Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 22 - Al Capone's Valentine's Day Massacre

Episode Date: February 13, 2017

On Feb. 14th, 1929, seven men were found dead in a North Side Chicago garage. The scene was grisly - each man had been shot anywhere from nine to fifteen times, mowed down with shotguns and Thompson "Tommy Gun" sub-machine guns. Who were they? Why did it happen? What did Al Capone have to do with it? Learn about the history of organized crime in Chicago and so much more in this underworld edition of Timesuck!

February 14, 1929 Valentine's Day. Seven men are gunned down in a north side Chicago garage. A gangland mass murder that was the culmination of a bloody decade of violence between primarily Irish and Italian gangsters fighting for control of shite towns bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and the incredible amount of money that went along with it all. Mob Kingpin Al Capone's illegal income alone was estimated at a hundred million dollars a year in the 1920s. All right, and that's 1920s money. By 1929, his empire is estimated to have been worth 1.3 billion in today's dollars. Like all real gangsters, he wanted more. He always wanted more.

It was never enough and he was never going to ask for more. He was going to take it. And he sure as shit wasn't going to let any other gangsters take it from him. So from time to time, somebody had to die. And from 1924 to 1929 in Chicago, a lot of people died. Sixteen gang related murders in 1924, increasing each year, leading to 64 gang murders in 1929, and hitting a bloody, gory crescendo on Valentine's Day. Find out who died, find out why they died, what lit up to all the killings, and what happened

afterwards in this bloody, Tommy gun infested, shotgun to the face Valentine's Day edition at TimeSuck. Happy Monday everybody. Happy Valentine's Day, TimeSuckers. Happy Valentine's Day week. Even if you're alone this Valentine's Day, you can still get sucked with some TimeSuck. I know it's not the same, but it's better than nothing. I'll be your Valentine's Day, you can still get sucked with some time suck. I know it's not the same, but it's better than nothing. I'll be your Valentine's. I'll be your strange information obsessed, kind of creepy looking Valentine's. Oh, Valentine's Day.

The American straight man's least favorite holiday can thrive romantic pressure. Help in hallmark, push some shitty greeting cards on everyone. Making that greeting card money. Helping keep the Rose farmers employed, you know? Well, as you scramble to grab overpriced flowers by some sappy cards that makes you a little nauseous. And panic as you realize you forgot to make it a reservation to it again.

Let this episode be a little sweet, very unromantic relief. And ladies, I know many of you, if not most of you, also do not like this holiday. You don't care about getting a dozen roses, it costs 50 bucks this week, even though it costs 15 bucks last week. You know, any more than we want to buy them.

So let's all take a break from the SAP, and let's get into some dirt. But before we dig into Chicago, thank you so much for all the iTunes reviews. Wow, pouring in. If somehow you missed it, I thank you bonus episode for reaching 200 iTunes reviews. Wow, pouring in. If somehow you missed it, I thank you bonus episode for reaching 200 iTunes reviews. Came out this past Friday,

a big episode on Roswell, Area 51, Alien Abduction's and more. It was very fun to do, big extra terrestrial, extravaganza. And at the pace, these reviews are coming in. There's gonna be another bonus episode, probably coming soon. That's entirely up to you guys,

but it looks like it may be coming up quicker than I thought. And it's going to be on the origins of the third Reich Hitler's terrifying rise to power. I think that'll be fascinating. Also, if you haven't gotten back, I've, I've, I've, I've, sorry, if I haven't gotten back to your messages and comments this past week, I do apologize.

I've been super slammed to episodes to work on instead of one. A lot of stand updates, a lot of shows this past week, trying to be a good husband, dad, puppy dad. It's kept me insanely busy. So I will get back to all of you soon and thanks for caring enough just to write me in the first place. And big thanks to Nate from Wisconsin for leaving this topic suggestion in a comment on iTunes a while back. I noticed it didn't forget. Brent Hall also emailed me about hating Valentine's Day. Many of you have also written in about some kind of gangsters episode. So hopefully this fulfills that as well. And keep sending those topics suggestions, man.

Just understand it may take me a while before I can get yours. You know, I have a backlog of a couple hundred right now, which is awesome, which is so, I'm very thankful. And I never know which one's gonna grab me any given week. Sometimes the suggestion that comes in right when I'm sitting down to the computer to work on an episode is the one I'm Tipped going with that was that I was who didn't actually I had a totally different thing in mind and I was like What what huh and then went that direction? And then last four days of my life

But I'm grateful is it fun four days to lose all right? Let's get into this shit I had no idea first off that Chicago was a huge city in the 1920s, as big as it is today, which sounds crazy to me. The US Census Bureau listed Chicago's population for the decade ending in 2010 as 2,695,000 people. In 1920, it was 2.7 million. That's insane to me. Like for comparison, LA County had 576,000 people in 1929.8 million people in 2010.

Definitely fascinating to me as I record this episode, because I actually recorded this episode in Chicago, and I would do my research at a coffee shop less than a mile from where those gangsters died on that ill-fated Valentine's Day. So it just feels a little extra intense to think about, you know, back in Old Town, Chicago, like, you know, right where I am, that it was the same hustle and bustle than that it is now. There was the same large crowds moving through the streets. I don't know, I just, I can just picture it in my mind, you know, these fucking gangsters milling around in a real city, like a big, big urban area, and controlling it.

That just is so intense to think about. And just like Chicago is constantly making headlines for gangs and murders today, you know, even get the nickname Shy Rack, Chicago was a murder capital, excuse me, back then as well. And by 1929, Chicago citizens were pretty used to gang murders. But the bloodshed on Valentine's Day, 1929, was too much, even for them. Too much for them.

