Complete Annihilation Of The Moran Gang example essay topic

The Saint Valentines Day Massacre is credited as Al Capone's most prominent killing throughout his career as a gangster thriving in the underworld. At the time that the plot of George "Bugs" Moran's assassination was devised, both Capone and McGurn were oblivious to the fact that the murders would remain notorious for decades to come. Warfare between the gangs was a commonplace activity throughout Chicago during the twenties and thirties. The most renowned rivalry in town existed between the Torri o-Capone organization and Moran's north side gang.

Strangely enough, at one time, Moran had imported Old Log Cabin Whiskey through Capone. He later invested in another dealer in hopes of increasing his profits. When his customers rejected the cheaper liquor, he tried to once again become an alliance to Capone (Schoenberg 209). Problems arose when Capone turned down his former customer, who he now considered unreliable.

To discourage Al's progress, Moran instructed his gang to hijack numerous trucks containing Capone's liquor. They also bombarded six of the saloons that purchased their alcohol from Capone's organization (Kobler 238). During this time, Capone was constantly surrounded by bodyguards including Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn. Numerous attempts were made on his life by Aiello and Moran because of the competition that existed between them in their common trade of involvement. Once, Moran slipped prussic acid in Al's soup (Cannon 40).

Fortunately for Capone, Moran was not granted the pleasure of eliminating his arch nemesis in this instance, or ever for that matter. Capone, in late December, decided that it was necessary to temporarily retire to Miami Beach in Florida, and he left the future of his organization in McGurn's hands. While Capone was absent from the happenings of Chicago, a total of fifteen men affiliated with him were murdered in a time span of three months (King 50). Soon after this, Moran, realized the vulnerability of his foes and commanded Pete and Frank Gusenberg to kill McGurn. The brothers followed Jack down Rush Street one evening to the telephone booth at the Hotel McCormick (Kobler 238). They opened fire with revolvers, but McGurn collapsed before he was able to return their fire (Bergreen 305).

The brothers left the scene of shattered glass and splintered wood assuming that they had eliminated Capone's right hand man from the underworld. An ambulance rushed Jack to a hospital where doctors saved his life through extensive surgery. During the surgery they were able to remove all of the lead bullets from his body. He was confined to the hospital for a great deal of time and afterwards returned to his home, the Lexington Hotel suite. Following his release from the hospital and his recovery, he visited Capone in Florida to gain permission to take down the Moran gang. Upon his arrival in early February, McGurn was supported by Capone whose sole request was to remain out of the impending gang war.

Al viewed the retaliation attack as the settling of a dispute between two gangs. He gave McGurn ten thousand dollars to pay off his accomplices (Bergreen 306). McGurn was placed in complete control of the hit, but Capone knew that his name would almost certainly be included at the top of the suspects list. When McGurn returned to Chicago, the reality of the situation began to set in. The murder he was about to oversee would require more planning than any other killing he had previously masterminded. In search of revenge, he sought complete annihilation of the Moran gang.

However, when selecting his crew he decided it would be optimal to choose the most ruthless killers that resided outside of the Chicago lines. This would insure that if any victims were to survive, it would be impossible for them to identify any of the gunmen (Bergreen 306). The leader of the gang was Fred "Killer" Burke of St. Louis, who was assisted by gunman James Ray. Fred was furnished with five thousand dollars which would cover both his and Mr. Ray's involvement in the slaughter (Bergreen 307).

John Scalise, Robert Anselmi, and Joseph Lolordo were also chosen because of their brutality in previous murders. Harry and Phil Keywell of the Detroit Purple Gang were hired as lookouts. Each of there men were paid a thousand dollars for their assistance (Bergreen 307). In order to accomplish this great feat, not only did the plan have to be extremely creative, but the headquarters had to be placed under surveillance. The lookouts applied for rooms across the street from the garage where Moran received the majority of his liquor shipments, paying for rent for one week in advance. The lookouts insisted upon living quarters that had a clear view of the street, and they were granted rooms at twenty-one nineteen and twenty-one thirty five North Clark Street (Schoenberg 209).

