Valentine's Day massacre

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The Valentine 's Day Massacre ( English Saint Valentine's Day Massacre ) refers to the shooting of seven people on February 14, 1929 , which was part of a gang war between bullies in Chicago . The victims were members and associates from the North Side Gang . Although there were no celebrities among the victims, the act gained a lot of public and media attention due to the way it was carried out and the brutality that was involved.

procedure

A five-man killer team drove in two black limousines that looked deceptively similar to those of the Chicago criminal investigation department at 10:30 am at an auto repair shop (2122 N. Clark Street) owned by the "SMC Cartage Company". The SMC was a front company of the North Side Gang under George "Bugs" Moran , which pretended to be a moving company.

Three of the killers wore police uniforms and staged a raid . In the workshop they met seven people who were more or less part of the North Side Gang. These could be disarmed without resistance and placed against the wall. There they were shot with two Thompson machine guns at around 10:40 a.m. During their immediate escape, the murderers faked an arrest by apparently leading the two uniformed perpetrators away with their hands raised by the uniformed men.

Victim

The police later identified the seven dead:

  • John May (35), the garage's auto mechanic ; had already stood trial for robbery and theft.
  • Adam Heyer (40) alias "Frank Snyder"; ran a dog racing track for Moran.
  • Albert Kachellek (42) alias "James Clark"; the robber and burglar was involved with the Gusenberg brothers in the murder of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo , president of the Unione Siciliana and friend of Al Capone .
  • Peter Gusenberg (39) and
  • Frank Gusenberg (36); the two were the gang's main contract killers. Frank Gusenberg survived the attack for another three hours but, although he was conscious, did not provide any information about the perpetrators.
  • Reinhart H. Schwimmer (29); an optician who had closed his shop but was hoping to open a new one. He was probably friends with Dean O'Banion and was part of the mobster environment .
  • Albert R. Weinshank (35); he was considered an important confidante of Moran. Allegedly, his entire demeanor was similar to Moran's, which is why the killers should have decided to strike.

Theories and perpetrators

Due to the local nature of the crime, the case was not handled by the FBI and remained with the Chicago Police Department. Several theories about the background to the fact quickly came into circulation.

Due to the use of police uniforms, it was rumored that corrupt police officers carried out the murder. Accordingly, they and a prohibition agent would have confiscated a truck and its liquor load after a truck robbery . Thereupon - according to the deputy head of the Prohibition Office Frederick D. Silloway - Moran stopped paying bribes to the police, whereupon the police organized the massacre .

It was also speculated that it was an internal accounting within the north side, since the Gusenberg brothers had already killed some kidnappers of alcohol transports in the past.

The argument between the north side and the Chicago outfit is regarded as the most well-founded theory to date . According to it, Bugs Moran, the leader of the north side, should actually be murdered. The action was carefully planned and rooms were apparently rented across the street for observation. This modus operandi was already used in a similar form in the murder of Hymie Weiss in 1926, who had been gunned down from rooms rented in this way. Joey Aiello was also murdered in a similar manner in October 1930.

As a result, the following people can be considered as perpetrators: first the Italian Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn , who is said to have organized the crime, and James "Revolvers" McLain from Chicago Outfit; then the group of contract killers around Fred Burke ( Egan's Rats ) with J.George Zeigler , August "Gus" Winkeler and Byron "Monty" Bolton .

Another complementary and connecting thesis is that - as a variant of the first theory about a hijacked alcohol cargo - the victims expected a contraband cargo from Abe Bernstein and his Purple Gang , but that it was supposed to have been a trap by Al Capone, who was involved with the Purple Gang worked together. Fred Burke of the Egan's Rats had worked in a similar way with a submachine gun for the Purple Gang in Detroit as early as 1926 .

consequences

  • In terms of the motive for killing Bugs Moran, the massacre was a failure; Bugs Moran had approached the crime scene before the action was underway and fled.
  • Al Capone could not be charged as a suspected mastermind , he was on vacation in Florida at the time of the crime. McLain was murdered in 1934. McGurn had an alibi from his friend Louise Rolfe for the massacre but was convicted of the 1928 murder of Frankie Yale ; In 1936 he was murdered.
  • Fred Burke, who later found the weapons (serial numbers: 2347 and 7580), killed a policeman while on the run, was convicted for this crime and died in prison of heart failure in 1940. In addition, a witness claims to have seen a tooth gap in a perpetrator ; Burke actually had one.
  • Because of their past as contract killers for the Genna family and their current affiliation with the Chicago Outfit , John Scalise and Albert Anselmi were also questioned about the bloodbath. But only Scalise was charged along with Jack McGurn. A few days after the indictment, in the early morning hours of May 8, 1929, Scalise, Anselmi, and Joseph Giunta were found dead on a street near Hammond, Indiana . All three are said to have been knocked down with a baseball bat and then shot by Al Capone personally at a banquet on May 8, 1929. The three were considered (potential) defectors who had allied themselves with Joey Aiello.
  • The massacre helped change the image of mobsters in Chicago; In April 1930, Frank J. Loesch, chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission , compiled a list of 28 people who were seen as “public enemies” of Chicago. This attention increased the pressure of persecution on those named there enormously. From then on, it became common (especially in the press) to refer to Al Capone, who headed the list, as "Public Enemy No. 1".
  • When the workshop at 2122 N. Clark Street was demolished in 1967, the wall was sold and transported brick by brick to George Patey, a Canadian who rebuilt the wall in the men's room of a 1920s-style bar. After the bar closed, Patey started selling the stones as souvenirs.

Valentine's Day massacre in the media

The subject has been taken up in various films, in particular by the director Roger Corman in 1967 in the Chicago Massacre ( St. Valentine's Day Massacre ); it also served as a template for the workshop murder scene in Billy Wilder's famous comedy Some Like It Hot .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "St.Valentine's Day Massacre with Pictures" ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.mysterynet.com (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mysterynet.com
  2. ↑ "Massacre Victim's Statistics" at www.myalcaponemuseum.com (English)
  3. ↑ "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" on www.findagrave.com (English)
  4. ↑ a b "Valentine Killers?" At www.myalcaponemuseum.com (English)
  5. ↑ "The Big Time" at www.crimelibrary.com (English) ⇒ "On February 13, 1929, Bernstein called Bugs Moran and told him a hijacked load of booze was on its way to Chicago."
  6. ↑ "Blood, Roses and Valentines" on www.prairieghosts.com (English)

Web links