Bodies in the garage at 2122 Clark Street. Valentine's Day. Chicago, 1929.

On February 14, 1929, Valentine's Day, seven people were killed in this garage. One of the dead was the young optician Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer, old friend Morana, who loved to appear with gangsters. The others were members of Moran's gang - Frank Gusenberg, his brother Peter, who served three years in federal prison for robbing a mail truck in 1921, James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law, whose real name was Cashelleck, John May, a mechanic and safe-exploding expert, Adam Geer , an ex-convict and experienced accountant, and Alfred Weinschnack, an official of the Central Association of Cleaners and Dyers, who had only recently joined the gang. They were waiting in the garage for a truck with alcohol, which was to be driven to Chicago from Detroit by people from the Red Gang, when three gangsters burst into the garage police uniform, everyone was disarmed and forced to line up against the wall. After that, two more people, already in civilian clothes, entered the garage and shot the entire line with a machine gun.

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Photos of those executed from a different angle

The police, in the presence of a judge, re-enact the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

A crowd gathered around the garage where the murder took place while the body of one of the slain gangsters was being removed

Bread and circuses... The police carry out the bodies of murdered gangsters...

Legendary garage SMC CARTAGE Co. at 2212 North Clark Street in Chicago where the gangsters were killed

Another garage, in which the burned remains of a car used in an operation to shoot gangsters were found.

The truce with Moran was short-lived. Drucci, successor to Hymie Weiss and new chapter North Side gang, was killed in a shootout with a police officer. Capone and Moran both attended his lavish funeral. Moran was left alone. His closest friends were gone.
Moran began stealing Capone's liquor trucks. Capone responded by burning down Moran's Greyhound Racing Club. Moran continued to kill Capone's close friends and men. He couldn't stop.

The police subsequently arrested Capone gang members Jack McGurn, John Scalice and Joseph Giunta, but McGurn was able to provide an alibi, and Scalice and Giunta did not have time to provide anything or stand trial because they were quickly killed. Capone himself has a strong alibi - at the time of the murder he was called by the district attorney of Miami County, Florida. However, the police were sure that it was he who planned the murder, and the direct perpetrators were Scalice and Anselmi. Bugs Moran said: Only Capone's men can kill like that. However, it was not possible to prove anything.

Chief of Detectives William Shumaker (left), gangster Jack McGurn and prosecutor Ben Feldman (right) in court, Chicago, 1929.

In 1929, Goddard, a criminologist for the nascent FBI, was invited to Chicago, a city where one crime after another was committed. He was supposed to assist in solving a gang murder, known in the history of criminology as the "Valentine's Day Massacre."
On the morning of February 14, 1929, seven people gathered in a garage on North Clark Street in Chicago. Most of them belonged to Moran's gang, who were called "bugs", that is, "bugs". They were speculating alcoholic drinks in Chicago. Those gathered were waiting for their boss Moran, who was supposed to receive a shipment of wine that morning.
However, Moran was late. It saved his life. At half past ten, two men in Chicago police uniforms burst into the garage with pistols in their hands and ordered: “Everyone to the wall!” Following them two entered civilian clothes, pulled out machine guns from under their coats and shot everyone standing by the wall. They then left the garage, got into the car and disappeared.

Coroner Dr. Herman Bandisen, one of the few "incorruptibles" in the Chicago department, found six corpses, one mortally wounded, and about seventy machine gun cartridges at the crime scene.
It soon became clear that the “scarred” face of Al Capone, the notorious Chicago gangster boss, was behind the daring attack. Apparently, Capone wanted to get his rival Moran out of the way along with his " the best people"Of course, Al Capone was not in Chicago at the time of the crime. But some of his men - Jack McGorn, Fred Beck and Freddy Goetz - were seen near the garage. However, there was no evidence against them. The coroner knew only too well that from the police there is no need to wait for help. In hardly any other city were politics, police and crime so closely intertwined as in those days in Chicago, Bandisen created his own jury of wealthy and independent citizens to investigate the murder. This court decided to invite. at Chicago Goddard.
Leaving New York, Goddard did not imagine that he was going towards the fulfillment of his life's dream - the founding of a large national laboratory scientific criminology. Meanwhile, he had already realized that only such an institution would be able to put an end to the activities of helpless firearms experts. After examining all the bullets and cartridges found at the crime scene, he gave his conclusion.
The crime was committed using two .45-caliber Thompson assault rifles. One of them is with a twenty-round box-type magazine, the other is with a fifty-round disk-type magazine.

