I was caught in a slot machine massacre, taking the life out of my bank account. On the last night of our week-long Vegas adventure, I tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate my losses with one last flurry of spending. As we were leaving town on Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t help but think about the Mob Museum and the bullet-riddled brick wall that was reassembled to memorialize this famous Chicago shootout. I consequently pulled some information from Wikipedia hoping to learn mire a out this event exactly 91 years later. “The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was the 1929 Valentine’s Day murder of seven members and associates of Chicago’s North Side Gang. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park garage on the morning of Valentine’s Day. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants who were dressed like police officers. The incident resulted from the struggle to control organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the Irish North Siders, headed by George “Bugs” Moran, and their Italian South Side rivals led by Al Capone. The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan’s Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of a significant role, as are members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer’s son.”
The garage at 2122 North Clark Street, now the parking lot of a nursing home, was the site of the 10:30 a.m. shooting. Seven men were murdered by four unidentified killers. “Two of the shooters were dressed as uniformed policemen, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats, and hats. Witnesses saw the fake police leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting. The victims included five members of George “Bugs” Moran’s North Side Gang. Al Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the Massacre.”
“Capone’s lookouts likely mistook one of Moran’s men for Moran himself, probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build. The physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress that morning; both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats. Two of the killers reportedly opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum.” Later in the year, these guns and other related items were found in a St. Joseph, Michigan bungalow, although the case has really never been totally solved.
Victims:
-Brothers Peter and Frank Gusenberg, front-line enforcers for the Moran organizations
-Albert Kachellek (alias “James Clark”), Moran’s second in command
-Adam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gang
-Reinhardt Schwimmer, an optician who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing and associate with the gang
-Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; his resemblance to Moran is allegedly what set the massacre in motion before Moran arrived, including the clothes that he was wearing.
-John May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang
Massacre
A heart-felt message,
From Al Capone.
Meet by Lincoln Park,
And don’t come alone.
Bring your whole gang,
Those stealing from me.
Around 10:30 a.m.,
If you’re free?
There’s a garage,
On nearby Clark Street.
If you stop by,
I’ll serve a sweet treat.
Seven showed up,
And died that day.
As guns blazed,
Revenge to pay.
As fate would have it,
“Bugs” was late.
His date with death,
Would have to wait.
A Moran double,
The mistaken aim.
Their hats and coats,
Were both the same.
It was a killing,
Never solved.
Though many theories,
Soon evolved.
A brick wall,
Is all that endures.
Al’s Valentine,
A Massacre.
Copyright 2020 johnstonwrites.com
Leave a Reply