The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre - Feb 14, 1929 - HISTORY.com The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Share this: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Author The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre URL Publisher A+E Networks Fourmen dressed as police officers enter gangster Bugs Moran’s headquarters on North Clark Street in Chicago, line seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. George “Bugs” Moran was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s. He fought bitterly with “Scarface” Al Capone for control of smuggling and trafficking operations in the Windy City. Throughout the 1920s, both survived several attempted murders. On one notorious occasion, Moran and his associates drovesix cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illionis, where Capone and his associates were having lunch and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets.

A $50,000 bounty on Capone’s head was the final straw for the gangster. He ordered that Moran’s gang be destroyed. On February 14, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at Moran’s headquarters. But Moran was late and happened to see police officers entering his establishment. Moran waited outside, thinking that his gunmen inside were being arrested in a raid. However, the disguised assassins were actually killing the seven men inside. The murdered men included Moran’s best killers, Frank and Pete Gusenberg. Reportedly Frank was still alive when real officers appeared on the scene. When asked who had shot him, the mortally wounded Gusenberg kept his code of silence, responding, “No one, nobody shot me.” The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre actually proved to be the last confrontation for both Capone and Moran. Capone was jailed in 1931 and Moran lost so many important men that he could no longer control his territory. On the seventh anniversary of the massacre, Jack McGurn, one of the Valentine’s Day hit men,was killed him in a crowded bowling alley with a burst of machine-gun fire.

McGurn’s killer remains unidentified, but was likely Moran, though hewas never charged with the murder. Moran was relegated to small-time robberies until he was sent to jail in 1946. He died in Leavenworth Federal Prison in 1957 of lung cancer. Related Videos The St. Valentine's Day Massacre - Chicago Tribune News Nation & World National politics The St. Valentine's Day Massacre On Feb. 14, 1929, seven men were lined up against the wall in a North Side garage and gunned down execution-style. The infamous mob hit became known as the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Five known members of George 'Bugs' Moran's gang, one associate and a garage worker were killed. The hit was allegedly orchestrated by rival mob boss Al Capone, who was conveniently at his Florida home at the time. (Chicago Tribune) John O'BrienTribune staff reporter On this frigid morning, in an unheated brick garage at 2122 N. Clark St., seven men were lined up against a whitewashed wall and pumped with 90 bullets from submachine guns, shotguns and a revolver.

It was the most infamous of all gangland slayings in America, and it savagely achieved its purpose--the elimination of the last challenge to Al Capone for the mantle of crime boss in Chicago. By 1929, Capone's only real threat was George "Bugs" Moran, who headed his own gang and what was left of Dion O'Banion's band of bootleggers. Moran had long despised Capone, mockingly referring to him as "The Beast." At about 10:30 a.m., four men burst into the SMC Cartage Co. garage that Moran used for his illegal business. Two of the men were dressed as police officers. The quartet presumably announced a raid and ordered the seven men inside the garage to line up against a wall. Then they opened fire.

Witnesses, alerted by the rat-a-tat staccato of submachine guns, watched as the gunmen sped off in a black Cadillac touring car that looked like the kind police used, complete with siren, gong and rifle rack.The victims, killed outright or left dying in the garage, included Frank "Hock" Gusenberg, Moran's enforcer, and his brother, Peter "Goosy" Gusenberg. Four of the other victims were Moran gangsters, but the seventh dead man was Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, an optician who cavorted with criminals for thrills. Missing that morning was Capone's prize, Moran, who slept in. Capone missed the excitement too. Vacationing at his retreat at Palm Island, Fla., he had an alibi for his whereabouts and disclaimed knowledge of the coldblooded killings. Few believed him. No one ever went to jail for pulling a trigger in the Clark Street garage, which was demolished in 1967. Although Moran survived the massacre, he was finished as a big criminal. For decades to come, only one mob, that of Capone and his successors, would run organized crime in Chicago.

But the Valentine's Day Massacre shocked a city that had been numbed by "Roaring '20s" gang warfare over control of illegal beer and whiskey distribution. "These murders went out of the comprehension of a civilized city," the Tribune editorialized. "The butchering of seven men by open daylight raises this question for Chicago: Is it helpless?" In the following years, Capone and his henchmen were to become the targets of ambitious prosecutors. St. Valentine's Day Massacre | World History Project St. Valentine's Day Massacre Capone's most notorious killing was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. On February 14, 1929, four Capone men entered a garage at 2122 N. Clark Street. The building was the main liquor headquarters of bootlegger George "Bugs" Moran's North Side gang. Because two of Capone's men were dressed as police, the seven men in the garage thought it was a police raid. As a result, they dropped their guns and put their hands against the wall. Using two shotguns and two machine guns, the Capone men fired more than 150 bullets into the victims.

Six of the seven killed were members of Moran's gang; the seventh was an unlucky friend. Moran, probably the real target, was across the street when Capone's men arrived and stayed away when he saw the police uniforms. As usual, Capone had an alibi; he was in Florida during the massacre. Source: Chicago Historical Society Added by: corey The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is the name given to the death of seven people as part of a Prohibition Era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago, Illinois, in the summer of 1929: the South Side Italian gang led by Al Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. Former members of the Egan's Rats gang were also suspected to have played a large role in the St. Valentine's Day massacre, assisting Capone. The Massacre On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929 St. Valentine's Day, six members of the "Bugs" Moran gang and Reinhardt H. Schwimmer were lined up against the rear inside wall of the garage of the SMC Cartage Company (2122 North Clark Street) in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side.

They were then shot and killed, possibly by members of Capone's gang, possibly by "outside talent" (that is, gangsters from outside the city who would not be known to their victims), most likely by a combination of both. Two of the men were dressed as Chicago police officers, and the others were dressed in long trenchcoats, according to witnesses who saw the "police" leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage (part of the plan). When one of the dying men, Frank Gusenberg, was asked who shot him, he replied, "I'm not gonna talk - nobody shot me" despite having 22 bullet wounds. Capone himself had arranged to be on vacation in Florida. The St. Valentine's Massacre resulted from a plan devised by a member or members of the Capone gang to eliminate the Polish-Irish Bugs Moran, the boss of the North Side Gang, formerly headed up by Dion O'Banion who was murdered nearly five years earlier. Jack McGurn is the person most frequently cited by researchers as a suspected planner.