To account for their unusual arrivals and departures, they claimed that they were cabdrivers who drove at night and then slept during the day. McGurn's spies spent all seven days observing the movement of Moran's gang. It turned out that because of the north side gang was into heavy bootlegging, they frequently hung out in the S.M.C. Cartage Company's garage, located behind the front offices (Cannon 40). McGurn decided that the ultimate plan would be to disguise the assassins as police officers conducting a routine prohibition raid. It was in the rented apartments that they stored the stolen uniforms which included caps and medals.

Claude Maddox, a close friend of Capone, boosted an authentic police car complete with a gong (Bergreen 307). Throughout this entire operation, Jack Guzik held lengthily conversations with Capone everyday on the phone (Kobler 239). It is thought that he acted as the middle man between McGurn and his superior. The calls halted on February eleventh. By this time, the plan was complete. McGurn had become close friends with an unidentified hijacker, stationed in Detroit that Moran knew and trusted.

The hijacker telephoned Moran the night before the massacre to offer him so Old Log Cabin Whiskey. With the attractive price of fifty-seven dollars a case, Moran couldn't avoid the offer (Schoenberg 209). He agreed to personally meet the gangster and his gang the next morning at ten thirty. It was now insured that Moran and his men would be waiting with cash to pay for the entire truck load of whiskey. Now that the plan was complete, McGurn would have to find a way to exempt himself from guilt. Capone was in Florida and although he would most likely be suspected, he would never be prosecuted because of his rock solid alibi.

McGurn, so as to be far away from the crime scene, checked into the Stevens Hotel using his real name, Vincent Geb aldi (Bergreen 308). He arrived the night before the murders with his girlfriend Louise Rolfe and stayed there until Thursday evening. Valentine's Day of 1929, hailed cold with an average temperature of eighteen degrees and a bone chilling wind from the west (Bergreen 308). The assassination squad dressed in their disguises. Three men were equipped with Chicago police uniforms and the other two wore trench coats to imitate detectives. The group of men assembled at the Circus Cafe, the headquarters of Claude Maddox.

They stood around the squad car awaiting a call from the Keywell brothers. Meanwhile, back at the garage, members of Moran's gang began arriving. John May, an ex-safecracker, arrived first with his German shepherd, Highball. He served as the gang's auto mechanic. Adam Heyer, the garage leader, also arrived early, as well as Moran's brother in law, James Clark. Pete and Frank Gusenberg, who had previously tried to eliminate McGurn, arrived to serve as the truck drivers and the main muscle of the north side gang.

Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, an unofficial optometrist who had inherited his father's business, wandered into the garage behind them (Schoenberg 210). He had previously befriended Moran due to the fact that they had both resided at the Parkside Hotel, and he developed a thrill associated with hanging out with gangsters (Kobler 243). Al Weinshank, a speakeasy proprietor, reached the garage at exactly ten thirty and was the last to arrive. The Keywell anxiously called the assassins because they had mistaken Weinshank for Bugs Moran (Schoenberg 211).

A light snow powdered North Clark Street as the black, seven-passenger Cadillac, driven by the killers, neared the corner of Webster Avenue (Kobler 240). Just as they were about to turn the corner, a truck from the Beaver Paper Company sideswiped them. Elmer Lewis, the driver, rushed towards the car (Kobler 242). Although the accident was caused when the criminals rushed the intersection while searching for the address of the garage, Lewis seemed extremely distraught. He was relieved by a reassuring smile and wave from the driver of the police car. The stolen vehicle proceeded down Clark Street with the gong clanging, and parked across the road from the hideout.

The building up at twenty-one, twenty-two North Clark Street was a one story building constructed from terra-cotta covered brick. It was sixty feet wide and one hundred twenty feet long (Kobler 242). Surrounded by three or four story buildings made it very noticeable. A small sign on the roof listed the building for sale and currently on lease to Frank J. Snyder, synonymous with Adam Heyer (Schoenberg 208). From the outside it appeared to be a moderate size furniture moving company.

The glass window and the door were painted black and the window housed a white sign that read the following: S-M-C Cartage Co. Shipping, Packing, Phone Delivery 1471, Long Distance in black lettering (Kobler 242). No one would have ever thought that within two minutes this building would become a historical landmark. As Burke, Scalise, Anselmi, and Lolordo entered the building, they passed through a wooden door partition that separated the unused front office from the warehouse in the back.

