On the night of February 14, 1929, seven members of the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran crew were gunned down inside a garage located in the north side district of Chicago. When police arrived on the scene, they found one of the gang members, Frank Gusenberg, still alive. The police proceeded to question him on what had happened, but he would not talk. He died a few hours later at a local hospital. Police could not find many eyewitnesses and in the end no one was ever brought to trial for the murders. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre played a pivotal role in the urban gang wars that took place during the era of Prohibition.
Gang wars ran the streets of Chicago during the 1920s. “From 1924 to 1930, the city of Chicago gained a widespread…show more content… It was in this garage that the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred. After Capone learned of a $50,000 bounty on his head, he ordered Moran’s crew to be killed. Assailants entered the garage dressed as police officers and proceeded to “arrest” the men. Seven members of Moran’s operation were then lined up against a wall and gunned down in cold blood. Over 70 rounds of ammunition were fired in the garage. Moran was not one of the seven men killed that night. He was running late and saw the fake police officers enter the garage and thought his men were being arrested. Immediately after the massacre occurred, Moran blamed Capone’s gang. Capone denied the allegations that he was involved, stating he was in Florida at the time of the massacre. Capone was never linked to the murders, but general consensus is he was responsible.
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was the last clash between the two men and is known for marking the end of anymore significant resistance to Al Capone’s control in Chicago. Moran lost all of his most important men in the massacre and could no longer compete with Capone. Moran would then resort to small town robberies until he was jailed in 1946. Despite coming out on top, the massacre marked the beginning of the end for Capone as well. The massacre brought new unwanted attention to Capone and in 1931 he was indicted for tax evasion and sentenced to