The massacre was planned by the Capone mob for a number of reasons: in retaliation for an unsuccessful attempt by Frank and his brother Peter Gusenberg to murder Jack McGurn earlier in the year, the North Side Gang's complicity in the murder of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo as well as Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo, and Bugs Moran's muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs. Also, the rivalry between Moran and Capone for control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging business led Capone to plan the hits and the O'Banion's gang demise. The plan was to lure Moran and his men to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street. It is assumed usually that the North Side Gang was lured to the garage with the promise of a cut-rate shipment of bootleg whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang. However, some recent studies dispute this. All seven victims (with the exception of John May) were dressed in their best clothes, hardly suitable for unloading a large shipment of whiskey crates and driving it away. The real reason for the North Siders gathering in the garage may never be known for certain.

A four-man team would then enter the building, two disguised as police officers, and kill Moran and his men. Before Moran and his men arrived, Capone stationed lookouts in the apartments across the street from the warehouse. Wishing to keep the lookouts inconspicuous, Capone had hired two unrecognizable thugs to stand watch in rented rooms across the street from the garage. At around 10:30 a.m. on St. Valentine's Day, four men arrived at the warehouse in two cars: a Cadillac sedan and a Peerless, both outfitted to look like detective sedans. Two men were dressed in police uniforms and two in street clothes. The Moran gang had already arrived at the warehouse. However, Moran himself was not inside. One account states that Moran was supposedly approaching the warehouse, spotted the police car, and fled the scene. Another account was that Moran was simply late getting there. The lookouts allegedly confused one of Moran's men (most likely Albert Weinshank, who was the same height, build and even physically resembled Moran) for Moran himself: he then signaled for the gunmen to enter the warehouse.

The two phony police, carrying shotguns, exited the Peerless and entered the warehouse through the two rear doors. Inside they found members of Moran's gang, a sixth man named Reinhart Schwimmer, who was not actually a gangster but more of a gang "hanger-on", and a seventh man, John May, who was a mechanic fixing one of the cars, and technically not a member of the gang but an occasionally hired mechanic. The killers told the seven men to line up facing the back wall. There was apparently not any resistance, as the Moran men thought their captors were real police, and it was likely a "show" bust merely to garner good press for the police department. Then the two "police officers" let in two men through the front door facing Clark Street. This pair, riding in the Cadillac, were dressed in civilian clothes. Two of the killers started shooting with Thompson sub-machine guns, one containing a 20-round magazine and the other a 50-round drum. All seven men were killed in a volley of seventy machine-gun bullets and two shotgun blasts according to the coroner's report.

To show bystanders that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed cops. The only survivor in the warehouse was John May's German shepherd, Highball. When the real police arrived, they first heard the dog howling. On entering the warehouse, they found the dog trapped under a beer truck and the floor covered with blood, shell casings, and corpses. Photographs of the scene were taken immediately after the shooting by Jun Fujita and published in the Chicago Daily News. The victims The seven men killed that morning were: 1. Peter Gusenberg, a front line enforcer for the Moran organization. 2. Frank Gusenberg, the brother of Peter Gusenberg and also an enforcer. Frank was miraculously still alive when police first arrived on the scene. He died three hours later, saying only, "Nobody shot me." when questioned by the police on the perpetrator 3. Albert Kachellek, alias "James Clark", Moran's second-in-command. 4. Adam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gang. 5.

Reinhart Schwimmer, an optician who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing (unsuccessfully) and associate with the Moran gang. He would, in contemporary parlance, be referred to as a "gang groupie". Though Schwimmer called himself an "optometrist" he was actually an optician (an eyeglass fitter) and he had no medical training. 6. Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran. His physical and even clothing resemblance to Moran is what allegedly set the massacre in motion before Moran actually arrived. 7. John May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang, though not a gang member himself. May had two earlier arrests for safeblowing (no convictions) but was attempting to work legally. However, his desperate need of cash, with a wife and seven children, caused him to accept jobs with the Moran gang as a mechanic. The investigation The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time. At first, it was thought that police may have indeed been responsible for the killings, but 255 detectives were soon cleared. Chicago Police scrambled to figure out who had been responsible.

Since it was common knowledge that Moran was hijacking Capone's Detroit-based liquor shipments, police focused their attention on the Purple Gang. Mug shots of Purple members George Lewis, Eddie Fletcher, Phil Keywell and his kid brother Harry, were picked out by the landlady across the street as the phony roomers. Later, the women who identified them wavered, and, Fletcher, Lewis, and Harry Keywell were all questioned and cleared by Chicago Police. Nevertheless, the Keywell brothers (and by extension the Purple Gang) would remain ensnared in the massacre case for all time. A week after the massacre, a 1927 Cadillac sedan was found disassembled and partially burned in a garage on Wood Street. It was determined that the car was used by the massacre killers. The garage was located two blocks from the Circus Café, which was operated by Claude Maddox, a former St. Louis gangster and member of the Capone mob. Detectives checking leads in St. Louis discovered that former members of the Egan's Rats mob may have played a part. They soon announced they were seeking Fred "Killer" Burke and James Ray as the two uniformed police officers in the garage.

Burke and other members of the mob had been known to use police uniforms to fool their victims. Police also proposed that Joseph Lolordo may have been one of the machine gunners, mostly likely because his brother Pasqualino had recently been murdered by the North Side Gang. Police also announced they suspected Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, as well as Jack McGurn himself, and Frank Rio, a Capone bodyguard. Police eventually charged McGurn and Scalise with the massacre. John Scalise was murdered before he went to trial and the charges against Jack McGurn were downgraded to a violation of the Mann Act, stemming from taking the main witness against him, girlfriend Louise Rolfe (who became known as the "Blonde Alibi"), across state lines to marry. The case stagnated until December 14, 1929, when Berrien County sheriffs raided the St. Joseph, Michigan bungalow of “Frederick Dane”. Dane had been the registered owner of a vehicle driven by Fred "Killer" Burke. Burke had been drinking and rear-ended another vehicle in front of the police station. Officer Charles Skelly ran outside to investigate.

