The Death of Jack Hamilton

The Death of Jack Hamilton is a Stephen King short story first published in The New Yorker (December 24/31, 2001) and later collected in Everything’s Eventual. Told from the perspective of gangster Homer Van Meter, the story recounts the slow, painful death of John Dillinger associate Jack Hamilton following the Little Bohemia shootout. Blending historical crime fiction with King’s trademark character detail, it offers a gritty, human look at the final days of one of America’s most notorious outlaws and the brutal realities of Depression-era gangster life.