#35 BANG BANG: St. Valentine's Day Massacre I

Aiza Jamil
Oct 23
3 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

Hello, and welcome back, folks, to another episode of STEM on the Streets! If you are new here, my name is Aiza, and this is my partner, CAI (crime AI). Together, we stroll through the criminal-ridden streets of STEM!

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Content Warnings

This blog discusses shootings, homicide, and gang violence.

Picture this: it is the most romantic day of the year, Valentine’s Day, in Chicago. People expecting to receive flowers, chocolates, and the like were met by the execution of seven men. Within minutes, Valentine's Day had changed from romantic to a rat’s nest, leaving one of the bloodiest imprints on American history.

The Divided City

During the 1920s, Prohibition (a period of time in the USA where the transportation, production, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited), ordinary businessmen were labeled as outlaws. Bars had become speakeasies, alcohol was traded on the black market, and Chicago became the center for organized crime. A the top of this brutal hierarchy, there was Al “Scareface” Capone, a rather infamous chief gangster. And opposing him there was George “Bugs” Moran, part of Chicago’s North Side Gang. The rivalry between the two men and the gangs was never clean, resulting in the mess now known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The Morning of the Massacre

At about 10:30 am on February 14, it was reported that a black Cadillac sedan pulled up outside a garage at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighbourhood. Inside the garage were Bug Moran’s men waiting for what they believed was a shipment of stolen liquor.

Four men exited the sedan, two of them dressed as police officers, and went inside the garage. Seeing the supposed police, Moran’s men gave up their weapons and lined against the wall, assuming that their little shipment had been busted, a frequent occurrence for bootleggers. Little did they know, they had just turned their backs on death. Quite literally. The faux police officers took out Thompson submachine guns and opened fire, firing about 70 rounds of bullets.

(✿◡‿◡)CAI: Oof.

I know, right? This is why the crime is so grisly. But the attackers managed to flee the scene before the actual police arrived. Six of Morano’s men had died, and the seventh one, Frank Gusenberg, was barely alive yet somehow managed to crawl about twenty meters. Upon questioning after being taken to the hospital, Gunsberg refused to give information. When the police had asked him who had shot him, he had said, “No one... No one shot me”. He didn’t survive for long.

The Lucky Survivor... Who Wasn’t There

Bugs Moran was there too, but managed to escape death by a twist of timing. He was also supposed to be at the garage; however, when he saw the sedan, he turned away, assuming it was an actual raid. His absence saved his life.

The After Effects

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre sent shockwaves across America. Graphic images of bodies lined up against a wall, their blood soaking the floor, were published in the newspapers. Police had launched an aggressive investigation, yet nobody was ever convicted. However, Capone was a big suspect. Conveniently so, he was in Florida at the time. Still, everyone, including Moran, had accusatory fingers pointed at Capone, with Moran even saying to reporters, “Only Capone kills like that”.

The Massacre marked the beginning of the end of Capone’s nefarious reign, even though the event ended one of Capone’s biggest oppositions. Capone wasn’t convicted for the Valentine’s Day Massacre but was arrested and convicted multiple times.

Well, that is all for today, lovely people! Next blog, we’ll be diving further into the methods that were used to solve this crime.

This is Aiza Jamil signing out!

I am a forensics sleuth. What's your mystery to solve?