When Burke attempted to drive away, Officer Skelly hopped on the running board and was shot off. He died of his wounds a short time later. When police raided Burke's bungalow, they found a bulletproof vest, bonds recently stolen from a Wisconsin bank, two Thompson submachine guns, pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Both machine guns were determined to have been used in the massacre. Unfortunately, no further concrete evidence would surface in the massacre case. Burke would be captured over a year later on a Missouri farm. As the case against him in the murder of Officer Skelly was strongest, he was tried in Michigan and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Fred Burke died in prison in 1940. Aftermath Public outrage over The St. Valentine's Day Massacre marked the beginning of the end to Moran's power. Although Moran suffered a heavy blow, he still managed to keep control of his territory until the early 1930s, when control passed to the Chicago Outfit under Frank Nitti. The massacre also brought the belated attention of the federal government to bear on Capone and his criminal activities.

In 1931, Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and was imprisoned for 11 years. The massacre ultimately affected both Moran and Capone and left the war they had with each other a stalemate. The massacre did severely cripple the North Side gang, a blow from which they never fully recovered. But the primary target of the massacre, Moran, escaped, and the public and police pressure brought to bear on the Capone organization hampered their operation almost as badly. Though Jack McGurn would beat the massacre charges, he would be murdered himself on February 15, 1936. The two most widely accepted theories credit either Bugs Moran or the Chicago Outfit itself under Frank Nitti with the killing, as McGurn had become a public relations liability to the Outfit. The Bolton revelations On January 8, 1935, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents surrounded a Chicago apartment building at 3920 North Pine Grove, looking for the remaining members of the Barker-Karpis Gang. A brief shootout erupted, resulting in the death of bank robber Russell Gibson. Also taken into custody were Doc Barker, Byron Bolton and two women.

When agents began interrogating the two men, they got nothing of value from Dock Barker, but Bolton (a hitherto obscure criminal) proved to be a “geyser of information” as one crime historian put it. A former Navy machine gunner and member of the old Egan’s Rats gang, Bolton had for years been the valet and sidekick of a slick Chicago hit man named Fred Goetz, who was also known as “Shotgun George” Ziegler. Byron had been party to many of the Barker Gang’s crimes, and even pinpointed the Florida hideout of Ma and Freddie Barker (who were killed in a shootout with the FBI a week later). Bolton kept on talking, and to the agents’ surprise, claimed to have taken part in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre with his pal Goetz, Fred Burke, and several others. The FBI (having no jurisdiction in a state murder case) attempted to keep Bolton’s revelations confidential, until the Chicago American newspaper somehow got their hands on a second-hand version of the bank robber’s confession. The newspaper declared that the crime had been “solved”, despite being stonewalled by J.

Edgar Hoover and the Bureau, who did not want any part of the massacre case. Garbled versions of Bolton’s story went out in the national media. Pieced together, his tale went like this: Bolton claimed that the murder of Bugs Moran had been plotted in “October or November” 1928 at a Couderay, Wisconsin resort owned by Fred Goetz. Present at this meet were Goetz, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Fred Burke, Gus Winkeler, Louis Campagna, Daniel Serritella, and William Pacelli. The men stayed two or three weeks, hunting and fishing when they weren’t planning the murder of their rival. Byron Bolton claimed he and Jimmy Moran (or Morand) were charged with watching the S.M.C. Cartage garage and phoning the signal to the killers at the Circus Café when Moran arrived at the meet. Police had indeed found a letter addressed to Bolton in the lookout nest (and possibly a vial of prescription medicine.) Bolton guessed that the actual killers had been Burke, Winkeler, Goetz, Bob Carey, Raymond Nugent, and Claude Maddox (four shooters and two getaway drivers).

Bolton gave an account of the massacre different from the one generally told by historians. He claimed that he saw only “plainclothes” men exit the Cadillac and go into the garage. This indicates that a second car was used by the killers. One witness, George Brichet, claimed to have seen at least two uniformed men exiting a car in the alley and entering the garage through its rear doors. A Peerless sedan had been found near a Maywood house owned by Claude Maddox in the days after the massacre, and in one of the pockets was an address book belonging to victim Albert Weinshank. Bolton’s mistake was when he mistook one of Moran’s men for the man himself, after which he telephoned the signal to the Circus Café. When the killers (who had expected to kill Moran and maybe two or three of his men) were unexpectedly confronted with seven men, they simply decided to kill them all and get out fast. Bolton claimed that Capone was furious with him for his mistake (and the resulting police pressure) and threatened to kill him, only to be dissuaded by Fred Goetz.

His claims were corroborated by Gus Winkeler’s widow Georgette, in both an official FBI statement and her memoirs, which were published in a four-part series in a true detective magazine during the winter of 1935-36. Mrs. Winkeler revealed that her husband and his pals had formed a special crew used by Capone for high-risk jobs. The mob boss was said to have trusted them implicitly and nicknamed them the “American Boys”. Byron Bolton’s statements were also backed up by William Drury, a maverick Chicago detective who had stayed on the massacre case long after everyone else had given up. Bank robber Alvin Karpis later claimed to have heard second-hand from Ray Nugent about the massacre and that the “American Boys” were paid a collective salary of $2,000 a week plus bonuses. Karpis also claimed that Capone himself told him while they were in Alcatraz together that Goetz had been the actual planner of the massacre. Despite Byron Bolton’s statements, no action was taken by the FBI. All the men he named, with the exceptions of Burke and Maddox, were all dead by 1935.

Bank robber Harvey Bailey would later complain in his 1973 autobiography that he and Fred Burke had been drinking beer in Calumet City at the time of the massacre, and the resulting heat forced them to abandon their bank robbing ventures. Claude Maddox was questioned fruitlessly by Chicago Police, and there the matter lay. Crime historians are still divided on whether or not the “American Boys” committed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Other suspects Over the years, many mobsters, in and out of Chicago, would be named as part of the Valentine's Day hit team. Two prime suspects are Capone hit men John Scalise and Albert Anselmi; both men were lethal killers and are frequently mentioned as possibilities for two of the shooters. In the days after the massacre, Scalise was heard to brag, “I am the most powerful man in Chicago.” He had recently been elevated to the position of vice-president in the Unione Siciliana by its president, Joseph Guinta. Nevertheless, Scalise, Anselmi, and Guinta would be found dead on a lonely road near Hammond, Indiana on May 8, 1929.