A storage area for booze was tucked up in the rafters out of visibility. The tall wide doors were opened to the alley where the four empty trucks were parked. The fourth truck was jacked up off the ground. May was working on one of the wheels with his German shepherd tied to the axle (Bergreen 308). The other six men sat, waiting in the plain room with concrete flooring, wearing hats and overcoats because the building was unheated. The uniformed men led the way.

The naked two hundred watt bulb that illuminated the warehouse made the massacre extremely easy. They informed the well-dressed bootleggers of their status and flashed them their badges. The seven men were fooled by the disguises and figure it was a routine bust. They compiled with all of the instructions they were given without any struggle or resistance. The police impostors demanded that all of the men line up facing the wall with their hands above their heads (Mystery). At most, the mobsters expected an extensive pat down search for weapons and identification.

While the men were being searched for and stripped of their weapons, Frank Gusenberg's pistol dropped to the ground. During the time that the men were facing the bland wall, one of the phony cops called out, All right boys!" and two men emerged from the shadows and opened fire with two Thompson sub-machine guns (Enright 29). With the precision of an army firing squad, the men sprayed bullets across the victims' heads while the gangsters screamed in anguish. The man with the automatic shotgun stood outside of the men using the machine guns and sprayed.

45 slugs across the victims' backs. Ten seconds later, the gunmen that possessed the sawed-off shotguns squatted and to examine the bodies that had slumped to the floor. He then blew out the brains of the two gangsters that were still living (Enright 29). When the echoing of the bullets ceased, over one hundred fifty bullets had been pumped into the victim's bodies (Chicago).

The dog began to howl piteously, and the fraudulent police exited the building. So as not to alarm anyone, the four assassins developed a charade in which the two uniformed men appeared to be arresting the two men in trench coats. The two men in trench coats passed as bootleggers who marched out ahead of the police with their hands in the air (Crime). The police kept the pistols in the delinquents' backs until the four criminals reached the squad car. The assassins stowed the weapons in the rear and then sped away (Seven). This fake arrest relieved many witnesses, but what they were really seeing was the first parade getaway in the history of murder.

The only tasks left in order to completely seal the deal were to destroy the uniforms and demolish the car beyond recognition. For the next half an hour, the Chicago police headquarters remained in the dark about the occurrence. The gunshots had remained so constant that many people that heard them thought that it was some type of construction drilling. Mrs. Joseph Morin and Samuel Schneider both saw only the conclusion of the crime (Kobler 244).

Mrs. Max Landesman had been watching out her window since the Cadillac had collided with the truck. She was convinced by the charade, yet bewildered by the continual howling of the nearby animal. Jeanette Landesman, at first, investigated the situation for herself, but could not open the front door of the garage (Schoenberg 214). Then she kindly pursued her lodger, Mr. McAllister, and asked him if he would find out why the animal was so distressed. After Charles McAllister finally opened the garage door, he asked, "Who's there (Cannon 40)?" When he reached the back of the garage, he found the scene of the blood bath, and ran back to his apartment crying, "The place is full of dead men (Cannon 40)!" One of the women called the police to report the situation.

The only thing the witnesses couldn't comprehend, was if the police were already there, why didn't they call or medical assistance? The police, however, had no record of anything occurring at the address given, so they rushed to the scene. At approximately eleven twenty-five, police sirens howled through the Loop (Schoenberg 216). They began to barricade off all of the streets that surrounded the garage. Lieutenant Thomas Loftus was the first officer to view the aftermath of the heinous crime (Bergreen 309).

Six victims were found lying where they fell with their feet to the wall. They were all facing the incandescent light that hung overhead except for one man who was slumped over a chair. Frank Gusenberg, who was suffering from twenty-two bullet wounds, was crawling towards the policeman just barely clinging to life (Crime). He had managed to crawl twenty feet away from the back wall, but was breathing heavily and choking on his own blood (Mystery). Before calling the ambulance, the officer attempted to find out who had participated in these brutal murders. After Frank refused to answer, the lieutenant broke down and called the paramedics who appeared minutes later to transfer the unconscious Frank to the Alexi an Brother's Hospital.