On December 14, 1929, in San Joseph, Michigan, a driver was shot and killed by a traffic cop who stopped his car for a traffic violation. The criminal escaped. But his address was determined by the car number. The apartment indicated in the address belonged to a certain Dane. During a search of the apartment, the police opened the closet and were dumbfounded with surprise: in front of them was an entire arsenal of weapons, among which were also two Thompson machine guns. They were immediately delivered to Goddard. Experimental bullets flew into the bullet catcher, and Goddard again bent over his microscope. The conclusion read: “The machine guns found are the weapons used in the murder on Valentine’s Day.”

A few days later the fugitive himself was discovered. It was Fred Beck, one of Al Capone's gangsters, who was suspected of the crime. He was living under a false name. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he disappeared behind prison bars. Perhaps it was only because of this that he escaped the fate that the Moran gang had in store for the other two suspects. Freddie Goetz and Jack McGorn were soon found shot to death. Determining where to look for the killers was not difficult.

Goddard's work made such a big impression on influential circles that they decided to establish a scientific forensic laboratory at the university. Her task was to organize scientific methods combating crimes and training young incorruptible police officers in forensic ballistics. Colvin Goddard was appointed director of the institute. He was well aware that he was depriving himself of a source of income, and his laboratory in New York of its former importance, by passing on his experience and knowledge to many young people. He, who until now was the only specialist in this field, will soon become one of many. But that didn't bother him.

In the suburb of Evanston, on the campus of Northwestern University, Goddard built his laboratory building. He always had a revolver with him, even when working with a microscope. There was an armed bodyguard nearby, who immediately appeared as soon as a shot was fired, even if the shot was experimental. “It’s okay, I’m firing an experimental shot,” Goddard said in such cases. There were no guarantees that Chicago gangsters would not try to destroy the institute and its director. The Goddard Laboratory became one of the first large educational institution scientific criminology in America. Over four years, Goddard was involved in the investigation of 1,400 cases related to the use of firearms. His students spread his experience. When economic crisis deprived the institute of funds, then Goddard whole year worked without salary. His a new dream there was a great creation central laboratory forensic ballistics in Washington, which would work for all of America, where any police chief could find help and support. When Goddard left office in 1934, he had already seen his dream come true: at this time, J. Edgar Hoover equipped his own Institute of Forensic Ballistics at the FBI. “For the first time, America has led the development of one of the fields of scientific forensics!” Goddard exclaimed when he learned of this. His voice trembled as he soulfully repeated: “For the first time.”

Well, this is myself main character- the famous Tommy-gun..... in the hands of famous people... and a beautiful staged photo in the center...

Original taken from est_mort in Chicago February 14, 1929, Valentine's Day. Gangster War Part 1.

Bodies in the garage at 2122 Clark Street. Valentine's Day. Chicago, 1929.

On February 14, 1929, Valentine's Day, seven people were killed in this garage. One of the dead was a young optician, Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer, an old friend of Moran's who liked to appear with gangsters. The others were members of Moran's gang - Frank Gusenberg, his brother Peter, who served three years in federal prison for robbing a mail truck in 1921, James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law, whose real name was Cashelleck, John May, a mechanic and safe-exploding expert, Adam Geer , an ex-convict and experienced accountant, and Alfred Weinschnack, an official of the Central Association of Cleaners and Dyers, who had only recently joined the gang. They were waiting in the garage for a truck with alcohol, which was to be driven to Chicago from Detroit by people from the Red Gang, when three gangsters in police uniform burst into the garage, disarmed everyone and forced them to line up against the wall. After that, two more people, already in civilian clothes, entered the garage and shot the entire line with a machine gun.

Check in the comments, I’ll come to you to comment :), we’ve turned on a promo, only 10 tokens, post them!

