By Pete Gawda
St. Valentine’s Day brings thoughts and memories of romance, candy and flowers, but there is one dark memory associated with that holiday. On Feb. 14, 1929, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago took place, where members of one gang of mobsters wiped out a rival gang.
In the Chicago of the late 1920s, there was rivalry between gangs to control illegal activities, including bootlegging. Al Capone had the largest gang and tried to eliminate all competition, including the North Side Gang led by George “Bugs” Moran.
At 10:30 a.m. on that fateful morning, according to the website allthatsinteresting.com, two men in suits and two men dressed as police officers entered a warehouse at 212 N. Clark St. They were believed to be members of Capone’s gang. Members of Moran’s gang were waiting inside on the pretense of a bootleg whiskey deal. The exact details of what happened inside the warehouse are unclear, but the two men in suits were escorted out of the building a few minutes later by the two men in police uniforms, and seven men lay dead on the floor, with some 70 rounds of ammunition fired.
The only survivor was a German shepherd named Highball who belonged to May and was chained to a vehicle in the warehouse during the massacre. His howls caused people to call the police. When police arrived, they took Highball into custody, but he had to be euthanized because of the trauma he suffered.
Britannica Online lists the victims as Albert Kachellek, Moran’s second-in-command and brother-in-law; Adam Heyer, the gang’s bookkeeper; Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dying operations for Moran; Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter, who were gang enforcers. There were also two non-gang members among the victims: Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, a former optician turned gambler who liked to hang out with the gang, and John May, a mechanic who was working on a vehicle in the warehouse.
Ironically, the supposed victim of the massacre was not present. On his way to the warehouse, according to the website history.com, Moran saw a police car and thought it was a police sting, so he made a quick retreat.
The only survivor was a German shepherd named Highball who belonged to May and was chained to a vehicle in the warehouse during the massacre. His howls caused people to call the police. When police arrived, they took Highball into custody, but he had to be euthanized because of the trauma he suffered.
According to the website of the Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement in Las Vegas, Capone was a prime suspect, but there was no evidence against him. He claimed to have been in Florida at the time. Several suspects were arrested, but authorities could not build a good case against anyone, and there were no prosecutions. One of the suspects was Capone bodyguard Jack McGurn. However, McGurn had come up with what was called “the blond alibi.” He stated that he had been with his girlfriend, Louise Rolfe, the entire day. McGurn then married Rolfe, which precluded Rolfe from testifying against McGurn. Another suspect was gang member Fred Burke. A few months later, Burke killed a police officer in Michigan. A search of Burke’s house disclosed two machine guns that ballistic tests proved were used in the massacre. However, Burke was not extradited to Illinois; instead, he was imprisoned in Michigan for the death of the police officer.
At least two good results came from the massacre. Pressure on local police to solve the crime led to the formation of the nation’s first crime laboratory and the use of scientific methods to solve crimes, according to the website ourhistory.org. Also, the FBI, which had previously not been involved in investigating organized crime, began to take a more active role.
The site of the massacre was demolished in 1967. However, the bricks from the wall against which the men were shot were bought by a Canadian businessman and displayed in several crime-related exhibits. Today, they form a brick wall at the Mob Museum.
A movie about the event titled “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” was released in 1967 with Jason Robards in the role of Capone. Bruce Dern played one of the victims, and Jack Nicholson had a bit part as a gangster.