At this time, the investigators waited with anticipation for him to wake because he was their only lead. He remained in critical condition for two hours until he passed away. Prior to his death, he woke for a brief period during which Sergeant Clarence Sweeney inquired, "Who shot you (Crime)?" Frank merely replied, "No one-nobody shot me. I'm not gonna talk (Crime)".

Then he laid back in an eternal sleep. Without Gusenberg's testimony, the police returned to the scene of the crime to become bewildered to say the least. Pools of blood existed throughout the room amongst the six corpses that lay sprawled out all over, as if the scene were taken from the newest action movie. Their hats remained at the same cocky angle the gangsters usually wore them. They were all well dressed; sporting expensive watches and jewelry, and the total money recovered from their pockets was an upward of five thousand dollars. The walls were splattered with blood and tons of bullet impressions.

The bodies were all identified immediately. May's fierce dog was still chained to the truck and now barking spastically. When the police first entered the garage, the creature that was now covered in blood, leapt the length of the chain towards them (Bergreen 311). The instant reaction of the police was to shoot the rabid animal, but they opted to untie him instead.

Highball then bolted straight out the door towards the road. The only item recovered from the garage was a pistol with several empty chambers that had been discarded on the floor. Only hours after the murder, the police began to round up all of the possible suspects (Seven). The first men to be taken under custody were Henry Gusenberg and Paddy King. A phone call had been traced from the garage to the hotel where they were staying at, so the police thought that they might be able to shed some light upon the situation. At this point in time, dozens of witnesses had come forward with their version of the story hoping to become famous.

With no real description of the killers, they were forced to investigate each description given. One man claimed to have seen a man entering the police car with blood all over his face, and another pronounced that he had see a man with a missing tooth driving the car (Seven). Both of these accounts later proved to be false. Another person also claimed to have seen a group of men with a machine gun at a restaurant that morning. The next day the police sent a squad out to find these five men and bring them in for questioning. Perhaps so many people chose to come forward because of the enormous sum of money that had been put out by civics groups for anyone who could help in anyway convict the scoundrels that perpetrated the crime.

Fifty thousand dollars were offered as a reward by the Chicago Association of Commerce to the person who could contribute to the arrest of the men involved. Twenty thousand dollars was offered by the City Council along with another twenty thousand dollars from the State's Attorney. With the additional ten thousand dollars presented by the public subscriptions, this became the biggest price in history to be placed on the heads of gangsters (Kobler 247). Meanwhile, the newspapers were busy printing every lead or hunch dealing with the viscous slaughter.

The New York Sun proclaimed, .".. crimes like this constitute the underworld's supreme defiance of society (Schoenberg 229)". An unprecedented amount of space was allowed to cover the latest developments in the story. Millions of copies were sold, making this event the most popular to evolve in the 1920's (Bergreen 312). Despite the alibis, the newspapers still published their opinions because they knew that everyone shared their thoughts on who really was involved in this mayhem.

Headline spread across the front page of newspapers nationwide, and it was through these articles that the shooting became known as the "Saint Valentines Day Massacre (King 51)". Pictures of the corpses were also printed in the articles. The newspapers even printed the picture upside down so that their readers wouldn't have to turn in the paper to identify the bodies. Not only did the newspapers aid in broadcasting the event, it became a huge media event also. In fact this event generated the most publicity any gang had ever received. Authors residing in all regions of the country began books and articles on Capone.

The publicity, negative or not, made Al even more anxious to stay in the public eye. In order to better understand the killing, the police performed a re-enactment of the crime (Mystery). From the recreation they concluded that the victims must have really been convinced that the other two gangsters dressed as police officers really were policeman. That was the only explanation why there was no evidence of struggle or a fight to live (Mystery). All of the victims had an endless supply of weapons, yet there was no sign that any of them had attempted to retrieve them. The conspirators obviously did an outstanding job of avoiding a questionable execution plan.

The investigators also determined that while the victims were facing the wall, the gunmen entered making it impossible for the victims to know about the impending danger that was staring straight at them. By the time the first shots were fired, it was too late for the doomed mobsters to respond. This explanation would also account for the accuracy in the witnesses' claims. Their nerves were calmed because they thought the police had arrested the delinquents.

