The Death of Jack Hamilton, a short story by Stephen King focuses on a group of gangsters on the lam led by John Dillinger. The story takes place as a narrative from one of Johnnie's good friends, Homer Van Meter. The story continues as one of the gang members is wounded and will inevitably die. The story carries on and on following these soldiers of fortune as they attempt to find help for there friend and try to avoid the heat as well. Ultimately, they are unsuccesful, but that was never a surprise throughout the story.
The story itself is fairly dull, but it contains many elements of a tall tale. At one point, our narrator is able to lasso flies with string and then lets them dance about at the end of his tiny ropes. As far as the intent of the story, it was mostly an attempt to outline the lives of the depression era outlaws that King himself was fascinated with. The actual death of Jack Hamilton is a fairly accurate representation of the event, but the story is fictionalized mostly near the conclusion when they are hiding out at a cabin.
I didn't find this tale particularly interesting. It contains many sound elements of writing, but it kind of carries on with a "so what" attitude. However, I did find the portrayal of John Dillinger to be particularly interesting. He was portrayed as a good man with movie star qualities. That is somewhat different from most pictures that I have had painted of a vicious killer. Other than the somewhat unique portrayal of Johnnie and the odd skill of fly roping, there isn't really anything unique about this story.