Best regards est_mort

Photos of those executed from a different angle

The police, in the presence of a judge, re-enact the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

A crowd gathered around the garage where the murder took place while the body of one of the slain gangsters was being removed

Bread and circuses... The police carry out the bodies of murdered gangsters...

Legendary garage SMC CARTAGE Co. at 2212 North Clark Street in Chicago where the gangsters were killed

Another garage, in which the burned remains of a car used in an operation to shoot gangsters were found.

The truce with Moran was short-lived. Drucci, Hymie Weiss's successor and the new head of the North Side gang, was killed in a shootout with a police officer. Capone and Moran both attended his lavish funeral. Moran was left alone. His closest friends were gone.
Moran began stealing Capone's liquor trucks. Capone responded by burning down Moran's Greyhound Racing Club. Moran continued to kill Capone's close friends and men. He couldn't stop.

The police subsequently arrested Capone gang members Jack McGurn, John Scalice and Joseph Giunta, but McGurn was able to provide an alibi, and Scalice and Giunta did not have time to provide anything or stand trial because they were quickly killed. Capone himself has a strong alibi - at the time of the murder he was called by the district attorney of Miami County, Florida. However, the police were sure that it was he who planned the murder, and the direct perpetrators were Scalice and Anselmi. Bugs Moran said: Only Capone's men can kill like that. However, it was not possible to prove anything.

Chief of Detectives William Shumaker (left), gangster Jack McGurn and prosecutor Ben Feldman (right) in court, Chicago, 1929.

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Continued here

On the morning of February 14, 1929, seven men gathered in a car garage on North Clark Street in Chicago. Most of them belonged to the so-called Bugs Moran gang, which operated in Chicago's North Side during the years of general chaos caused by the introduction of Prohibition. The rank and file were waiting for boss Moran, who was to receive a cargo of alcohol. However, fortunately, Moran was late. At 10.30 two men in police uniforms with pistols burst into the garage: “Stand up against the wall!” Two more appeared behind them, in civilian clothes, they pulled out submachine guns from under their coats and opened fire... When the real police arrived at the crime scene, they found six corpses, one dying and seven dozen shell casings from a submachine gun in pools of blood.


Bugsy Moran

The version that Al Capone is behind the murder of smugglers main competitor"Bugs" Moran in Chicago, born almost immediately. At the time of the crime, of course, Al Capone was not in the city. His people, however, were seen near the garage, but this still did not prove anything. A well-known expert in the field of forensic ballistics, Calvin Goddard, was invited to conduct the examination.

After examining the bullets and cartridges and conducting a series of experiments, Goddard came to the conclusion that the criminals used two .45-caliber Thompson submachine guns, one with a twenty-round magazine, the other with a fifty-round drum. The results of the examination provided considerable assistance to detectives in the investigation of the crime. Only ten months later did the police manage to track down the killers. On December 14, 1929, a worker was killed in St. Joseph, Michigan. highway patrol service: Shot to death in broad daylight by a driver he pulled over for a traffic violation. The killer disappeared, but it was possible to establish his address using the car number. During a search of the apartment, police found a whole warehouse of weapons and ammunition, including two Thompson submachine guns.

Goddard confirmed that this was the weapon used by the criminals on February 14, 1929. The owner of the apartment, Fred Bark, one of the gangsters of the Al Capone clan, was arrested a few days later. He was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment. As it soon became clear, Moran's people dealt with the other two suspects. This is how the investigation ended terrible crime, entered into the annals of criminology under the title “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

On February 14, 1936, exactly seven years after the famous “massacre”, one of the participants in the events described above hitman Jack McGorn, nicknamed "Machine Gun", a professional boxer and part-time enforcer for the Chicago mafioso Capone, was found shot to death on an abandoned street in a suburban Chicago neighborhood. " Business card"McGorn used a nickel-plated nickel, which he placed in the hand of his victim. The successful killer took large “fees” for his services and earned enough to buy controlling stakes in popular Chicago clubs. McGorn was distinguished by a ferocious temperament and quite sadistic inclinations. When comedian Joe Lewis refused to perform at a club owned by McGorn in 1927, a mobster severely beat him and cut his vocal cords. In 1929, the killer was arrested by the police based on a “totality of evidence.” By this time, his personal record included 22 corpses. To be released before the trial, McGorn posted a million-dollar hotel as bail. During the subsequent four legal proceedings it was not possible to prove the guilt of “Avtomat” - necessary witnesses disappeared or were afraid to tell the truth. McGorn also dealt with three members of the criminal clan to which he himself belonged - Janta, Anselmi and Scalice, who were accused of treason by Al Capone. Despite his high “professionalism,” Jack McGorn ended his life like most gangsters - from a rival’s bullet. Police arriving at the scene of the murder found a nickel-plated coin pressed into the palm of the "Automatic" and a cardboard heart - a "gift" to McGorn from the killers as a reminder of the events of seven years ago.

