St. Valentine's Day Massacre

jlew24asu
jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
edited February 2007 in A Moving Train
Interesting and infamous part of the History of Chicago and the Chicago Mob


no one was ever convicted

.....................................................


The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is the name given to the shooting of seven people as part of a Prohibition Era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago, Illinois in the winter of 1929: the South Side Italian gang led by Al "Scarface" Capone and the North Side Irish/German gang led by George 'Bugs' Moran.

On the morning of Thursday, February 14, St. Valentine's Day, seven members of George 'Bugs' Moran's gang were lined up against the rear inside wall of the garage of the S-M-C Cartage Company in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. They were then shot and killed by five members of Al Capone's gang (two of whom were dressed as police officers). When one of the dying men, Frank "Tight Lips" Gusenberg, was asked who shot him, he replied, "Nobody shot me." Capone himself had arranged to be on vacation in Florida at the time.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Valentine's_Day_Massacre

http://www.prairieghosts.com/valentine.html

http://www.mysterynet.com/vdaymassacre/
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Comments

  • FinsburyParkCarrots
    FinsburyParkCarrots Seattle, WA Posts: 12,223
    Thanks for those links!

    "Nobody shot me." Even Hollywood couldn't come up with a line like that.
  • jlew24asu
    jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    I guess I was a little late posting this last ngiht but is this event common knowledge among people outside of Chicago?

    history of chicago and the mob is a huge interest of mine and this story is a good read.

    its how Al Capone came to power
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I guess I was a little late posting this last ngiht but is this event common knowledge among people outside of Chicago?

    absolutely it is... i watched an old black and white St Valentines Day Massacre film when i was a kid.. ever since then i've become obsessed with Cosa Nostra and Mafia stuff.. . specifically the Sicilian genesis.
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • sonicreducer
    sonicreducer Posts: 713
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I guess I was a little late posting this last ngiht but is this event common knowledge among people outside of Chicago?

    i've watched a history channel program about it, but it is not common knowledge where im from,...

    thanks for the links
    you're a real hooker. im gonna slap you in public.
    ~Ron Burgundy
  • jlew24asu
    jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    so a guy from Scotland says its common knowledge but not in south carolina. how does that work? haha.
  • jlew24asu
    jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    dunkman wrote:
    absolutely it is... i watched an old black and white St Valentines Day Massacre film when i was a kid.. ever since then i've become obsessed with Cosa Nostra and Mafia stuff.. . specifically the Sicilian genesis.

    yea me too. did you know the chicago mob built and controlled hollywood and las vegas?

    crazy stuff.
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    jlew24asu wrote:
    yea me too. did you know the chicago mob built and controlled hollywood and las vegas?

    crazy stuff.


    yeah

    meyer lansky and lucky luciano were in cahoots with him on the east cost as well as in Vegas.

    The mob actually controlled Vegas right up until the 70's... i would expect they still have some selmblance of power there.. prostituition, drugs, etc... but not in the casinos themselves
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    jlew24asu wrote:
    so a guy from Scotland says its common knowledge but not in south carolina. how does that work? haha.

    *in best homer whisper*

    cos people in europe read books

    ;)
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • baraka
    baraka Posts: 1,268
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I guess I was a little late posting this last ngiht but is this event common knowledge among people outside of Chicago?

    history of chicago and the mob is a huge interest of mine and this story is a good read.

    its how Al Capone came to power


    Sure it's common knowledge for most Americans who took any kind of history class. I learned about this in grade school. I'm sure it's common knowledge to folks from other countries that have taken American history or have watched any of the numerous documentaries on TV. A very interesting time in history.......
    The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance,
    but the illusion of knowledge.
    ~Daniel Boorstin

    Only a life lived for others is worth living.
    ~Albert Einstein
  • jlew24asu
    jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    dunkman wrote:
    *in best homer whisper*

    cos people in europe read books

    ;)

    shocking!
  • RainDog
    RainDog Posts: 1,824
    Everybody Sing........

    "I heard my mama cry
    I heard her pray the night Chicago died....."
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    jlew24asu wrote:
    shocking!

    i know ;)

    The chicago mob is probably the most powerful outside of the NY five families.... it certainly used to be the most feared and ruthless organisation.

    do people know the difference between Cosa Nostra and Mafia?
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • jlew24asu
    jlew24asu Posts: 10,118
    dunkman wrote:
    i know ;)

    The chicago mob is probably the most powerful outside of the NY five families.... it certainly used to be the most feared and ruthless organisation.

    do people know the difference between Cosa Nostra and Mafia?

    I know there is a difference but wiki doesnt know.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia

    The Sicilian Mafia (also referred to simply as the Mafia or Cosa Nostra), is a criminal secret society of men which first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily. An offshoot emerged on the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian emigration (see also Italian diaspora).

    A dictionary of the Italian language – the Devoto-Oli - describes the Mafia as: "A complex of small clandestine associations (the cosche: gangs) governed by a code of silence (the omertà) and being in control of some business activities and of party patronage in the administration of the Region of Sicily".

    According to historian Paolo Pezzino: "The mafia is a kind of organized crime being active not only in several illegal fields, but also tending to exercise sovereignty functions – normally belonging to public authorities – over a specific territory […]. It is therefore a form of criminality implying some conditions: the existence of a modern state claiming the exclusive right to legitimate monopoly over violence; an economy that is free of feudal bonds […]; the existence of violent people able to operate on their own, imposing their mediation even on the ruling classes".[1]
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I guess I was a little late posting this last ngiht but is this event common knowledge among people outside of Chicago?

    history of chicago and the mob is a huge interest of mine and this story is a good read.

    its how Al Capone came to power

    I take it you've read 'The gangs of Chicago'? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gangs-Chicago-Herbert-Asbury/dp/0099464764/sr=1-1/qid=1171553547/ref=sr_1_1/026-8449191-6268465?ie=UTF8&s=books

    I've got a copy but haven't read it yet.
  • Collin
    Collin Posts: 4,931
    dunkman wrote:
    i know ;)

    The chicago mob is probably the most powerful outside of the NY five families.... it certainly used to be the most feared and ruthless organisation.

    do people know the difference between Cosa Nostra and Mafia?

    I'm not entirely sure, I think Mafia used to refer to La Cosa Nostra only but because of the media and hollywood it has now become a sort of hypernym for organized crime organisations.
    THANK YOU, LOSTDAWG!


    naděje umírá poslední
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    jlew24asu wrote:
    I know there is a difference but wiki doesnt know.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia


    from my memory and from what i've read there is no literal translation for Mafia or Mafiosi... whereas Cosa Nostra is a more 'modern' tag they have used.... "our thing" = La Cosa Nostra, but no-one really knows where or how the word "mafia" was born...

    I think some Sicilian playwright was the first to use it in print, but its one of those weird Italianisms where they create words and monikers for things.

    great movies on the Vegas side of things are Casino (very under-rated Scorsese in my view) and Bugsy is a good film...

    Did they use Chicago to film The Untouchables?
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    Collin wrote:
    I'm not entirely sure, I think Mafia used to refer to La Cosa Nostra only but because of the media and hollywood it has now become a sort of hypernym for organized crime organisations.


    yeah, same as with The Camorra in Naples and 'Ndrangheta from Calabria... they are mafia-like in their organisation but they arent technically Mafia..

    same with the Russian Mafia.
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    True Romance

    Clifford Worley: You're Sicilian, huh?
    Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
    Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things... about history. I find that shit fascinating......
  • dunkman
    dunkman Posts: 19,646
    Byrnzie wrote:
    I take it you've read 'The gangs of Chicago'? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gangs-Chicago-Herbert-Asbury/dp/0099464764/sr=1-1/qid=1171553547/ref=sr_1_1/026-8449191-6268465?ie=UTF8&s=books

    I've got a copy but haven't read it yet.


    i need to read that Byrnzie... its the same author who wrote "Gangs of New York" isnt it?
    oh scary... 40000 morbidly obese christians wearing fanny packs invading europe is probably the least scariest thing since I watched an edited version of The Care Bears movie in an extremely brightly lit cinema.
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    dunkman wrote:
    i need to read that Byrnzie... its the same author who wrote "Gangs of New York" isnt it?

    Yeah. I tell ya what. I'll bring it on Thursday. Regard it as a farwell pressie. I only payed 50p for it anyway in a charity shop and it's unread.

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