On Valentine’s Day in 1929, the American city of Chicago woke up to the news of a gruesome murder where seven men lay sprawled on the cold concrete of a Lincoln Park garage, their bodies riddled with bullets.
According to reports, the killers were possibly police officers who had tricked their victims into believing they faced a routine arrest.
However, it soon became apparent that it was the result of an ongoing gangster war between notorious criminal leaders Al Capone and Bugs Moran.
During the Prohibition era of the 1920s in America, Chicago had become a battleground for organized crime.
It had started with the passing of the Volstead Act in 1919, which banned the sale of alcohol in the United States.
This created lucrative opportunities for those willing to defy federal law, and gang leaders seized control of illegal liquor distribution.
Saloons, speakeasies, and underground distilleries flourished under the control of criminal syndicates.
The most famous of these were the so-called Chicago Outfit, which was dominated by Italian-American mobsters, and the North Side Gang, which was composed largely of Irish and Polish criminals.
Johnny Torrio controlled the Chicago Outfit and was expanding his empire through bribery, intimidation, and murder.
His network of illegal breweries and smuggling routes generated millions of dollars each year.
He used these funds to maintain influence over city officials and law enforcement.
In contrast, Bugs Moran, who led the North Side Gang, and their rivalry with the Chicago Outfit intensified after the assassination of Dean O’Banion in 1924, which was carried out by associates of Al Capone, another leader of the Chicago Outfit, at the request of Johnny Torrio.
The killing then provoked a series of violent reprisals, including the attempted murder of Torrio in 1925, which forced him into early retirement.
Capone then assumed full control of the Outfit and launched an aggressive campaign to eliminate his rivals.
Soon, drive-by shootings and public assassinations became routine, and the city police struggled to contain the violence.
Moran’s men hijacked shipments of liquor belonging to Capone, which significantly cut into his profits.
In response, Capone ordered the deaths of key members of the North Side Gang, including Hymie Weiss and Vincent Drucci.
By 1929, Moran remained the only major threat to Capone’s growing power, and Capone was resolved to end the feud through a dramatic ambush.
Bugs Moran, who had inherited control of the North Side Gang after the deaths of Dion O’Banion, Hymie Weiss, and Vincent Drucci, continued to challenge Al Capone’s operations.
Capone had almost full control over the largest breweries and smuggling routes across the city, but relied on uninterrupted distribution to maintain his financial security.
To protect his income streams, he hired gunmen to intimidate or eliminate key figures in the opposing gang, or remove them entirely if necessary.
For example, Hymie Weiss, who had led the North Side Gang before Moran, was gunned down in front of the Holy Name Cathedral in 1926.
Capone’s men. Moran later responded by targeting members of the Chicago Outfit, including the Outfit’s enforcer Jack McGurn.
A failed ambush at the Hawthorne Hotel, at which Capone was present, demonstrated Moran’s equal willingness to eliminate his rival through direct confrontation.
By early 1929, Capone’s organization devised a strategy to eliminate Moran and his top men once and for all.
The plan was led by Jack McGurn. It involved luring Moran to a garage on North Clark Street under the pretense of purchasing a stolen liquor shipment.
Capone, who had intentionally distanced himself from the operation, left Chicago for Florida, in an attempt to ensure that no evidence connected him to the ambush.
McGurn’s men disguised themselves as police officers and planned to force Moran’s crew to surrender before executing them.
Before sunrise, the cold February air settled over Chicago, and Inside the SMC Cartage Company garage at 2122 North Clark Street, members of the North Side Gang gathered for what they believed would be a routine shipment.
The building, which was used as a front for illegal liquor operations, had often been a meeting place for Moran’s men.
Seven gangsters, including Frank Gusenberg, Peter Gusenberg, and Albert Kachellek, waited inside, while Moran, who was expected to attend, had yet to arrive.
Disguised as police officers, four gunmen arrived outside the garage in a stolen Cadillac.
The sight of uniformed men stepping out of a black sedan gave no reason for suspicion.
Moran’s men, who had grown accustomed to law enforcement raids, assumed that they faced arrest.
Two of the attackers carried Thompson submachine guns hidden beneath their coats, while the others held shotguns.
The fake officers then ordered the men inside to line up against the rear brick wall.
The victims seemed to believe that they would be searched and taken into custody, and, as such, followed the instructions without resistance.
As a result, their weapons remained holstered, and no attempt was made to fight back.
Seconds later, deafening gunfire filled the garage. Over seventy rounds were fired into the backs of the men and continued firing to guarantee that there would be no survivors.
To create the illusion of a routine arrest, the fake officers led some of their unarmed accomplices out of the building with their hands raised, further dissuading witnesses from intervening.
Frank Gusenberg, who had been shot fourteen times, clung to life long enough for police to arrive.
When questioned, he refused to identify the gunmen, choosing to die without betraying his associates.