A line was crossed. But before we examine that day, let's examine the events that led up to it. Figure out why Chicago became associated with gangsters in the first place. And what events led directly and indirectly to the St. Valentine's Day massacre. So let's jump into a time suck timeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time suck timeline. All right, let's go all the way back to 1850.

Apparently, part of Chicago's gangland history has to do with parts of it being built on a marshy muddy, just kind of lakeside terrain. Early Chicago was apparently so muddy that the initial city planners decided to raise much of the city roughly 10 feet on average up out of the muck. Like raising buildings, actual foundations, up, up to like 15 feet in places in the 1850s.

I mean, I just, just being awesome. I didn't even know that was fucking possible. I don't know what's possible to do now. Let alone in 1850. I don't know a lot about urban construction. This created, but that's what this did, is it created an entire network of tunnels and underground kind of rooms all over downtown Chicago, which led directly and pretty quickly to a literal criminal underworld. Like the gangsters, like they literally came up out of the muck, fucking from beneath the city. How cool is that?

Like actual demons rising up from some literal hell, early Chicago criminals are rising up from beneath the city. It's like some Gotham Batman shit. I love it. I mean, I wouldn't love it if I was walking around alone, downtown in the 1860, you know, Chicago or something, but I love knowing about it now. And this underground area, according to one of the sources

I found, said it's where the very term underworld comes from. Who knew that didn't just come from Kate Beckinsale's master fucking franchise where she wears super tight leather outfits and beats people up and I love it. Yeah, but Underworld did not come from Kate Beckinsale. I did know that, but I didn't know where it come from. And initially,, this underworld was controlled by English saloon owner, I've got a fun title. I mean, I have an English saloon owner, Roger Plant, who would occasionally time travel to perform in his 20th century groundbreaking English rock band Led Zeppelin, changing his first name slightly from Roger Robert. Sorry, that's

obviously not true, but I just keep thinking about, I can just keep thinking about Robert Plants. I just got a whole lot of love. I got to get back to the underworld. Sorry. Anyway, Roger, he ran a saloon called the Barracks at Monroe and Wells, and it was around the clock, gambling hull, and whorehouse. And it was kind of a home base for pickpockets and muggers and thieves, fanning out notes tunnels hiding beneath the city. And there was plenty of young robes to steal from.

Chicago had recently become the nation's railroad hub, and thousands of naive young country bumpkins were pouring into the city from all over the cornfields of the Midwest riding the rails to make their fortune. And then those Chicago tunnel hiding human rats would spring up from the darkness. Robyn blind and those poor kids would head back to the purier, carning a brasker someplace, and I don't know, I don't know, work for mom and dad on the farm,

Mon, Mon Pa. Maybe Mary a hot cousin, some shit, I don't know if they did. Well by the 1870s, the initial seeds of true organized crime are planted by Michael Cassius McDonald. McDonald owned a tavern at Clark & Monroe known as the store, which reportedly was the largest liquor in gambling house in downtown Chicago, and some think it was McDonald, not PT Barnum, who coined the phrase,

there was a sucker born ever minute. Sorry, I don't know why I said that in weird accent. There is a sucker born every minute. And when Michael McDonald wasn't making money in the 19th century, he was singing sweet love songs in the 1980s, right? I keep forgetting. When I'm not in love anymore, I keep forgetting. I'm gonna stop. Sorry. Michael did know how to spot a sucker, though. He did know how to spot, he may not have been time traveling, but he did know how to spot a sucker.

He knew how to find some easy money, some easy money, porn into Chicago. He took Roger, Roger plants, fucking little crime, small time thing he had going on and blew it up. All right, and check out the scam he did. And by the way, before I get into the scam, man, a combination of a conny mind and no moral compass,

whatsoever, just must be fucking great way to live for some people, just to be a sociopath, right? So so much easier in life to get ahead of you. You just didn't give a single fuck about anything other than your own bottom line. And this is what I'm talking about. Here's the craziest scam I found out about this guy. When President Lincoln, you may have heard of him.

Abraham Lincoln, he was president of Summary Down. He called upon Illinois citizens to sign up for duty in the Union Army. A 22-year-old McDonald did not enlist in the Irish Brigade. Instead, he organized groups of bounty jumpers. Check out this sneaky, weasley shit. These bounty jumpers. Check out this sneaky weasley shit. These bounty jumpers would collect a $300 signing bonus, called a bounty that you would get to join the army. And then they would just desert as quickly as possible.

They would head back to Chicago with their 300 bucks, split the money with Michael McDonald. I'll keep forgetting a list under a new assumed name, and then just go do it again. I keep forgetting. I can end list I'm gonna I'm gonna fucking stop and drive myself crazy with that. The thing is just in my head like a virus right now that that tune I apologize if it's in yours. It probably is. It's very contagious But yeah, what a scam man. Just you know, hey you guys You know in this and he would also he would promise these guys immunity when they came back from

Because that was punishable by hanging then you could be hung for for you know Doing a crime like that but But then they would come back and he would hide and let him hide in his tunnels You know keep him safe for a while and you know keep him comfy with some women some ladies of the night and You know let him know that pretty soon the whole mess will blow over and women, some ladies of the night, and let them know that pretty soon the whole mess will blow over. And during the first two years of civil war, Illinois supplied more than 130,000 men to the Union Army and McDonald made enough money to purchase a saloon and a joining gambling parlor in a luxury