Gangland lore has it that Al Capone had discovered that the pair was planning on betraying him. At the climax of a dinner party thrown in their honor, Capone produced a baseball bat and beat the trio to death. One recent addition to the roll of suspects is Tony Accardo, then a twenty-two year old gangster and driver for Jack McGurn. Many years later, Accardo would boast to his fellow gangsters that he had taken part (FBI agent William Roemer overheard him on a wiretap.) Most historians believe that while Accardo may have played a peripheral role in the murders, he was probably not one of the actual shooters. Another suspect was future mob boss Sam Giancana, then a twenty-year old member of the 42 Gang. Giancana was arrested in the days after the massacre on a charge of general investigation, and most familiar with the case don’t believe he played a major role. New York mob informant Dominick Montiglio would later claim in the book Murder Machine that his uncle Anthony 'Nino' Gaggi, intimated that his uncle Frank Scalise had been one of the killers in the massacre.

While not likely, this shows how the massacre continues to capitivate people to this day. Some people today speculate that perhaps Capone really was innocent after all. Maybe it was a bunch of crooked cops or an internal beef amongst the Moran Gang. One historian suspects a bunch of "hillbilly gangsters."[citation needed] The true identities of the shooters may never be known with certainty. The murder weapons The two Thompson submachine guns (serial numbers 2347 and 7580) found in Fred Dane’s (an alias for Fred Burke) Michigan bungalow were personally driven to the Chicago coroner’s office by the Berrien County DA. Ballistic expert Calvin Goddard tested the weapons and determined that both had been used in the massacre. One of them had also been used in the murder of Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale, which confirmed the NYPD’s long-held theory that Burke, and by extension Al Capone, had been responsible for Yale's death. Gun No. 2347 had been originally purchased on November 12, 1924 by Les Farmer, a deputy sheriff in Marion, Illinois, which happened to be the seat of Williamson County.

Marion and the surrounding area were then overrun by the warring bootleg factions of the Shelton brothers and Charlie Birger. Deputy Farmer was documented as having ties with the Egan’s Rats gang, based 100 miles away in St. Louis. By the beginning of 1927 at the very latest, the weapon had wound up in Fred Burke’s possession. It’s possible he used this same Tommygun in Detroit’s Milaflores Massacre on March 28, 1927. Gun No. 7580 had been sold by Chicago sporting goods owner Peter von Frantzius to a Victor Thompson (aka Frank V. Thompson) in the care of the Fox Hotel of Elgin, Illinois. Some time after the purchase the machine gun wound up with James "Bozo" Shupe, a small-time hood from Chicago’s West Side who had ties to various members of Capone’s Outfit. Both submachine guns are currently in the possession of the Allegan County Police. The crime scene and bricks from the murder wall The garage, which stood at 2122 N.

Clark Street, was demolished in 1967; the site is now a landscaped parking lot for a nursing home. There is still controversy over the actual bricks used to build the north inside wall of the building where the mobsters were lined up and shot. They were claimed to be responsible, according to stories, for bringing financial ruin, illness, bad luck and death to anyone who bought them. The bricks from the bullet-marked inside North wall were purchased and saved by Canadian businessman George Patey in 1967. His original intention was to use it in a restaurant that he represented, but the restaurant's owner didn't go for the idea. Patey ended up buying the bricks himself, outbidding three or four others. Patey had the wall painstakingly taken apart and had each of the 414 bricks numbered, then shipped them back to Canada. There are various different reports about what George Patey did with the bricks after he got them. In 1978, Time Magazine reported that Patey reassembled the wall and put it on display in a wax museum with gun-wielding gangsters shooting each other in front of it to the accompaniment of recorded bangs.

The wax museum later went bankrupt. Another source, an independent newspaper in the UK, reported in February 2000 that the wall toured shopping malls and exhibitions in the United States for a couple of decades. In 1968 Patey stopped exhibiting the bricks and put them into retirement. Patey opened a nightclub called the Banjo Palace in 1971. It had a Roaring Twenties theme. The famous bricks were installed inside the men's washroom with Plexiglas placed right in front of it to shield it, so that patrons could urinate and try to hit the targets painted on the Plexiglas. In a 2001 interview with an Argentinian journalist, Patey said, "I had the most popular club in the city. People came from high society and entertainment, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum." The bricks were placed in storage until 1997 when Patey tried to auction them off on a website called Jet Set On The Net. The deal fell through after a hard time with the auction company. In 1999, Patey tried to sell them brick by brick on his own website.

The last known substantial offer for the entire wall was made by a Las Vegas casino but Patey refused the $175,000 offer. Patey died on December 26, 2004, having never revealed how much he paid to buy the bricks at auction. St. Valentines Day Massacre St. Valentines Day Massacre Updated February 29, 2016. What Was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre? Around 10:30 a.m. on St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1929, seven members of Bugs Moran's gang were gunned down in cold blood in a garage in Chicago. The massacre, orchestrated by Al Capone , shocked the nation by its brutality. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre remains the most notorious gangster killing of the Prohibition era. The massacre not only made Al Capone a national celebrity, it also brought Capone the unwanted attention of the federal government. The Dead: Frank Gusenberg, Pete Gusenberg, John May, Albert Weinshank, James Clark, Adam Heyer, and Dr.

Reinhart Schwimmer Rival Gangs: Capone vs. Moran During the Prohibition era, gangsters ruled many of the large cities, becoming rich from owning speakeasies, breweries, brothels, and gambling joints. These gangsters would carve up a city between rival gangs, bribe local officials, and become local celebrities. By the late 1920s, Chicago was split between two rival gangs: one led by Al Capone and the other by George "Bugs" Moran . continue reading below our video The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Capone and Moran vied for power, prestige, and money; plus, both tried for years to kill each other. In early 1929, Al Capone was living in Miami with his family (to escape Chicago's brutal winter) when his associate Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn visited him. McGurn, who had recently survived an assassination attempt ordered by Moran, wanted to discuss the ongoing problem of Moran's gang. In an attempt to eliminate the Moran gang entirely, Capone agreed to fund an assassination attempt and McGurn was placed in charge of organizing it. The Plan McGurn planned carefully.

He located the Moran gang's headquarters, which was in a large garage behind the offices of S.M.C. Cartage Company at 2122 North Clark Street. He selected gunmen from outside the Chicago area, to ensure that if there were any survivors, they would not be able to recognize the killers as part of Capone's gang. McGurn hired lookouts and set them up in an apartment near the garage. Also essential to the plan, McGurn acquired a stolen police car and two police uniforms. Setting Up Moran With the plan organized and the killers hired, it was time to set the trap. McGurn instructed a local booze hijacker to contact Moran on February 13. The hijacker was to tell Moran that he had obtained a shipment of Old Log Cabin whiskey (i.e. very good liquor) that he was willing to sell at the very reasonable price of $57 per case. Moran quickly agreed and told the hijacker to meet him at the garage at 10:30 the following morning. The Ruse Worked On the morning of February 14, 1929, the lookouts (Harry and Phil Keywell) were watching carefully as the Moran gang assembled at the garage.

Around 10:30 a.m., the lookouts recognized a man heading to the garage as Bugs Moran. The lookouts told the gunmen, who then climbed into the stolen police car. When the stolen police car reached the garage, the four gunmen ( Fred "Killer" Burke , John Scalise, Albert Anselmi, and Joseph Lolordo) jumped out. (Some reports say there were five gunmen.) Two of the gunmen were dressed in police uniforms. When the gunmen rushed into the garage, the seven men inside saw the uniforms and thought it was a routine police raid. Continuing to believe the gunmen to be police officers, all seven men peacefully did as they were told. They lined up, faced the wall, and allowed the gunmen to remove their weapons. Opened Fire With Machine Guns The gunmen then opened fire, using two Tommy guns , a sawed-off shotgun, and a .45. The killing was fast and bloody. Each of the seven victims received at least 15 bullets, mostly in the head and torso. The gunmen then left the garage.

As they exited, neighbors who had heard the rat-tat-tat of the submachine gun, looked out their windows and saw two (or three, depending on reports) policemen walking behind two men dressed in civilian clothes with their hands up. The neighbors assumed that the police had staged a raid and were arresting two men. After the massacre was discovered, many continued to believe for several weeks that the police were responsible. Moran Escaped Harm Six of the victims died in the garage; Frank Gusenberg was taken to a hospital but died three hours later, refusing to name who was responsible. Though the plan had been carefully crafted, one major problem occurred. The man that the lookouts had identified as Moran was really Albert Weinshank. Bugs Moran, the main target for the assassination, was arriving a couple minutes late to the 10:30 a.m. meeting when he noticed a police car outside the garage. Thinking it was a police raid, Moran stayed away from the building, unknowingly saving his life. The Blonde Alibi The massacre that took seven lives that St. Valentine's Day in 1929 made newspaper headlines across the country. The country was shocked at the brutality of the killings.

Police tried desperately to determine who was responsible. Al Capone had an air-tight alibi because he had been called in for questioning by the Dade County solicitor in Miami during the time of the massacre. Machine Gun McGurn had what became called a "blonde alibi" -- he had been at a hotel with his blonde girlfriend from 9 p.m. on February 13 through 3 p.m. on February 14. Fred Burke (one of the gunmen) was arrested by police in March 1931 but was charged with the December 1929 murder of a police officer and sentenced to life in prison for that crime. The Aftermath of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre This was one of the first major crimes that the science of ballistics was used; however no one was ever tried or convicted for the murders of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Though the police never had enough evidence to convict Al Capone, the public knew he was responsible. In addition to making Capone a national celebrity, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre brought Capone to the attention of the federal government.

Ultimately, Capone was arrested for tax evasion in 1931 and sent to Alcatraz. With Capone in jail, Machine Gun McGurn was left exposed. On February 15, 1936, nearly seven years to the day of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, McGurn was gunned down at a bowling alley. Bugs Moran was quite shaken from the entire incident. He stayed in Chicago until the end of Prohibition and then was arrested in 1946 for some small-time bank robberies. He died in prison from lung cancer. St. Valentine’s Day Massacre - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com St. Valentine’s Day Massacre St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Author St. Valentine’s Day Massacre URL A+E Networks Introduction Gang warfare ruled the streets of Chicago during the late 1920s, as chief gangster Al Capone sought to consolidate control by eliminating his rivals in the illegal trades of bootlegging, gambling and prostitution.

This rash of gang violence reached its bloody climax in a garage on the city’s North Side on February 14, 1929, when seven men associated with the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran, one of Capone’s longtime enemies, were shot to death by several men dressed as policemen. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it was known, was never officially linked to Capone, but he was generally considered to have been responsible for the murders. Google The Rise of Scarface From 1924 to 1930, the city of Chicago gained a widespread reputation for lawlessness and violence. Not coincidentally, this phenomenon coincided with the reign of chief crime lord Al “Scarface” Capone, who took over from his boss Johnny Torrio in 1925.

(Torrio, who was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in 1924, had “retired” to Brooklyn.) Prohibition , ushered in by the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1920, had greatly increased the earnings of America’s gangsters through bootlegging (the illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol) and speakeasies (illicit drinking establishments), as well as gambling and prostitution. Capone’s income from these activities was estimated at some $60 million a year; his net worth in 1927 was around $100 million. Did You Know? George "Bugs" Moran was on his way to the garage in Chicago at the time of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre; he missed getting killed by minutes. A few days later, he told reporters "Only Capone kills like that." Reached at his Florida home for comment on the murders, Capone offered his own opinion: "The only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran." Over the years, Capone consolidated control over most of Chicago’s crime rackets by ruthlessly gunning down his rivals.

In 1924, authorities counted some 16 gang-related murders; this brand of continued until 1929, reaching a high of 64 murders in one year during that time. Federal authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had much less jurisdiction than they have today, and did not include Chicago’s gang-related activity. Massacre on St. Valentine’s Day Chicago’s gang war reached its bloody climax in the so-called St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. One of Capone’s longtime enemies, the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran, ran his bootlegging operations out of a garage on the North Side of Chicago. On February 14, seven members of Moran’s operation were gunned down while standing lined up, facing the wall of the garage. Some 70 rounds of ammunition were fired. When police officers from Chicago’s 36th District arrived, they found one gang member, Frank Gusenberg, barely alive. In the few minutes before he died, they pressed him to reveal what had happened, but Gusenberg wouldn’t talk.

