St. Valentine's day massacre

There is little doubt that the most powerful person in Chicago during the 1920s was mobster Al Capone. He was the leader of the famous South Siders gang and systematically began wiping out the leaders of other gangs and taking over their territories.

The north side of Chicago had originally been under the control of O’Banion. His execution while arranging flowers in his flower shop for a gangland funeral touched off a vicious cycle of gang feuding between the North Siders and South Siders.

While Malone was never a real threat to Capone, he was a thorn in his side. Wiess took pleasure in finding out about Capone’s liquor shipments and then hijacking them. He built a brewery and cut prices to undermine Capone’s business a little more. Then he offered to sell the brewery and retire if Johnny Torrio, Capone’s mentor, would buy it for half a million dollars. Torrio went to the meeting place, paid the money not knowing that Wiess had made a deal with the local police. As soon as Malone had his cash in hand, he left the building, which was the signal for the police to move in.

While Malone took off with his money, Torrio was taken to jail on charges of violating the Volstead act. The brewery was confiscated, equipment destroyed and Torrio and Capone had nothing to show for it. Shortly after this Malone put out a hit on Torrio but the old man miraculously survived.

One of the top men in Capone’s organization was Jack McGurn. It was by his hand so many of Capone’s enemies were eliminated. Acting (supposedly) without Capone’s permission, McGurn orchestrated the gangland hit that would go down in history as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

McGurn’s plan was perfect. He had already gained the trust of Moran’s group by making a liquor transaction using someone Moran’s gang didn’t know as a front man. Once the deal was completed, trust had been formed and Moran’s men didn’t question the request of a second shipment.

McGurn’s man made the arrangements for the transfer to occur at 10:30 AM, February 14, 1929 at the S.M.C. Company Garage, which was located at 2122 North Clark Street.

With the help of lookouts, McGurn watched the North Siders enter the building. Thinking Moran had also entered McGurn sent his own men into action.

Dressed in police uniforms and arriving in a borrowed or stolen “paddywagon” the South Side boys entered the garage with shouts of, “This is a raid.” They then had the seven men who were inside raise their hands over their heads and turn to face the back wall. These men were Adam Meyer, John May, The two Gusenburg brothers, Frank and Pete, Al Weinshank, James Clark and an optometrist, Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer who had just dropped by to visit.

The seven men simply expected the usual pat down search that police officers normally do. Not expecting anything else, they went along with what they probably thought was a charade. They never expected two of Capone’s men dressed as policemen to open fire with a .45 caliber Thompson machine gun.

Moran had escaped by a twist of fate. He and two other members of his gang had turned the corner onto Clark Street when the police wagon pulled up. He had the driver pull a little past the garage and wait for the “raid” to be over. Once the gunfire was heard though, his group took off. During the subsequent questioning, he insisted that “Only Capone kills like that.”

Capone though had an air-tight alibi. He was without a doubt at his beach home in Miami, Florida when the hit took place. McGurn’s girlfriend told police he had spent the entire day with her. Witnesses could only say they saw “Police officers” coming and going immediately before and after the sounds of gunfire. In the end, no one was ever charged for the murders.

While McGurn hadn’t managed to kill Moran, he did effectively put a stop to Moran being competition to Capone. Moran eventually was arrested on various charges and died in prison. McGurn died after being shot in a bowling alley on February 13, 1936.

Al Capone was finally sent to prison for tax evasion. His first prison was Leavenworth in Atlanta, Ga where he lived very richly compared to many other prisoners. In August 1934 he was transferred to Alcatraz prison where the warden swore, “Capone would run nothing on or from Alcatraz; he wouldn't even know what was happening outside. There would be no smuggled letters or messages.” He was released in 1939 but was suffering from the advanced stages of syphilis. He died of a heart attack on January 25, 1947.