The Valentine's Day Massacre
Capone Vs Moran
Happy Valentine’s day to all the lovey dovey couples out there! It’s the time of the year where love is most recognized. Flowers, chocolates, a nice dinner with some wine and candles. How would you like to hear a story of one of the bloodiest murders along with it? I knew you wouldn’t think twice and would want to listen! On Valentine’s day in 1929, The St. Valentine’s day Massacre occurred. One of the bloodiest in American history. The blood gives it that Valentine Day red.
Five men of the North Side Irish gang along with two nonmembers were murdered in Chicago’s North Side Lincoln Park Avenue. Gang leaders Bugs Moran and the infamous Al Capone butted heads to get control out of the biggest boot legging missions in Chicago for approximately five years. The gangs could feel the clash amongst one another. Capone put together a plan to have a stolen shipment of whiskey delivered at the SMC Catage Company Garage at 2122 N. Clark Street Garage (Moran’s Headquarters). Moran and his men would go there to find out that an ambush was waiting for them. However, this plan didn’t go as expected.
Capone hired men around the property to keep Moran and his men contained. They were there for weeks waiting for an opportunity to get Moran. If they were successful, Capone would have control of the bootlegging operations, prostitution, and illegal gambling all over the city. The kicker here is that apparently, Bugs Moran never walked into that warehouse. He was running late. The seven men were Adam Heyer, Al Weinshank, Reinhardt Schwimmer, Pete and Frank Gusenberg, Johnny May, and James Clark (Brother-in-law of Moran). Al Weinshank appeared to look like Moran.
These were Morans top guys except for Schwimmer. He was a “gangster groupie.”Apparently, they were all wearing their best suits except Johnny May. The fact that they were dressed in their best suits arouses suspicion. Why were they wearing their best suits just to wait for a stolen shipment of whiskey? Perhaps, it was a foreshadowing that this was their last moment of life and they arrived at their own funeral.
Two uniformed hoods entered Moran’s Headquarters and told the seven men that this was a raid. They ordered the men against the wall with their hands over their heads. Then the two gangsters entered, reached in their coats for their weapons and shot the seven men to death. Since Moran’s men submitted, they never gave themselves an opportunity to retaliate. They were blown away by two shotguns and Thompson Sub-Machine guns. Over seventy rounds were expelled. There were traces of garlic in the bullets to assure death. This was a gangster tradition.
Since there were two uniformed hoods in the garage, the crime scene appeared to be a bust. After all that ammunition was used, Frank Gusenberg was miraculously still alive. He was taken to the Alexian Brothers Hospital and was pronounced dead at 1:40 p.m. When asked who shot him and his brother, his response was “Nobody shot me.” John May’s German Alsatian was the only one who saw the whole thing. Traumatized by the scene, he responded that only Capone’s men kill that way. The car at the scene was a 1927 Cadillac. It was a seven passenger Sedan. It would be found in on North Wood Street being stripped. After the massacre, the SMC garage would be torn down in 1967.
Today, it’s a small grassy area. People have reported hearing screams and moaning as if someone were dying. When pets are taken to this area, they react strangely. Trained police dogs have been taken here, and the dogs growl or bark at something that cannot be seen. People have also reported hearing the residual sounds of shotgun blasts along with automatic fire. When the garage was torn down, the debris was left laying around. Souvenir gatherers would stop by and pick up a piece of the garage where the murder site occurred. Bad luck would occur shortly after this. The people who picked up a piece of the murder site would suddenly feel sick, have financial troubles, relationship issues that would lead in divorce, and other struggles. It appears that the murder site of the Valentine’s day massacre, has plenty of residual energy staying behind.
