Three original press photographs document the aftermath of the FBI ambush of the Brady Gang on Central Street in Bangor, Maine, on the morning of October 12, 1937, one of the most sensational law enforcement actions of the gangster era and a defining moment in FBI history. Al Brady, declared Public Enemy Number One after the death of John Dillinger, was shot and killed on the cobblestone street outside Dakin's Sporting Goods at 25 Central Street along with gang member Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr., while a third gang member, James Dalhover, was captured and later executed. The three photographs together constitute a rare visual record of the event, moving from tight close-up to medium distance to a sweeping elevated view of the crowd-filled street.

The first image is a close-up of Al Brady lying face-up on the cobblestones, his white hat knocked from his head beside him, his dark suit jacket open, taken from street level with a period automobile and bystanders visible behind him. The second image shows both bodies on the trolley tracks at Central Street, with two men in suits standing over Brady's body and a crowd gathered at the right sidewalk in front of Dakin's Sporting Goods sign, clearly legible at right. The third image is an elevated view looking down the full length of Central Street showing hundreds of onlookers lining both sidewalks, both bodies visible in the street, police and FBI agents moving through the scene, and period automobiles stopped in the roadway.

Brady and his gang had traveled to Bangor believing Maine's hunting culture would allow them to acquire weapons including Thompson submachine guns, without detection. Dakin's owner Everett "Shep" Hurd alerted the FBI after becoming suspicious of the gang's purchases, and more than forty federal agents and Bangor police officers were positioned in and around the store when the gang returned on the morning of October 12. FBI agents fired forty-five shots, forty-three of which struck the three gang members. Brady's body went unclaimed and was buried in an unmarked grave at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor.