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Poor Public Relations: The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

© Ron Lombard

The O'Banion Gang just would not go away and continued to be a thorn in the side of Capone. Bugs Moran, who became the new leader of the group, increased his efforts to compete against the Capone organization. He tried to move in on Capone's interests in various legal and illegal areas. Moran also set up a series of ambushes aimed at Capone and key members of his organization. Even worse, Moran aware of Capone's desire to maintain a particular public image, took even opportunity to attack Capone through the public media. This activity caused Capone a great deal of anger, but made it difficult to react without bringing public wrath down on his organization. To remove himself from the situation, Capone decided to take a vacation to his Florida estate in the new vacation home his wife had been spending so much money on. He did however remain in constant touch with Chicago to keep an active eye on the situation.

Capone felt the only way to deal with the situation was through the elimination of Moran, while Capone was safely out of Chicago. Searching for an appropriate date to deal with Moran, Capone decided on Saint Valentine's Day as the date for "Dr. Thompson" to deliver a gift to Moran.

February 14th, 1929, members of Moran's gang were in a warehouse on Clark Street waiting for a truckload of whiskey. They were also awaiting the arrival of Moran, who was to check the shipment and decide on its distribution. Moran, who had stopped for a cup of coffee, was a few minutes late and as he approached the warehouse spotted a car with police pulling up in front of the warehouse. It appeared that a raid was about to take place and Moran turned away from the meeting area. Four men entered the warehouse, two in police uniform and two in regular clothing. Those who lived near by later stated that they heard the clatter of a pneumatic drill and two loud car backfires. Then the doors swung open and two men in plain clothes walked out of the warehouse with their hands in the air followed by the uniformed policemen who had their guns drawn. Most people who saw this assumed another raid had taken place, which was quite common for the area. The four men got into the waiting car, where a driver had remained, and drove off.

For a short period of time all remained quiet, until a dog inside the warehouse began to howl and whine. The howling continued for some time and finally one of the neighbors went to the warehouse to get something done about the dog's howling. The investigator quickly ran out of the warehouse and called the police, informing them that he had stumbled onto some type of massacre.

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