Chicago hotel. How much easier must it have been to be a criminal before computers and forensic evidence, cameras, video cameras, government databases, fingerprint know, a fingerprint registry, kind of thing, such like, like, I've never wanted to go live back in time, but if I was gonna be career criminal, I would fucking definitely wanna go back in time. I watch enough forensic files, know that I can't get away with shit now. There's nothing, I just, like, you know,

everyone's still out on if you do this, but everyone's still out on like, you're really fucking be angry at somebody or whatever in your life, you're like, God, I wouldn't, you know, if they did this, I should just, I would fucking kill him. I wouldn't, or you're thinking about like crazy hypothetical, like if somebody messed with my kid, somebody tried to diddle my kids and I found out before the police found out

about the situation, I would fucking kill him. And then I would like, I play out in my brain, like how I would kill him. And it always ends with me getting caught. Like because I've watched too many of those shows, you know, I'll be like, Oh, I'll fucking hide the body out in the woods. I'll bury all my shit. I won't talk to anybody. But then I'm like, I probably would fucking talk to somebody.

I probably tell one person and they tell one person and eventually get back or like a fucking coyote or something. I wouldn't have buried it right and they would find it. And then they would find like the tiniest fingernail clipping that somehow was still on my finger and fell off and they would fucking trace the DNA and I would be in some database. I don't even know about and they would get me. But back then, ah, he's fucking join the army, Baal, rejoin, different name, Baal, rejoin. You can just fucking do whatever you want.

Okay. So, McDonald kept running these scams, little gambling halls until he finally built a proper gambling hall, the store in September of 1873. And to keep the store going, McDonald bribed local politicians, started putting police on the payroll. The real gangster shit is getting started. All right, politicians, police on the gangster dole. That's a recipe for a crime boss. That's how you become a crime boss. It begins. And the police, they did take care of McDonald, you know, in exchange for a crime boss. That's how you become a crime boss. It begins. And the police, they did take care of McDonald's, you know, an exchange for the bribery. Like when he was arrested for the

attempted murder of a rival gambler, a police officer escorted him into jail on a special, you know, in a special carriage, you know, made sure he's nice and comfy, recommended to the judge. The McDonald's be released on bail immediately. He is, and of course is almost immediately acquitted on all charges and then the evening he's acquitted he holds a banquet for for judges city officials and police officers how nice it must have been to be a huge criminal before televised news and social media you couldn't get away with that fucking banquet today that's oh my god like my God. Like, might get those, you know, police officers and politicians in a little bit of trouble.

I mean, can you imagine? If you obviously tried to kill somebody, like people had cell phone videos of it or whatever, and then you just get released on bail, and then acquitted, and then you just host a party for the judge, and the arresting officers from local politicians, and the fucking balls on these guys back then.

I mean, like these were the days where you could just shoot somebody in the face in broad daylight in the middle of the street in front of a hundred witnesses. And if you were connected well enough, the case is still going to get dropped. Well, it looks like we're going to have to drop the case. What about the hundred eyewitnesses? Well, they, they, they've changed their story. They, they said they made it up. Do you, do you, do you think they were bribed?

No, no, no, not not all of them. Just the ones where new clothes all the sudden loaded up with the nice jewelry. The rest were probably just threatened, probably just threatened. Everyone coming in today with either had something new or shiny or they looked very scared. Guessing that dude, he tried to kill left town after that. I thought I would. If I realized the dude who just tried to kill me could absolutely just get I thought I would, if I realized the dude who just tried to kill me, could absolutely just get away with anything,

I'd probably take off. And McDonald, yeah, he was actually never convicted of anything, died of millionaire, the age of 68, 1907, rare feat for a career criminal. And before McDonald died, the prostitution trade, he helped grow in Chicago, began to see its end in 1893. Criminal activity took a little downturn for a second because the 1893 world's fair.

All right, that's the 1893 world's fair in Chicago. It brought national attention to how fucking filthy and crime fueled Chicago really was. It was a dirty, dirty city. And William T. Steed noted English reformer, an editor of the Review of Reviews magazine. What a fucking pretentious title that is. I'm the editor of the Review of Reviews magazine. What a fucking pretentious title that is. I'm the editor of the Review of Reviews magazine.

He was appalled by conditions in the Levy, Chicago's Northside neighborhood, where a lot of these brothels were located, and he was appalled by the politics of Chicago. And one year after his arrival, he published a startling expose, a vice-conditions entitled, if Christ came to Chicago. Of course it was, of course it was titled that. How to get all those Victorian women all, oh dear, what if Christ did come to Chicago?

He would be so upset. Fear created by the publication of Steeds Book, it was nationwide, it was nationwide, it all just fear. And the revelations led to a formation of the Civic Federation, Chicago's first important reform movement. And so the rising sentiment against the levee is further fueled by tales of white slavery

along with his prostitution. Thousands of young girls came to Chicago and other big cities at the turn of century looking for work. And some of them not being able to find employment turned to prostitution. But others were actually kidnapped, drugged and forced into the trade. The federal government's white slave traffic committee reported in 1907 that 278 girls under the age of 15, God damn, had been rescued from levy dens during a two-month period. That's fucking pretty fucked up. However, I mean super fucked up, but also you put that in today's context. I mean, this is a world where,

14-year-old girls got married on a regular basis. So kids treated a little differently. They weren't these protected entities when there were teens that were, you know, you were fucking pedophile. It's like, no, no, no. If you were a 20, 25-year-old farmer and you wanted to marry the 14-year-old fucking neighbor's daughter, and you're going to take care of her, you were seeing as a good dude. So it's not as creepy in the context, but still super fucked up.

So most women who enter prostitute Chicago, probably still voluntarily, but even the hint of people being forced into this appalled Chicago's religious community, I mean, this is a place where the Moody Bible Institute is formed, and the direct pressure was placed upon the federal government to act, and as a result, Chicago Congressman James Mann sponsored new legislation making the interstate transportation of women for the purpose of prostitution a violation of federal law. Remember, that's the thing that actually Manson got charged with was a violation of the Mann Act. It comes up in a lot of stories, actually. But by 1914, the last Bordello shuttered its doors, and the levee was officially closed.

So, you know, prostitution and vice in Chicago is over, huh? Of course not. We haven't even gotten to Cappone yet. So, it didn't last long, this reformation. And very next year, in 1915, William Hale Thompson is elected mayor. And he has, let's say, a more relaxed moral position regarding prostitution and vice than James Man and then politicians like Man. He liked the money. He liked being in the gangsters pockets and he uses his political power to reduce the police's power and cracking down on brothels, gambling halls, basically vice in general. Hore houses now camouflaged as hotels, saloons, and cabarets, they're back in vogue, and

the noble politicians of the area, they just couldn't stop it, man, there's just too much money floating around for people like fucking, you know, Mayor Thompson to scoop up. And most of these new brothels were located in a neighborhood where a lot of the old brothels were located, the first ward. That was a Chicago neighborhood long associated with the vice, and under Thompson's new relaxed rule, a new Chicago crime boss would rise up and start the very empire al Capone would soon inherit an expand. James Colissimo, working in the first war during this time was James Colissimo.

Colissimo controlled the vote in the Italian settlement, centered around Pope and Clark Streets within the first war, Big Jim. He was referred to. He also was involved in prostitution. He operated three levy houses of prostitution and under Thompson's 10 years mayor, he thrived. He started opening more brothels, making a lot more money, making so much money. He started wearing a lot of diamonds. And he was sometimes referred to as diamond gym. Fucking characters back then, man. Have you met my friend, diamond gym? He's the guy over there with the six girls,

the six, 15-year-old girls hanging around him and a cane made out of diamonds, that's Diamond Jim. He's a fine gentleman. What the fuck? But like many other successful Italians of the time, Klausimo, he soon became the target of the black hand extortion. And this black hand extortion, he was suffering,

led him to kind of recruiting some people that ended up eventually bringing over Capone. The black hand, Lamanoneda, was not an organization. It was a practice by which businessmen, other wealthy Italians, were extorted for money. Like intended victims, they were just sent a letter stating that the violence would come to them if they didn't pay a particular sum of money.

The term black hand came into use because these extortion letters usually contain a drawing of a black hand and other evil symbols such as a dagger and a skull and crossbones. The black hand was not a secret society but there were a number of black hand gangs and the black hand was just a crude method of extortion. It had gone on for a long time in Southern Italy and Sicily. And there was a lot of murders associated with it. There was a 25 unsolved black hand killings in Chicago in 1910, 33 in 1912, 42 in 1914.

You know what I'm saying? They followed through on their threats. 55 bombs were set off in Chicago during the first three months of 1915 to reinforce black hand demands. So, you know, it's fucking, they were serious. And, you know, how much would that suck to be some little deli owner back then? You know, some little jicepo.

And, you know, I don't know how you're gonna be jicepo. Jicepo, I mean, jicepo, the deli owner. Just immigrated from Naples or Florence or Sicily and you know, you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and Do sorry sorry I turned you that accent earlier for some reason the only I feel like the time I can kind of do the time accent Is if I say Mario I got to do Mario and Luigi. I don't know why and I'm sure I'm sure it's a horribly offensive Like just cartoonish Italian accent like that's a module. It's a pizza pie. It's spaghetti accent but that's a module. That's a pie. That's spaghetti. That's so fucking. That's so kind of sending I'm sure. So Italian listeners, I apologize that all I that I just think of Mario and Luigi and spaghetti. Anyway, this little guy,

you know, you're some little daily owner, you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, creating new life yourself and this new land of opportunity with your sweat and tears and blood poured into your work. And then you get some fucking letter in the mail with a black hand and skull and crossbones to manning money. And then you just just like, God damn it. Cause now you know, if you don't pay it,

you know, you're gonna be sleeping with one eye open every night, you're gonna be waiting to get your store little deli destroyed, your little pastrami place destroyed. Well, you make it the spaghetti, la la done, yeah. I'm sorry, you know, you spaghetti? La la la daña. Sorry. Uh, you know, you get beaten in front of your family. You know, you shot in the fucking head, made an example of blown up.

Being extorted sounds terrible. Remind me, never to be extorted. All right. Well, in order to deal with the Black Hand Threads, Kalisimo, he sends for a New York relative, and these guys always know somebody in New York. Johnny, Johnny Torio. Johnny Torio, a member of New York's five points gang

and had dabbled in black hand stores himself. He knew a little bit about it. Torio's usefulness was gonna soon extend beyond protecting Calisimo into overseeing his bordelos. He realized that the glory days of the levee had come to an end. Instead of fighting the black hand and paying these local politicians tons of money,

he looked for a better deal and he found one. He reached an agreement with the mayor of Bernham, Illinois, to move a bunch of Calisi Moes and listed enterprises to that little suburb. Now it's the age of the automobile. People don't mind taking a little ride, go gamble, drink some whiskey, enjoy some female company. Bernham was only 15 miles directly south of the levee, short distance by car. Torio also set up shop in a number of other little suburban areas, and then the widespread use of the automobile, uh, ushering this era now known as the Roadhouse. You know, located in the nearby towns of Chicago Heights, and Calame, uh, City, and South Chicago, and Burnham, and these Roadhouses provided all kinds of comfort similar to those