Among the seven victims were some of the most important members of Bugs Moran’s operations.
Frank Gusenberg, who was known as a hardened enforcer, had been responsible for carrying out violent reprisals against Capone’s men.
His brother, Peter Gusenberg, had a similar reputation as a reliable hitman who had taken part in multiple assassination attempts.
Albert Kachellek was known as "James Clark" and operated as Moran’s second-in-command and managed much of the gang’s daily business.
There was Adam Heyer, the gang’s bookkeeper, Reinhardt Schwimmer, a former optometrist, and John May, who worked as a mechanic and maintained the gang’s vehicles.
Finally, there was Fred Goetz.
When real police officers arrived minutes after the shooting, they found blood pooling beneath the corpses and shell casings littered the ground.
Investigators counted at least seventy rounds, most of which had been fired from Thompson submachine guns.
Unfortunately, many of the victims were unrecognizable. Even John May’s German Shepherd dog, which had been tied up nearby, whined and barked in distress as officers examined the scene.
The brutality of the massacre stunned both police and reporters, who struggled to comprehend the scale of the violence.
Within hours of the massacre, newspapers across the country printed sensationalist headlines detailing the horrific execution of seven gangsters in a Chicago garage.
They described the methodical nature of the killings and the deception used by the gunmen.
Photographs of the crime scene, which showed lifeless bodies slumped against a bloodstained brick wall, emphasized the brutality of the attack and speculated about those responsible.
The Chicago Tribune had already published extensive coverage of organized crime in their city and printed personal accounts from witnesses who claimed to have seen men dressed as police officers fleeing the scene.
Due to the unprecedented violence, public outcry against organized crime quickly reached a new level.
Even though Chicago residents had become accustomed to gang-related murders, the nature of the killings made them fear that no one was safe from the unchecked power of criminal syndicates.
Business owners, who had been forced to pay for protection, demanded that city officials take stronger action against gangs.
Likewise, politicians faced mounting pressure to act.
As a result of public outrage, Prohibition itself came under increased scrutiny. For years, supporters of the liquor ban had claimed that enforcing morality through legal restrictions would improve society.
The massacre, which had been a direct consequence of illegal liquor operations, challenged that belief.
As a result, many Americans began to argue that the policy had empowered criminals rather than eliminated alcohol consumption and the federal government faced growing calls to repeal the Volstead Act.
Capone, who had traveled to his Miami estate days before the massacre, had a strong alibi that placed him far from the crime scene.
As such, his absence allowed him to deny involvement when questioned. Without direct evidence linking Capone to the massacre, investigators explored alternate theories.
Some suspected that members of the North Side Gang had betrayed Moran’s operation.
In particular, speculation surrounded Byron Bolton, a former associate who had ties to both gangs and later claimed to have knowledge of the attack.
His account, which surfaced years after the crime, suggested that Capone’s men received inside information about Moran’s movements.
Others pointed to Fred Burke, a known hitman who had worked for the Chicago Outfit.
Police later recovered a Thompson submachine gun from his Michigan hideout and it matched ballistics from the crime scene.
However, Burke, who had been arrested for killing a police officer in 1929, never faced charges related to the massacre.
Despite overwhelming suspicion, authorities failed to secure convictions against any suspects because Chicago’s law enforcement struggled to build a case without witness testimony.
The only survivor, Frank Gusenberg, had frustratingly refused to identify the gunmen before succumbing to his injuries.
Officers had gathered physical evidence but found few leads that could be pursued in court.
Even though he was not charged with the murders, Al Capone’s reputation as the most feared gangster in America reached new heights.
As a consequence, many smaller gangs submitted to his authority and even the North Side Gang lost much of its influence.
Capone now controlled the city’s bootlegging network with little resistance and enjoyed a brief period of uncontested power.
Following this, federal authorities intensified their efforts to dismantle organized crime.
President Herbert Hoover, who had taken office just weeks after the killings, instructed federal agents to build a case against Capone.
Thanks to increased scrutiny, Treasury officials began investigating his financial records, looking for evidence of tax evasion.
The famous police detective Eliot Ness led a small but determined task force known as the Untouchables that targeted Capone’s operations by conducting frequent raids on illegal breweries.
As a consequence of these investigations, Capone’s downfall came through financial crimes rather than violence.
By 1931, prosecutors had gathered enough evidence to charge him with tax evasion, a crime that carried a guaranteed prison sentence.
The case was therefore was handled by the U.S. government rather than local authorities.
Capone’s lawyers initially attempted to negotiate a plea deal but failed to secure leniency and he was eventually convicted: sentenced to eleven years in prison.
His imprisonment, which began at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, severed his ties to Chicago’s underworld.
Later, his transfer to Alcatraz further isolated him from his criminal network, and his influence rapidly declined.
Capone's empire quickly fell apart under new leadership, which allowed rival gangs to seize control of Chicago’s lucrative bootlegging trade.
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