points out of a possible 200 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

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. At the

1952 ISSF World Shooting Championships The 35th UIT World Shooting Championships was the contemporary name of the ISSF World Shooting Championships in all ISSF shooting events held in Oslo, Norway, in 1952, only weeks before the 1952 Summer Olympics.25 m Center-Fire Pistol 25 meter center-fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events, and is normally a men-only event. Its origin lies in competitions with military-style service pistols, and as such its history dates back to the 19th century. 25 meter pistol (forme ...

event 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. In total, he was selected five times for the All-American Pistol Shooting Team.

Later life

As late as 1997, he was still receiving awards for his marksmanship, winning the Outstanding American Handgunner of the Year. Until 2000 he served as a coach for the Olympic shooting team, able to see without the aid of glasses even at the age of 92. 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. In March 2013, at the age of 105, he surpassed American gymnast Rudolf Schrader to become the longest-lived Olympic competitor. Walsh died at his home in Arlington, Virginia on April 29, 2014, five days before his 107th birthday. He was interred beside his wife on July 15, 2014 in section 8, grave 7198 at Arlington National Cemetery.

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.