of the levee. So now police and moaners and associates like Johnny Torio had built the first truly Italian crime syndicate in the history of Chicago, right? The kids are little empire with fucking their little different towns that run in, you know, and the little mob hierarchy controlling all this shit. And by the way, if you love this period of history,

watch Boardwalk Empire. Almost all those Chicago guys from the 20s are in that show. And they do a great job of mixing a fair amount of historical accuracy and some great, I think it's like that fourth, fifth season or something like that, maybe even third where they kind of move into Chicago for a lot of it. Anyway, big Jim, big Jim Kalisimo,

he starts to lose interest in his empire. He's making good money right now. He's been doing it a little while. And he just doesn't, he's not fucking into it anymore. He's spending less and less time attending to his business. He marries this young singer, super hot, and charismatic, Dale Winter, and he just wants to hang out with her. And Cleesimo is now resisting Torio's efforts at building the liquor syndicate, because now prohibitionists began. Torio wants to get into the liquor money.

And Cleesimo doesn't fucking care. Sections of the city were already being divided up by other gangs in the liquor distribution territories. Kleese was content to kind of keep what he had. You know, he controlled vice in the levy district and in Burnham and these other little suburbs and he was cool with that. He also ruled Chicago's street laborers union and the city's street repairs union, which were under the supervision of some protégé hiz.

And well, Torio was not okay with the lack of interest and expansion. And he did what ambitious young gangsters always seem to do when they had the opportunity to make a lot more money than they already were making, and their boss stood in the way of that opportunity. Fucking killed him, he had him killed. Klee Simo was found shot in the head,

May 11th, 1920, and the suspects in the killing were Al Capone. Yep, about time he showed up in this episode. Capone was the recently arrived Brooklyn assistant of Johnitorio, and yeah, and Frankie Yale of New York's five points gang was also a suspect. And so now, at 39 years of age, Johnitorio, he is the crime lord of the levy. And incredibly, like McDonald, much before him, he'd pull off the hardest feet of all for the 1920s gangsters and live a long life.

Or I should say, early 20th century since McDonald was the 1920s gangster, but you know what I meant. Well, Torio ran his criminal organization from the Fordooses Cafe. That sounds like a place you run a criminal organization from. That sets me up at the Fordooses, boys. Yeah, see, we'll talk about some business. See, I was it 2 2 2 2 South. Wow, that should meet up at 2 2 2 4 2s. Fordooses. South. Wow. I could took me that long to put that together. That's what the name came from. I think it a poker. Nah, dumb shit. Dan, it's because there's 2, 2, 2, 2, 2,

South 4, dude, he's OK. He was viewed as a non-sense business guy. First, you know, like truly organized crime. He was a master strategist, organizer, built an emperor that far exceeded Klee's most. And when the National Prohibition Enforcement Act ended the sale of alcoholic beverages in 1920, and there was a strong demand, which is what Torio wanted to get into.

The Torio viced and the kitten, these other groups around Chicago, they were in a very good position to supply the need for liquor. They were well organized. They had political connections to prevent interference from the police. All these concealed agreements they'd been making

with local politicians over the years, as well as the experience gained by years of struggle against reform-element elements. where they were brought into service into organizing and producing and distributing beer and whiskey. They were fucking ready. And now big, big, big money is being made. By the mid-20s, I don't know if you can hear that siren in the background, by the way, I'm recording this in Chicago.

I think how fitting is that that I'm talking about is crime, and then literally police sirens outside. That's not a sound effect. Well, by the mid-20s, the Chicago bootleaf industry, the component inherent from Torio, will be making $60 million a year. Now, I said that earlier. I'm gonna put that in today's money. $826 million in today's money. Almost a billion a year. In Chicago, whiskey and beer money alone. Like holy shit.

Well, lots of money comes, lots of greed. No matter how much any of these various Chicago gangs we're making, they always want a more. Except Torio, except Torio. It's got to seem like an interesting cat, man. He saw, you know, I mean, yes, he killed his boss because he wanted to make a little more money. But now that he's making this good money, he's like,

ah, all right, all right, let's fucking slow down. He saw a great opportunity to let everyone be rich beyond their wildest dreams and he approached the leaders of Chicago's top criminal gangs and he suggested that they give up burglary, they give up robbery, crimes of violence, knock all that shit off, and let's just focus on the bootlegged. Because he thought that would be the key to success during prohibition. You know, was they'd have these little territorial sovereignty, they could'd have these little territorial sovereignty, they could each have their little empires. And there was a lot of money to be made for everybody.

Each gang would control liquor distribution in their own area, not encroach upon the territory of others. And the main gang, ladies of the city, agreed to Torio's plan. And things were fucking great for a little while. But then things got ugly. Of course they did. These aren't normal businessmen happy with insane profit margins.

They're fucking gangsters. Violent, insanely ambitious, criminal, and criminally unstable men. And gang wars are gonna start up again soon. Finally culminating in the biggest little gangland battle on Valentine's Day 1929. All right, well, 1923, Chicago elects reform mayor, William Devar, and he fucking ruins everything

that they have going right now. Devar was one of the few politicians of the 1920s, and Chicago who would resist gangster bribery. And within weeks of taking office, his police shut down 7,000 soft drink parlors and restaurants operating as speakers. Stirring up gangsters, hornets, nestests, and fucking with their new piece agreement, big time. All right, Devers Reforms cost Torio to move his headquarters to nearby Cicero, Illinois.

And while Torio was vacationing in Italy, Capone chose the Hawthorne Inn at 4823 West 22nd Street as their Cicero headquarters. In fearing the spread of Debra's reform, Cicero's local corrupt Republican leaders asked Capone to assist them in the 1924 election. So he's moving out of Debra's little reform areas like, all right, I got some guys who will take my bribes and work with me, and he goes over to Cicero. And in return for helping the Republicans, because maintain control of Cicero, he's going to help get elected Torio and Capone, would be given a free hand to sell liquor in town.