February 14 is Valentine's Day, the holiday of all lovers. Rare printed edition will not mark this date with publication. Our magazine will not stand aside either. But we will tell you a completely different story that happened on this day - from the life of Chicago gangsters, which went down in the annals as the “Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

Valentine's Day Massacre

Magazine: Secrets and Archives No. 2, 2018
Category: Mafia is immortal

Seven riddled corpses

On February 14, 1929, at about 10:30 in the center of Chicago in the Lincoln Park area, machine gun fire was heard in a garage on North Clark Street. Several passers-by stopped. Residents leaned out of the windows of neighboring houses: “What’s that noise?” The garage doors opened and two police officers ushered two people out into the street with their hands up. The people, alarmed by the shooting, calmed down. A common occurrence in 1920s Chicago: the police arrest two gangsters. The police loaded the bandits into a black Cadillac and drove away.
After some time, Mrs. Landesman, the owner of the boarding house located on the other side of the street, went to the garage: a heartbreaking dog howl had been coming from there for several minutes. Determined to give the owner of the animal a beating (“Calm down your dog!”), she pushed the garage door... and she had no time for the dog.
The police who arrived to the call found a howling dog tied to a car and six corpses riddled with bullets. The seventh was still breathing. The sergeant leaned over him: “Who shot at you?” The man opened his eyes (the doctors later counted 22 holes in him) and whispered: “Nobody shot at us.” Three hours later he died.
All seven did not die in the shootout; they were lined up against the wall and shot in cold blood. Everyone had a weapon, but no one used it. Why did they let themselves be killed like chickens? And for what purpose was this crime committed? Nothing was stolen, nothing was stolen. The police hoped that the found participants in the massacre would provide answers to all these questions.
The police immediately identified the names of those killed. These were members of George Moran's gang, nicknamed Bugs. As for the killers and the direct customer, Moran was the first to say: “Al Capone did it.” The police opinion was exactly the same.

Chicago late 1920s

The introduction of Prohibition at the end of 1919 provoked a colossal surge in crime in the United States. The trade in smuggled alcohol brought crazy profits. Bootleggers led real war. They recaptured trucks with alcohol from each other, destroyed rival drinking establishments, and divided the city into spheres of influence. And at the same time they fired right and left from Thompson submachine guns.
Invented in the early 1920s, the Tommy gun was heavy, had low penetration ability and a bunch of other disadvantages. The army was not interested in him. But the gangsters liked it. Not caring about aiming, they fired heavily from it, shooting the police and each other at point-blank range. Wide, long-skirted raincoats came into fashion, under which it was so convenient to hide a machine gun.
By 1929, there were only two gangs left in Chicago, two criminal kings: Bugs Moran and Al Capone, who really did not like each other.

In search of truth

Having collected the shell casings lying on the floor, ballistics experts issued a conclusion according to which the gangsters were shot with two 45-caliber Thompson pistols. Al Capone was interrogated. It turned out that on the day of the murder he was thousands of kilometers from Chicago, in Miami. The police grinned: well, if only Capone suddenly didn’t have a cast-iron alibi! On February 22, a burned Cadillac was found in one of the garages, in which the gangsters arrived and left. The criminals cut off the ends.
On December 14, 1929, in Michigan, a policeman stopped a car whose driver had violated the rules. In response to the demand to show his license, the offender pulled out a pistol, fired three times and fled. The policeman died that night, but before his death he gave the number of the car in which the criminal was driving.
Detectives pulled this thread and found the owner of the car, a certain Frederick Dane, who turned out to be gangster Fred Burke. His apartment was searched and two Thompson submachine guns were found among a pile of weapons. They were sent for examination and soon received an answer: these were the machines that appeared in the events of February 14 in Chicago.
Burke was hired a year later. He admitted killing a policeman, but categorically refused to talk about the massacre in the garage. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he died in prison without opening his mouth. It seemed that the “Valentine’s Day massacre” would remain a dark matter.

