Valentine's Day is tomorrow, but I've never really cared for the holiday. So much pressure to have the perfect day, showing the person you love that, well that you love them. Seems foolish to me. Instead, I think I might take the time out of my busy schedule to reflect on the tragedy that was the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.
During the days of the Prohibition Era in the 1920s, the city of Chicago had two powerful gangs - the Italian gang to the south, and the Irish gang to the north. The gangsters of the south were headed by Al Capone. The gangsters to the north were led by Bugs Moran.
On February 14, 1929, five members of the North Side gang were lured to an empty warehouse. The plan was to kill Bugs Moran and maybe a few of his men. However, as Moran was on his way to the meeting spot, he caught a glimpse of a police car and it scared him away. He wasn't in the warehouse when the shooting took place. The Irish gangsters present were lined up against a wall of the warehouse and executed.
According to a few witnesses that would testify, two of the shooters disguised themselves as police officers. The other perpetrators dressed in what was then a business casual type of way. There are a few different theories on who those suspects were. The killers could have been any of the numerous other gangsters or even the police themselves.
With the majority of the material I've read on the crime, the number one suspect seems to have been Al Capone, Public Enemy #1, himself. However, Capone was never convicted of the crime.
Who do you think did it? If forensic science of the 1920s was what it is today, do you think the mystery could have been solved?
crazy!
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