Why Thompson sub machine guns are called Chicago pianos?
You are absolutely correct. They did have unique nicknames like “Chicago typewriter” AND “Chicago piano”. I suspect that they were refered to as pianos by some gangsters because they thought of these guns as instruments of their trade. And instruments are meant to be played. And these gangsters loved to play their instruments. As to why they chose piano as opposed to some other instrument name, I’m not sure about that. But I suspect that it had something to do with the fact that pianos are very large instruments. So when you saw a gangster carrying his tommy gun in a portable case, he would call it his piano to be sarcastic. Common sense tells you he could never carry a piano in a portable case. Many years ago when I was considering becoming a federal agent, I read all I could about gangsters.