They wouldn't be allowed to open Bordeaux, but they could do all the liquor money they want. So, on Election Day, check this out. 200 Capone gunmen descend on Cicero to ensure that people voted in the right direction. Conditions were so bad that Cook County judge Edmund Jarekki deputized. 70 Chicago police officers to go into Cicero and engage the Capone gang. Frank Capone, the brother of a... He's killed in this gun battle that ensues with the police at the polling station,

at the intersection of 20-second in Cicero. Well, even though his brother dies, he does help the Republicans win election. And then they keep their side of the bargain. It's estimated that the number of liquor and gambling establishments in Cicero controlled by the Torio Syndicate grows to 161.

All right, so brother dies, that sucks, but now they got a new place to do a lot of business and again How fucking crazy was life back then? Holy shit, they had it worse than we do now. Now we worry about possible computer voting fraud and some kind of secretive corruption What we don't worry about is armed gangsters pointing guns at us and telling us how to vote. Can you imagine that? You get on your little polling place and it's like, da-da-da-da-da- motherfucker, and he's put his gun to your head. That's the, okay, I'm gonna watch. Yes, I'm going into the booth with you. You're gonna put down that motherfucker.

All right, all right, all right, that's all the, just like it's unfathomable, that kind of stuff. Like, you know, people just can't get away with doing that kind of stuff. Not in this country, not at the moment. Who knows how crazy things will get, I guess. Okay, so outside of a sister row in the area of the Torio organization, a number of other gangs, kind of doing the same thing.

They're on the little areas, right? The working in collusion with local politicians and police supporting vice activities, violate, you know, prohibition laws, scrambling for areas to control under mayor, Devers reform regime, Deon, Deon O'Banion and his followers, control Chicago's North Side, Klondike O'Donnell and his brothers controlled the near Northwest Side, Roger Tufy, or Tuffy, excuse me, who claimed to be the only bootleger,

only to be a bootleger and not involved in other forms of vice. He controls the far Northwest Side, the terrible Jenna Brothers controlled the near West Side, Taylor Street area, the far West sides controlled by Terry Dugan, Frankie Lake, the Valley Gang on the Southwest side, both the Irish or Donald Brothers and the Salta's Macirland Gang, are they're doing bootlanging?

And so the city is just a fucking big collection of these clannish gang-controlled ethnic neighborhoods. And the gangs were, you know, centered in immigrant areas where the gangsters served as the right arm of the corrupt politician of that area at election time. In exchange for delivering the votes, just like fucking Capone and Torio did for Insistero, these other gang members, they were allowed to continue their criminal activities and whatever neighborhood they were at.

It was very much like a scratch, you know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back, kind of operation. Basically, the same way politics work today, if I'm going to be totally honest, except that gangs are now called giant public trade corporations and that fucking kidding. You let us continue to exploit the working class both domestically and abroad and we'll donate heavily to some nonprofit organization you use to funnel and filter money legally into your own fucking greedy pockets, you son of a bitch. The more things change, man, the more they stay the same in some ways, right?

Well, Chief among the Torio and Capone organization's rivals was the young Diano Abandon. Abandon and his followers including George Bugs Moran. Bugsimoran. And with the advent of prohibition, Abandon and his gang quickly moved to control most illegal liquor distribution on the near north side. So, Albanian's borough was the 42nd and 43rd Ward's

and his ability to deliver the Irish vote made him an important political figure in ward politics. It said that Albanian, he would go into saloons on election day and just shoot the doorknob's off of entrances of toilets in order just to randomly remind people that they were going to vote Republican. Like, that's one of the fucking many crazy things he would do.

Again, what a different era. And Obanion, he was clashed with the genophoresis, you know, because fucking Devar is just, he's stirring up all this shit, steeped up pressure by the Devar administration, forced liquor sales to dwindle, causing greater competition among Chicago's bootleggers. Like for example, the Jenna Brothers have been selling liquor in Albanian territory. There's reports that Albanian have been hijacking Jenna trucks. Well, Bannon has said he made a lot of enemies on the Italians as well, column grease balls and spick pimps. The latter being a reference to the, you know, Torio and Capone involvement in prostitution.

Bannon also quarreled with the Gloriaonigang as the Italian and Sicilian hoodlums in his own kind of near north side community were called during the 1924 elections. They supported Democrats, he supported Republicans. And but despite his opinion of the Italians, Banyan reportedly appealed to Torio to intercede in his quarrel with the genus, but he wasn't satisfied with the response.

As a result, he sets Torio up. He offers to sell Torio his share in Sieben's brewery on 1464 North Larby, which he knew was about to be rated. And on the morning of May 9th, 1924 Chicago Police do raid the brewery, arresting 31 bootleggers including Torio. They recover 128,000 gallons of beer. Obanion had set him up and this was inexcusable. And then on noon, on November 10th, Obanion is gunned down in his floral shop

at 738 North State Street, dead at 32 years old. And the suspects, of course, were the Jenna Brothers, working at the direction of Torio and Capone. Now comes the fucking payback, right? Always the back and forth of these bloodthirsty hyenas. On January 24th, 1925, the day a soldier eclipse was seen in his hometown of New York City, Torio himself was shot four times. After he turned it from grocery shop with his wife, he's attacked by Jaime Weiss and George Bugs Moran.