Police could find only a few eyewitnesses, but eventually concluded that gunmen dressed as police officers had entered the garage and pretended to be arresting the men. Though Moran and others immediately blamed the massacre on Capone’s gang, the famous gangster himself claimed to have been at his home in Florida at the time. No one was ever brought to trial for the murders. The Downfall of Public Enemy No. 1 Though the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Capone’s rule in Chicago, it can also be said to have marked the beginning of his downfall. With his highly effective organization, his impressive income and his willingness to ruthlessly eliminate his rivals, Capone had become the country’s most notorious gangster, and the newspapers dubbed him “Public Enemy No. 1.” Federal authorities began investigating Capone after he failed to appear before a federal grand jury after being subpoenaed in March 1929. When he finally appeared and testified, federal agents arrested him for contempt of court. Capone posted bond and was released, only to be arrested in Philadelphia that May on charges of carrying concealed weapons. Capone served nine months in prison and was released for good behavior.

In February 1931, a federal court found Capone guilty on the contempt charge and sentenced him to six months in Cook County Jail. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had launched an investigation of Capone for income tax evasion. Through diligent forensic accounting, Special Agent Frank Wilson and other members of the Intelligence Unit of the Internal Revenue Service were able to put together a case, and in June 1931 Capone was indicted for evasion of federal income tax. Convicted that October after an internationally publicized trial, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison, first in Atlanta and later at Alcatraz . He was released in 1939 and died an invalid recluse at his Florida home in 1947. Tags St. Valentine's Day massacre -- Chicago Tribune St. Valentine's Day massacre Nov. 25, 2012 On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929, St. Valentine's Day, seven mob associates were lined up against the rear inside wall of the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side, and executed.

The victims of a conflict between the South Side Italian gang led by Al Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. The murders were committed by Al Capone and his men who orchestrated a complex ruse to lure Bugs Moran to the warehouse for his assassination. Moran was running late that morning and fled the scene when he saw a police car (a fake, part of the ruse) approach the building. Next ▶ Seven were gunned down in the St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929, a hit believed ordered by Al Capone in an attempt to wipe out rival George "Bugs" Moran. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Onlookers watch police remove the bodies from the garage on North Clark Street. Seven men were lined up and riddled with bullets to eliminate the last challenge to Al Capone on February 14, 1929. The St. Valentine's Day shootings shocked a populace that had grown numb to gangland killings. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo A crowd outside the North Clark Street garage, owned by George "Bugs" Moran, where the St.

Valentine's Day massacre took place on Feb. 14, 1929. Seven were murdered in conflict between gangs during Prohibition. Al Capone is believed to have orchestrated the event. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Curious spectators and friends and family of the dead at the scene of the St. Valentine's Day massacre to identify the victims, Feb. 14, 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ The funeral of Frank and Peter Gusenberg on February 19, 1929, killed during the St. Valentine's Day massacre. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Mrs. Josephine Schwimmer leaving chapel at the funeral for her son, Reinhardt Schwimmer, February 28, 1929, who was killed during the St. Valentine's Day massacre. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Jurors witness a reenactment of the St. Valentine's Day massacre of 1929 in this undated photo.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ The body of Albert Kachellek "James Clark" is removed from the Cook County morgue on February 15, 1929. He was murdered in the St. Valentine's Day massacre. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo A coroner and Major Goddard (Colonel Calvin Hooker Goddard) look over Thompson submachine guns on April 20, 1929. The guns were believed to have been used in the Clark Street St. Valentine's Day massacre. Goddard established that Tommy guns were used in the massacre and that they were not police Tommy guns. His work on the massacre led to establishment of the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory at Northwestern. A sidenote, Major Goddard was later promoted to Colonel in the Army and went by Colonel Goddard in the 1930s. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Coroners jury on the St. Valentine's Day massacre inquest, April 15, 1929.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ An early booking mug for Joseph Aiello, whose feud with Al Capone and Antonio Lombardo was the source of many mob hits in the 1920s, including the St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Coroners jury at the inquest for the St. Valentine's Day massacre, February 19, 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Chief Shoemaker shows four submachine guns at the inquest for the St. Valentine's Day massacre April 20, 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Mrs. Frank Gusenberg, widow of the gangster slain in the St. Valentine's Day massacre, was to present letters of administration to a loop bank and obtain $100,000 or more by Liberty Bonds kept in a safety deposit box by the dead man. She is shown with an escort who refused to give his name February 21, 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Mrs.

Myrtle Gorman, center, of 434 Roscoe St., Common-law wife of Peter Gusenberg, who was murdered when rival gangsters mowed him and six companions down in a North Clark Street garage. Mrs Gorman denied all knowledge of Gusenberg's activities. Mrs. Gorman is leaving Gusenberg's inquest, February 19, 1929. The murders were known as the St. Valentine's Day massacre. (Caption as it appeared in the newspaper) — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous St. Valentine's Day Massacre -- Chicago Tribune St. Valentine's Day Massacre Feb. 13, 2016 On Feb. 14, 1929, seven men were lined up against the wall in a North Side garage and gunned down execution-style. The infamous mob hit became known as the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Five known members of George 'Bugs' Moran's gang, one associate and a garage worker were killed. The hit was allegedly orchestrated by rival mob boss Al Capone, who was conveniently at his Florida home at the time. Next ▶ Link to this photo The bodies of six of the seven men slain on Feb.

14, 1929, in the S. M. C. Cartage Company garage at 2122 N. Clark St. on Chicago's North Side in what became known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, sprawl on a floor and a chair. Several of the dead were members of a North Side gang run by George "Bugs" Moran, who had a rivalry with Al Capone and his gang. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ The body of one of the seven victims is placed in an ambulance with Coroner Herman M. Bundesen, center, in attendance after the mass shooting occurred. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ A crowd gathers in the alley behind 2122 N. Clark St., as police remove the victims of the St. Valentine's Day massacre. — Chicago Tribune historical photo, Jan. 28, 2004 ◀ Previous Next ▶ A crowd outside the Clark Street garage, owned by George "Bugs" Moran, where the St. Valentine's Day massacre took place on Feb. 14, 1929.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo Mrs. Alphonsine Morin, who lived across the street from the garage, was one of two witnesses who saw the assassins leave the garage after the massacre. According to the Chicago Tribune, Morin saw two men who looked like policemen coming out of the garage after hearing the shooting. Both Morin and the other witness, Mrs. Jeanette Landesman, received a letter six days later advising them to "keep your mouth shut." Morin, seen here circa February 1929, left town the minute she received the letter. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo The body of Albert Kachellek, aka "James Clark", is removed from the county morgue on Feb. 15, 1929. Clark was the brother-in-law of gang leader George "Bugs" Moran and was said to have the reputation of a hardened killer. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Curious spectators and friends and family of the dead rush to the scene of the St. Valentine's Day massacre to identify the victims.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo The coroners jury, led by Coroner Herman N. Bundesen, left, at the inquest for the Clark Street St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Feb. 15, 1929. The coroner said 20 to 25 bullets were found in each of the seven bodies. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo Mrs. Josephine Schwimmer, the mother of murdered Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, 29, at an inquest for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Feb. 15, 1929 at the Hudson Avenue police station in Chicago. Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer was the only one of the seven men killed who was not in the George "Bugs" Moran gang. The Chicago Tribune noted that Schwimmer was an optometrist with a hoodlum complex, who liked to associate with gangsters. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo Capt. William 'Shoes' Schoemaker shows four machine guns at the inquest for the St.