Talkative Bolton

On January 8, 1935, FBI agents surrounded a house in North Chicago where members of Mama Barker's gang were hiding. The gangsters responded to the police's offer to surrender with gunfire. In the shootout, one of the bandits died, the rest (two men and two women) came out with their hands raised.
The interrogations began, and if one of the bandits remained sullenly silent, the second, Byron Bolton, suffered from speech incontinence. He laid out information without waiting for questions, he talked about crimes in which he himself took part or which he had at least heard about. Details of unsolved cases, long since sent to the archives, surfaced. The typist hammered away at the typewriter at the speed of a Thompson machine gun and still could barely keep up. Having finished the story about the next crime, Bolton drank some water and continued: “And now about the massacre on Valentine’s Day.”
In 1928, Moran and Capone, having shot their competitors, began to divide Chicago among themselves. In the city, in broad daylight, machine gun fire was fired and cars were blown up. The pompous funeral of another gangster has become a familiar sight for Chicagoans.
In November, at one of the meetings, Capone and his henchmen decided to eliminate Moran. The idea of ​​dressing up as police officers was suggested by Jack McGurn (Machine Gun). In October, Moran's gangsters riddled the telephone booth he entered; McGurn survived by a miracle and was now eager to get even.

How the greed of gangsters ruined

The machine gun organized a team of 6 people (2 “policemen”, 2 shooters and 2 drivers, the eldest was Fred Burke). McGurn specifically selected people whom none of Moran's gangsters could identify, otherwise the cross-dressing masquerade could have had a completely different ending. He found out that Moran's headquarters were in a garage near Lincoln Park. An apartment was rented in the building opposite, from which the surveillance was carried out.
On February 13, one of the suppliers of smuggled alcohol contacted Moran and said that a truck with a load of Old Log Cabin whiskey (very good whiskey) was coming from the Canadian border, and he was ready to sell it at a ridiculous price - $ 57 per case. Moran took the bait. The place of delivery of the goods, as expected by Machine Gun, was a garage on North Clark Street, time - 10:30 next day.
Early on the morning of February 14, observers took their positions in the rented apartment, watching everyone entering and leaving the garage, and Burke and his henchmen stole a police car. Around 10:15 a.m., supervisors called Burke to report that Bugs had entered the garage. The gangsters got into a stolen patrol car. The operation to eliminate Moran has begun.

In the garage

In fact, Moran did not enter the garage. Observers mistook him for Albert Weinshank, who really looked like Bugs, especially from afar. And Moran himself was late for the meeting. He arrived 15 minutes late, but seeing a police car at his headquarters, he wisely decided not to enter the garage and drove past.
Burke's "cops" entered the garage first and ordered everyone to raise their hands and line up against the wall. The gangsters did not resist and allowed themselves to be disarmed. Well, two ordinary fools arrived with the raid, now they will take you to the police station, everything will be decided there - we will come to an agreement, we will pay off whoever needs to call, and they will let everyone go. For the first time, or what?
They didn’t suspect anything when two people in plain clothes (undercover police agents, probably) entered the garage. Standing facing the wall, the gangsters did not see how the “plainclothes policemen” opened the tails of their raincoats and took out Thompson submachine guns. Everyone standing at the wall received from one and a half to two dozen bullets.
Capone, when he learned that Moran was not in the garage, was furious, but it was too late.

Rotten business

The longer the Bolton detectives listened, the sadder they became. It was impossible to indict Al Capone or McGurn based on the testimony of Byron Bolton alone, and all the ordinary performers had long since died.
McGurn was one of the last to die in 1936. On February 13, two strangers entered the establishment where Machine Gun was bowling and shot him point-blank. Arriving police found a Valentine's card on the dead gangster's chest. It was a greeting from the past.