Back in Bugsie. Bugsie and Weiss shot in the arm, and he shot in the jaw, and he shot in the lung, and then he shot in the stomach. And then Bugs, Bugs presses his 45 pistol against Torio's temper temple against his temper. I'm gonna shoot you in the fucking temper I'm gonna shoot your temper off of your face Like push it against Torio's temple Tried to pull the trigger realizes out of bullets, but then to make sure he dies You know, wife kicks Torio while Maran's hitting him with the building club and some you know people come here The police or whatever like actual police and take off

The Sun goes out in New York City and the lights go out in Torio and Chicago. Well, not quite Torio is one tough motherfucker and he refuses to die slowly recovers from his wounds in the hospital capone at his side The kid he's known since his phone's childhood We'll find it to find out soon here and in true gangster fashion Refuses to name who did it to the police. Then when he finally recovers, he spends a year in jail for breaking up, or breaking the prohibition laws.

Remember, you got caught in that early, Albanian setup. But even though he doesn't die, the beaten, and the murder attempt to shook him up, so he fled the country after being released from prison, chilling out in New York, before, just for a second, before head-knuffed Italy. And the hands over his empire to Al Capone say,

and it's all yours, Al, me, I'm quitting. It's Europe for me. Scarface is in control now. Torio would never be involved in Chicago crime again. He eventually settles into real estate investments back in New York. After he comes back from Europe before dying in Brooklyn from a heart attack in 1957

at the age of 75, long life for a gangster, especially one that was shot four times in one day. And all this is because fucking Devar, it's funny how like, you know, they try to do prohibition. They think that's gonna be a good moral thing for the country, and prohibition leads to way more criminal organization in Chicago, way more gang clashes, because the money involved and then Devar tries to reform everything everything and then he just fucking takes what was a truce

And through his reform he just fucking stirs the hornets nest and gets these guys all going at each other fighting for turf And everybody's really fighting for turf after Toriel leaves, you know He's components of war now with a lot of Chicago's criminal gangs because everyone's piece of Toriel's pie You know, they see the leader gone. They they sense weakness. They're gonna fucking step in And so the intense competition for turf results, turns into what's called Chicago's beer wars of the 1920s, the gangs, you know, they mainly align themselves with the kind of ethnic ties.

It would be the Irish, and the Polish, and the Jewish, you know, all those gangsters, such as the West Side O'Donnells, and the Saltis McEarlene gang, you know, joined by Albanian successor Jaime Weiss, the Sicilians, notably the Genes, and most other Italians stuck with Capone. So did Dugan in his valley gang? Or drugin, I think I called him Dugan earlier. Drugin to win. I don't like to say drugin. Sounds like a fake name. I like to say Dugan, Dugan sounds better,

but his name is drugin. So there's those, you know, 1925 beer wars amongst the first casualties of the war was Angela Jenna himself he dies the hands of vice Moran and Drucci on May 26 1925 month later Mike Jenna he's killed by police after he ambushed Moran and Drucci at the corner of Sagamon and Congress after the fall of the Jenna's the bootlegging activities were taken over by the I.O. brothers the I.O.s were a large and extensive family of nine brothers numerous cousins. The Aiello, fucking, I don't know the fucking pronounce this name.

Should've looked it up, it's A-I-E-L-L-O. That's too many fucking vowels, all right? You don't get to have three vowels in a row to start your name. It's ridiculous. I-I-L-O, what the fuck, I don't like that name. The I-I-L-O and forces, they made a number of attempts in the life of Capone, the Aiellis. I'm just gonna, I'm-L-O What the fuck, I don't like that name. The I-I-I-I-L-O and we're in forces. They made a number of attempts in the life of Capone. The I-I-I-L-O's.

I'm just gonna, like, kind of like, I don't know if you noticed that. I'm just kind of mumbling just either the- the I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I strong consonant sound at the end. Kuh, puh, mm. Ah, it's got some meat on it. Not like, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. What the fuck is that? You change that. Throw in something, throw something after the a. A-lelloes.

Now that doesn't sound good. Throw something in front of the a. And after the a. Hello, no, what? You just fucking change the whole thing. Change the whole thing. It's not a good, it's not a strong last name. If you're listening to that, you last name. I kind of apologize. But you know what? You know that your name is not great. You know that you have to fucking constantly go through life. Be like, it's actually pronounced. If you have one of those names

where you have to constantly your whole life, be like, it's actually pronounced. Well, you know what? You can't, you can change it. Make it, you change it, change it life, you're like, it's actually pronounced. Well, you know what, you can't, you can change it. You can change it, you can change it up if you want. Make it easier on yourself and everyone else. No one fucking cares about your family tree, right? And that's not a knock on anyone's heritage. It's just like it's fucking annoying to have to say crazy ass name.

Right, if you go, if your name works in your culture, fine, if everyone knows how to say it, you know, if it's the equivalent of Jones somewhere, great. But then if you move somewhere else and it's the equivalent of, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, then maybe tweak it, maybe tweak it. You know, maybe, maybe localize it a little bit.

Okay, September, 2019, 26, Moran, Vice, Dru, Weiss, Druchi, easy names, attacked Capone's headquarters at the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero. Seven cars, no less than 10 feet apart, fire anywhere between 200 and 1,000 bullets into the Hawthorne restaurant where Al Capone was eating lunch,

depending on which account of the event you read. Strangely enough, no one's killed. And somehow these gangsters keep doing business. Again, can you imagine the public outcry of seven cars, seven cars of gangsters, pull up to a restaurant, any restaurant. Okay, there's a fucking Olive Garden, okay, there's Subway, or you know,

your five star stay-couse, and then spray it with a thousand bullets that public would go insane. It would be news of the year. But in 1920 Chicago, they were just like, ah, well, you know, this shit happens. No, no, no, I never doing this with Tommy guns. That's why so many bullets were used.

