Valentine's Day..............Massacre

While we share feelings of affection today with those we love, there was a time in our past when sudden, brutal murder was the Valentine's Day topic.

Photo of the Actual Crime Scene, Valentine's Day, 1929

The date was February 14, 1929.  The place was Chicago's neighborhood of Lincoln Park.  The target was Bugsy Moran, who was not even present.

A crowd Gathers Outside The Crime Scene

Bugsy Moran

In short, two rival gangs vied for control of Chicago's bootleg alcohol business:  Al Capone's southside gang, and Bugsy Moran's northsiders.

Four unknown perpetrators ambushed seven members of Bugsy Moran's mob, lining them up against a brick wall and executing them with Thompson submachine guns and a shotgun.  One of the victims, Fred Gusenberg, suffered 14 bullet wounds.  Oddly, he was still alive when police arrived.  When asked who had committed the massacre, he replied, "Nobody shot me".  He died shortly afterward.

Al Capone

The killings shocked the nation, and the federal government became involved in the effort to shut down the activities of the gangs.  In effect, this massacre became the beginning of the end for the two prohibition era Chicago mobs.  Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion two years later and eventually died in prison.  Bugsy Moran's gang was so weakened that it became a shell of its former self.

No one was ever convicted of the crime.  Leading theories blamed Capone's northside gang or possibly elements of Detroit's Purple Gang, which had a relationship with Capone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c9-8JVrCF8

The two Thompson submachine guns used in the massacre were recovered in a raid on the bungalow of gangster Fred "Killer" Burke in late 1929.  One had a 20-round magazine and the other was fitted with a 50-round drum.  Both murder weapons are now in the possession of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department in St Joseph, Michigan.

PS---check out Cindy's blog at http://cindyellison.blogspot.com/2011/02/for-my-husband.html#comment-form