Mysterious Munitions in Sleepy St. Pete: The Story of a 1924 Filibustering Campaign

On January 21st, 1924, a porter at the rail depot in St. Petersburg, Florida was loading a shipment of 62 wooden crates onto an awaiting truck.As the porter placed box after box on the vehicle, each heavy case further strained the frame of the vehicle until one load proved too much for the structure to bear.The truck collapsed under the weight of the shipments.In the process, one crate fell to the hard ground, shattering open.Dozens of bystanders formed a shocked crowd to gawk at the contents: guns and ammunition.An inspection of the other crates revealed a total of six Thompson machine guns and 120,000 rounds of ammunition.Shortly after the initial commotion settled down, a local aviator named Johnny Green claimed