No one ever considered checking with the police because they thought they had already done their job. In search of more answers, the police raided all of the victims' homes (Schoenberg 219). They recovered a loaded gun from the optometrist's house. Upon invading Pete's apartment, they found his wife, Myrtle, who could offer no answers because she was oblivious to her husband's participation in Moran's gang. Two fringe gangsters were caught trying to retrieve a machine gun from Frank's house. Moran remained missing for quite sometime.

Although the searches turned up no evidence, the police had formed a concrete opinion of who had taken the lives of these seven men. The police stayed persistent with the aggravating case and were soon rewarded with a flood of evidence. A landlord came forward about the two lookouts that had stayed in the apartments across from the garage. He said that three young men had come looking for a room to rent for ten days before the massacre. The men had claimed to be cab drivers, but they hardly ever left the rooms. The tenant said that they sat watching out their windows the whole time, but vanished the morning of the massacre.

Around this time, Chief of Police William F. Russel announced on the evening of February 21, "This is the end of gangland in Chicago (Seven)". He instructed the federal agents to begin looking into garages, barns, and sheds for the stolen police car (Schoenberg 222). One week after the massacre, neighbors near the garage at seven twenty-three North Wood Street observed smoke coming from the building. They immediately telephoned the fire department. Upon their arrival, the firemen found the demolished vehicle as well as a luger pistol and two charred wooden handles belonging to other small arms in the corner. Someone had just used a hacksaw, an ax, and an acetylene torch to dismantle the 1927 seven-passenger Cadillac sedan.

The torch had accidentally started the small blaze (Kobler 248). The car had been burned piece by piece, but the serial number on the car's engine was still able to be deciphered. The serial number was then traced to a trade-in-cash shop located on Michigan Avenue, where "James Morton" of Los Angeles paid eight hundred fifty dollars for the car in late December (Kobler 248). The garage had been rented out in advance for twenty thousand dollars to a man named Frank Rogers on February seventh.

Frank gave his address as eighteen, fifty-nine, West North Avenue, which was later found to be the building adjoined to the Circus Cafe (Kobler 249). On February 23, Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, the Cook Country coroner, was appointed by Chief Egan to examine the seven victims more closely. It was concluded that each man was shot at least fifteen times. The most frequent spot of bullet entry was the back of the head, and the angle of some of the bullets proved that some of the men had also been shot after they had collapsed to the floor (Bergreen 316). He recovered a total of seven empty. 45 caliber machine gun cartridges and fourteen spent bullets of similar caliber.

This evidence was all presented to the coroner's jury which met a total of three times. They were sequestered after hearing testimony from the doctors who had investigated the weapons (Schoenberg 221). It was determined the second time that neither the shot guns, nor the pump automatic would be traceable because of the lack of ejector marks left on the cartridges. The third time they met, which was years later after discovering the murder weapons, they were able to tell that one of the machine guns used had fired twenty shots, and the other hand gun had fired fifty bullets, accounting for all seventy shell casings. This event is also given full responsibility for the decline of Capone's empire. Until this time, the country had romanticized gangsters and seen a certain glamour in the underworld.

This occurrence caused an outbreak in public outrage against gang warfare, and especially Al Capone's involvement with it. The country began to see that the violence caused by gangs was spinning out of control and had to be put to an end. Major pressure was placed on authorities from citizens to take against these hoodlums. It was then that the case attracted the attention of Herbert Hoover. The country along with the president was shocked by the brutality of the crime and wanted to see nothing less than Capone behind bars. Hoover once wrote, "At once I directed that al of the Federal agencies concentrate on Mr. Capone and his allies (Crime)".

At the beginning of March Hoover then asked his secretary of treasury, Andrew Mellon, "Have you got this Capone fellow yet? I want that man in jail (Crime)". A few days later Capone was called before a grand jury in Chicago, but left a free man. Although Al Capone denied all knowledge of the hit, he was undoubtedly the individual with the most motive. However, at first he was just mentioned because the slaughter didn't really reflect his style. Capone was always very careful to have only one or two men killed at a time and very discreetly at that (King 52).