Valentine's Day Massacre on April 19, 1929. Coroner Bundesen had summoned all firearm dealers in the area who had been known to sell machine guns to the coroner's jury in Chicago. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ The coroner jurors watch a re-enactment of the St. Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo On April 19, 1929, Coroner Herman N. Bundesen, right, and Lt. Col. C. H. Goddard look over machine guns believed to be used in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Coroner Bundesen had summoned all firearm dealers in the area who had been known to sell machine guns to the coroner's jury in Chicago. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ During the prohibition era, Al Capone controlled Chicago's underworld with dozens of murders attributed to him and his gang, including the St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929. — Chicago Tribune ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo Mrs.

Myrtle Gorman, center, of 434 Roscoe Street, was the wife of Peter Gusenberg, a gang leader for George "Bugs" Moran. Gusenberg, 40, was murdered when during the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Mrs. Gorman denied all knowledge of her husbands activities, leaves the courthouse after the coroner's inquest. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo The funeral for gangster brothers Frank and Peter Gusenberg was held on Feb. 18, 1929, and was packed with floral arrangments, including one heart believed to be sent from gang leader George "Bugs" Moran. The brothers were leaders in the Bugs Moran gang. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Link to this photo Mrs. Josephine Schwimmer (with handkerchief), the mother of Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, leaves the chapel at the funeral for her son on Feb. 18, 1929. Schwimmer, an optometrist with a hoodlum complex, was one of the seven men killed during the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on Feb.

14, 1929. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE The legendary S-M-C Cartage Co. at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago. For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse that was located at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place..... the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The bloody events of February 14, 1929 began nearly five years before with the murder of Dion O’Banion, the leader of Chicago’s north side mob.

At that time, control of bootleg liquor in the city raged back and forth between the North Siders, run by O’Banion, and the south side Outfit, which was controlled by Johnny Torrio and his henchman, Al Capone. In November 1924, Torrio ordered the assassination of O’Banion and started an all-out war in the city. The North Siders retaliated soon afterward and nearly killed Torrio outside of his home. This brush with death led to him leaving the city and turning over operations to Capone, who was almost killed himself in September 1926. The following month, Capone shooters assassinated Hymie Weiss, who had been running the north side mob after the death of O’Banion. His murder left the operation in the hands of George “Bugs” Moran, a long-time enemy of Capone. For the most part, Moran stood alone against the Capone mob, since most of his allies had succumbed in the fighting. He continued to taunt his powerful enemy and looked for ways to destroy him. In early 1929, Moran sided with Joe Aiello in another attack against Capone.

He and Aiello reportedly gunned down Pasquillano Lolordo, one of Capone’s men, and Capone vowed that he would have him wiped out on February 14. He was living on his estate outside of Miami at the time and put in a call to Chicago. Capone had a very special “valentine” that we wanted delivered to Moran. Visit Our Sponsor & Find a variety of gangster costumes for this Halloween at Gangster Costumes . For the Complete Story of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Beer Wars in Chicago & Al Capone, see Troy Taylor's Dead Men Do Tell Tales Series! Dead Men Do Tell Tales Bloody Chicago Weird Chicago Al Capone Through a contact in Detroit, Capone arranged for someone to call Moran and tell him that a special shipment of hijacked whiskey was going to be delivered to one of Moran’s garages on the north side. Adam Heyer, a friend of Moran, owned the garage and it was used as a distribution point for north side liquor. A sign on the front of the building at 2122 North Clark Street read “S-M-C Cartage Co. Shipping - Packing - Long Distance Hauling”.

Moran received the call at the garage on the morning of February 13 and he arranged to be there to meet the truck the next day. On the morning of February 14, a group of Moran’s men gathered at the Clark Street garage. One of the men was Johnny May, an ex-safecracker who had been hired by Moran as an auto mechanic. He was working on a truck that morning, with his dog, a German Shepherd named Highball, tied to the bumper. In addition, six other men waited for the truck of hijacked whiskey to arrive. The men were Frank and Pete Gusenberg, who were supposed to meet Moran and pick up two empty trucks to drive to Detroit and pick up smuggled Canadian whiskey; James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law; Adam Heyer; Al Weinshank; and Reinhardt Schwimmer, a young optometrist who had befriended Moran and hung around the liquor warehouse just for the thrill of rubbing shoulders with gangsters. George "Bugs" Moran George Moran was already late for the morning meeting.

He was due to arrive at 10:30 but didn't even leave for the rendezvous, in the company of Willie Marks and Ted Newberry, until several minutes after that. As the seven men waited inside of the warehouse, they had no idea that a police car had pulled up outside, or that Moran had spotted the car as he was driving south on Clark Street and rather than deal with what he believed was a shakedown, stopped at the next corner for a cup of coffee. Five men got out of the police car, two of them in uniforms and three in civilian clothing. They entered the building and a few moments later, the clatter of machine gun fire broke the stillness of the snowy morning. Soon after, five figures emerged and they drove away. May's dog, inside of the warehouse, began barking and howling. The landlady in the next building, Mrs. Jeanette Landesman, was bothered by the sound of the dog and she sent one of her boarders, C.L. McAllister, to the garage to see what was going on. He came outside two minutes later, his face a pale white color. He ran frantically up the stairs to beg Mrs.