Even if he didn't actually gun the men down himself, chances were he has hired someone to do it for him. The authorities became baffled because of Capone's rock solid alibi. He had been in Florida and when confronted about his involvement, he neglected to display any concern over the Chicago Heights raid. When his phone records were examined, there were no phone calls recently between him and anyone in Chicago.

Capone usually telephoned Chicago on a daily basis. The last phone call on record was the one McGurn placed to Capone at this Palm Island home. However, government proof showed that Capone was not there to accept that call. In fact the more in depth the investigators got into his life, the more they thought he was living a little to clean with Mae and Sonny in his Miami Beach front condo to be completely innocent. The only problem was the reputable Robert Taylor had invited Al to his office at the Dade County courthouse. The morning of the murder, at approximately eleven twenty five, Capone's light blue polished limousine pulled up outside the solicitor's office in Miami (Schoenberg 216).

He was asked to talk to the assistant district attorney of New York about both his local business and Frankie Yale's murder (Kobler 240). After meeting, Capone returned to his busy household to prepare for the party he was throwing. He had invited one hundred guests to his Palm Island mansion, for a mammoth press party to be held two nights after the massacre (Kobler 245). Since the federal agents could find no evidence against Capone, they were unable to arrest him.

The next most likely assassin was determined to be Jack McGurn. On February 27, the police arrested him in his hotel suite and brought him into headquarters (Bergreen 317). Jack was held without bail after two witnesses picked him out of a lineup and placed him at the scene of the crime. It was at this time that he presented the police with the most famous alibi in the history of American crime.

Louise Rolfe, his girlfriend, vouched for him saying that he had never left her side at the Hotel Stevens from nine o'clock in the evening the night before until three o'clock Thursday afternoon (Kobler 251). She maintained that she and Jack had spent Valentine's Day in bed until one thirty the afternoon of the massacre. Records also showed that the couple had arrived two weeks before and had all of their meals and newspapers sent up to their room. Police and prosecutors tried relentlessly to break the woman who came to be known as the "blonde alibi", but never succeeded (Bergreen 318). Scalise and Anselmi were both indicted for seven murders.

However they were granted bail at fifty thousand dollars each. Two days later, the authorities added three more names to their suspect list including Lolordo, Fred Burke, and James Ray. The only fault of this list was that it included six murders instead of the allotted five that actually participated in the crime (Kobler). Later that year, on December 2, 1929, all of the charges were dropped and McGurn was freed from jail.

Investigators still pursued the truth, but McGurn married his girlfriend before he could be charged with perjury. This prohibited Louise from testifying against her new husband. No case was ever made against Scalise, Anselmi, Lolordo, or any of the other suspects. McGurn was finally indicted, but not for anything having to do with the murders. They found him guilty of the Mann Act for taking his girlfriend across state lines for strictly immoral purposes.

They also charged her as a conspirator and sentenced her to four months in prison and McGurn to two years (Schoenberg) 227). Before all of the investigations, when both men appeared to be completely innocent, Frederick D. Silloway, the Assistant Administrator of Prohibition Forces of Chicago became the second person to suggest that the police had committed a terrible crime in retribution for all of the problems gangs had caused them in the past. Two hundred and twenty-five detectives were forced to account for their whereabouts (Schoenberg 219). Although all of the alibis were justified, the public still feared that rogue cops were on the loose in Chicago.

No one found the claim that was published the following day in newspapers unusual. After all, the corruption of the police over something illegal like this seemed feasible. After seeing all of the chaos his statement had caused, Silloway withdrew his proclamation. However, the damage had been done, and he was sent to Washington where he would later be fired (Kobler 248). To prove the innocence of the Chicago police, wealthy townspeople sponsored the opening of a scientific crime detection laboratory.

It was completed in 1930, and was housed in Northwestern University (Kobler 252). Major Calvin H. Goddard of New York then used forensic ballistics to determine that the shell casings and the ammunition recovered from both the garage and the victim's bodies did not originate from any of the guns housed in the police arsenal (St Valentines). However, the guns used were no where to be found. Hitherto, one would have thought that all of the exquisite planning and execution had indeed produced the ideal murder. Both Capone and McGurn got off with no charge, and they annihilated the bulk of Moran's gang. The only piece missing from the puzzle was the fact that Moran was not among the victims.

The main target of the whole operation had been missed. Moran had overslept that morning and did not even leave his home at the Parkway Hotel until after ten thirty (St Valentines). Moran and Newberry had taken a shortcut by foot through an alley adjacent to the rear of the warehouse. Willie Marks arrived late by means of a trolley car coming from the Loop, and met his fellow gang members outside of the warehouse (Kobler 214). As they rounded the corner, all three of Capone's rivals witnesses the police car pull up, allowing four police offers to exit the vehicle leaving the driver at the wheel. Upon seeing this, they continued to walk past the garage out of sight and into safety.

Moran and his men immediately took cover because they figured it was a shake down. Moran and Newberry later returned to the Parkway Hotel to warn Henry Gusenberg of the raid taking place (Schoenberg 212). As soon as the gun shots started, Marks shrunk into a doorway and quickly jotted down the car's license plate number before scrambling to safety (Kobler 244). Although at the time the assassination squad probably noticed that Moran was not among the hostages, they dared not release them. After all, by getting rid of the majority of Moran's outfit, he would be defenseless. Despite the fact that they would not be able to permanently eliminate Bugs Moran, they would be able to take down the progress of his business by killing the seven men that stood before them.

Capone had eliminated every other gang that ever posed a threat to his success, and this was the final milestone to insure the utmost financial success. These execution style murders would bring the total deaths of gang warfare to more than one hundred thirty-five in the last few years (Seven). When Moran was interviewed later by police, he proclaimed, "Only Capone kills like that (Bergreen 315)". Al's reply to this accusation was, "The only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran (Bergreen 315)". Ten months after the massacre, the police found the Tommy guns used in the massacre in the home of Fred Burke (St. Valentines). Unfortunately, he was already sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Michigan police officer.

When the guns were tested, the casings proved to be positive matches. Bullets from both the guns were found in Schwimmer and Clark. This research also tied him to the murder of Frankie Yale. The federal agents contemplated bringing Burke to Chicago but decided against it.

They were sure that because of the extensive time lapse, he would maintain that the police had planted the guns. Not wanting to recreate police suspicions, they just let the case go. This event led to the warehouse becoming a memorial to the Chicago gangsters. It became a major tourist attraction of Chicago.

In 1949, the front office was turned into an antique furniture storage business by a couple that had never heard of it's tragic past (Taylor). However, the building was visited more by tourists than by customers, so they were forced to close the business. Before the building was demolished in 1967, the bricks from the rear wall were purchased by a Canadian businessman. The bricks were then rebuilt to form the wall in a men's bathroom at a night club that was built in 1972. It displayed the roaring twenties theme, and three night a week the women were allowed to peek in the men's bathroom to see the historical building clocks (Taylor). After the club discontinued its operation, the owner, Guy Whitford, placed all four hundred seventeen bricks in storage.

He then posted them for sale for a thousand dollars each along with an account of the massacre. Every brick he sold was given back to him though because the owner's claimed to be plagued with bad luck after purchasing the bricks. George Plate bought the back wall, which now only consisted of four hundred fourteen bullet marked bricks. He is still trying to sell the wall along with a diagram that shows how to reinstall the wall to its original form.

The last substantial offer made on the wall was made by a Las Vegas casino. The numbered bricks have now been on the market for three decades. As for that land once occupied by the building, it has been fenced off and now belongs to a nearby nursing home. Five trees are scattered along in a line where the rear wall once stood (Taylor). The Saint Valentines Day Massacre was the result of long preparation which in turn festered into a demonstration of murder in the ultimate form. No other act of gang violence has had numerous books published about it as well as several films of the account.

Al Capone never gave an over dramatic confession to give closure to the story, but I suppose you could say that he got what he deserved when he was blandly convicted of tax evasion (Mystery). No one will ever know for sure if the victims really bought the raid scenario. Given the typical gangster mentality, they could have been waiting a few more seconds to turn around and make those officers wish they were never born. One fact is certain though, during the height of Prohibition, seven men were lined up and gunned down only to become famous today because of their role in the most spectacular mob in history..