Landesman to call the police. He cried that the garage was full of dead men! The police were quickly summoned and on entering the garage, were stunned by the carnage. Moran's men had been lined up against the rear wall of the garage and had been sprayed with machine-guns. Pete Gusenberg had died kneeling, slumped over a chair. James Clark had fallen on his face with half of his head blown away and Heyer, Schwimmer, Weinshank and May were thrown lifeless onto their backs. Only one of the men survived the slaughter and he lived for only a few hours. Frank Gusenberg had crawled from the blood-sprayed wall where he had fallen and dragged himself into the middle of the dirty floor. He was rushed to the Alexian Brothers Hospital, barely hanging on. Police sergeant Clarence Sweeney, who had grown up on the same street as Gusenberg, leaned down close to Frank and asked who had shot him. “No one --- nobody shot me,” he groaned and he died later that night. The death toll of the massacre stood at seven but the killers had missed Moran. When the police contacted him later and told him what had happened at the garage, he “raved like a madman”.

To the newspapers, Moran targeted Capone as ordering the hit. The authorities claimed to be baffled though, since Capone was in Florida at the time of the massacre. When he was asked to comment on the news, Capone stated, "the only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran". At the same time, Moran was proclaiming that "only Capone kills guys like that". And Moran was undoubtedly right. The murders broke the power of the north side gang and while there have been many claims as to who the actual shooters were that day, most likely they included John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, all of whom were some of Capone's most trusted men. All three men, along with Joseph Guinta, were arrested but McGurn had an alibi and Scalise and Guinta were killed before they could be tried. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Capone but it was also the act that finally began the decline of Capone’s criminal empire. He had just gone too far and the authorities, and even Capone's adoring public, were ready to put an end to the bootleg wars.

Perhaps the strangest bit of history in regards to the massacre involved the fact that Capone had not seen the last of one of the men killed on that fateful day. In May 1929, Capone slipped out of town to avoid the heat that was still coming down from the massacre and to avoid being suspected in the deaths of several of the men believed responsible for the killing of the Moran gang. While in Philadelphia, he and his bodyguard, Frankie Rio, were picked up on charges of carrying concealed weapons and were sentenced to a year in prison. They eventually ended up in the Eastern State Penitentiary. Capone continued to conduct business from prison. He was given a private cell and allowed to make long-distance telephone calls from the warden’s office and to meet with his lawyers and with Frank Nitti, Jake Guzik and his brother, Ralph, all of whom made frequent trips to Philadelphia. He was released two months early on good behavior and when he returned to Chicago, he found himself branded “Public Enemy Number One”. It was while he was incarcerated in Pennsylvania that Capone first began to be haunted by the ghost of James Clark, one of the massacre victims and the brother-in-law of George Moran.

While in prison, other inmates reported that they could hear Capone screaming in his cell, begging “Jimmy” to go away and leave him alone. After Capone returned to Chicago, he took up residence at the Lexington Hotel and while here, would report his most frequent encounters with the ghost. While living at the Lexington Hotel, there were many times when Capone’s men would hear from begging for the specter to leave him in peace. On several occasions, bodyguards broke into his rooms, fearing that someone had gotten to their boss. Capone would then tell them of Clark’s ghost. Whether the ghost was real or not, Capone certainly believed that he was. The crime boss even went so far as to contact a psychic named Alice Britt to get rid of Clark’s angry spirit. Not long after a sï¿½ance was conducted to try and rid Capone of the vengeful spirit, Hymie Cornish, Capone’s personal valet also believed that he saw the ghost. He entered the lounge of Capone’s apartment and spotted a tall man standing near the window. He demanded to know the man’s identity but the shadowy figure slipped behind a curtain and out of sight.

Cornish immediately summoned two of his employer’s bodyguards but a search of the room revealed there was no one there but Al Capone, who continued to insist the figure had been Jimmy Clark. Years later, Capone would also insist that Jimmy Clark followed him to the grave. Canadian George Patey with bricks from the wall of the garage where the massacre took place Chicago, in its own style, memorialized the warehouse on Clark Street. The place became a tourist attraction and the newspapers even printed the photos of the corpses upside-down so that readers would not have to turn their papers around to identify the bodies. In 1949, the front portion of the S-M-G Garage was turned into an antique furniture storage business by a couple who had no idea of the building's bloody past. They soon found that the place was visited much more by tourists and curiosity-seekers than by customers and eventually closed the business. In 1967, the building was demolished. However, the bricks from the bullet-marked rear wall were purchased and saved by a Canadian businessman. In 1972, he opened a night club with a Roaring 20's theme and rebuilt the wall, for some strange reason, in the men's restroom.

Three nights each week, women were allowed to peek inside at this macabre attraction. One of the bricks from the massacre, authenticated to be from the wall where the murders occurred. Over the years, other bricks have turned up that were allegedly taken from the warehouse. According to stories, they are cursed! The club continued to operate for a few years and when it closed the owner placed the 417 bricks into storage. He then offered them for sale with a written account of the massacre. He sold the bricks for $1000 each, but soon found that he was getting back as many as he sold. It seemed that anyone who bought one of the bricks was suddenly stricken with bad luck in the form of illness, financial ruin, divorce and even death. According to the stories, the bricks themselves had somehow been infested with the powerful negative energy of the massacre! Whatever became of the rest of the bricks is unknown. Or that's what the legend says.... In recent years, other bricks have emerged that claim to have come from the wall. These were not bricks purchased from Patey but were smuggled out of the lot by construction workers and curiosity-seekers.

It was said that from these bricks come the legends of misfortune and bad luck. Are these bricks authentic? The owners say they are -- but you'll have to judge for yourself! Whatever the legend of the bricks themselves and whether or not they have somehow been "haunted" by what happened, there is little doubt about the site on Clark Street itself. Even today, people walking along the street at night have reported the sounds of screams and machine guns as they pass the site. The building is long gone but the area is marked as a fenced-off lawn that belongs to the nearby nursing home. Five trees are scattered along the place in a line and the one in the middle marks the location where the rear wall once stood. Passerby often report these strange sounds and the indescribable feeling of fear as they walk past. Those who are accompanied by dogs report their share of strangeness too.... Animals appear to be especially bothered by this piece of lawn, sometimes barking and howling, sometimes whining in fear. Their sense of what happened here many years ago seems to be much greater than our own.

Question: Whose gang were the victims of the St Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929?
Answer: Bugs Moran