Tommy guns initially produced 1921, man, these things. As Thompson, Submachine gun, it was an inventory place that bolt action rifles used in World War I. And really, yeah, it was like the first handheld machine gun. It was like a Gatlin gun that you could fucking carry around. And the thing would shoot at a rate of anywhere from 600 to 1500 rounds per minute, depending on the model. And you could have like a 20 bullet little stick

or a 20 or a 50 bullet case shell drum attached. Wait about 10 pounds. It's easy to hold. The original nickname was the annihilator. That was from the company that made it. They were marking it as like, it's the fucking annihilator. Because that's what it did. the annihilator. That was from like the company that made it. They were marking it as like, it's the fucking annihilator. Cause that's what it did.

It annihilated you. Think of some poor police officer, 1926, 27 Chicago's, guys, little 45 caliber, six shot revolver. Hey, hey there boys, hey boys, hey boy, you get away from that restaurant. And then some asshole turned around with a Tommy gun and a hundred round drum. Hey, carry on.

Carry on. Proceed. Do what you wish. And that must have happened in Fairmount. I'm sure these gangsters had, you know, they were making a lot more money than the police. They probably could afford a lot more Tommy guns. Well, Jaime Weiss, he's quickly killed in retaliation for the restaurant shooting. Now, Bugsie Moran, he's solely in charge of the North Side Gang.

Bugsie Moran, Capone's main rival, the man who tried to kill his mentor earlier, you know, four shots into Johnny Torio. And for the next several years Moran does battle with Capone in the streets of Chicago. So now the town would like to two main fucking sides. All right, you got you got the North Side, Bugsy, you got the South Side Capone. And they're doing battle in the streets of Chicago for control of the city's bootleg and operations because of that insane amount of money I mentioned earlier. And then on February 14th 1929 in the SMC garage at 2 one two two North clock North clock. I don't know why I added

clock North clock the war comes to an end. And so does a long bloody chapter in Chicago's violent gangland history. So let's jump on out of this timeline. Let's take a closer look at the players involved in the Valentine's Day massacre and the repercussions it would have in Chicago's underworld. Good job, soldier. You've made it back.

Barely. Okay, Bugssy Moran. Before we get to the mask her, let's take a look at the two main players. George Bugsy Moran Al Capone. Biggest gangsters in 1929 Chicago. Moran have a driving Capone crazy in the late 20s. Killin' his friends and hired men, burnin' his nightclubs, hijacking his liquor supplies. You know you got the nickname Bugsy for having a violent temper, be a little unstable.

In addition to being a crazy cold blooded gang, you're also a good Catholic boy who hated Capone for running brothels. You steal, kill, push whiskey, but don't pimp. I'll kill you in front of your family, but what I won't do is offer your newly-witted wife money to sleep with her on the main principle. It's fascinating where we choose to draw our moral boundaries. Well, George was born on August 21st, 1891 in St. Paul, Minnesota, to French immigrants who did well in outstanding private school, Minnesota, to French immigrants who did well and upset into private school.

But he didn't like it. The A.J. 18, he stopped going to school, joined a juvenile gang. He was arrested three times for robbery by the time he was 21. Escaping after the third arrest, making his way to Chicago. All right, and like the poem Prohibition, made Bugs Rich, turned him from a petty criminal, dablin' and robberies, and scams into a kingpin.

1971 after the US and World War I, you know, President Woodrow Wilson instituted that temporary wartime prohibition in order to save grain for producing food. Congress admitted the 18th Amendment, banned the manufacture, transportation, sale of intoxicating liquor for state ratification, and granted both the federal government

and the state's powers to enforce the ban by appropriate legislation. And then that stuff came out in 1919, the bill was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson, largely on technical grounds because it also covered wartime prohibition, but his veto was overridden by the House October 27th 1919 and the three distinct purposes of this new prohibition act were to prohibit intoxicating beverages to regulate their sale, manufacture and transport to ensure the ample supply of alcohol and and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel dye and other lawful industries such as religious rituals, lawful industries and

practice. And by 1920 states like Illinois now they're struggling to enforce this new legislation. They don't have the manpower and you know they clearly weren't paying these guys enough to encourage them to turn down bribes and the gangsters will get in filthy rich off this entirely new situation. Now let's talk about Al Capone, Al Fawns, Gabriel Capone is born in January 27th, 1899 in Brooklyn to working class parents. Who had immigrated to America from Naples, Italy? He was smart, big, strong, brutal kid, who stopped going to Catholic school at the age of 14 despite being a promising student. After he hit a female teacher who just hit him,

I'm in fact, even a young Capone. He didn't stand for disrespect. Before leaving school, Capone catches the eye of neighborhood gangster Johnny Torio. So they didn't own each other for a long time. Torio back then was running local numbers and gambling operations. He left Brooklyn for Chicago in 1909

when Capone was only 10, but he didn't forget about him. In 1917, when Capone is 18, Torio introduces him to a New York City gangster, but he didn't forget about him. In 1917, when Compone's 18, Torio introduces him to a New York City gangster, Frankie Yale, the guy who helped fucking kill Torio's boss a little bit later. And Yale uses Compone as a bartender and bounced around Coney Island at the Harvard Inn

where he got the nickname Scarface. He said something indecent to some woman at the bar one night, supposedly he said, honey, you got a nice ass. And I mean that as a compliment, believe me me. Well her brother took enough offense to that to slash him across the face three times with a pocket knife. I guess you didn't say she liked that to women in the in the 1917. Now I wonder why Component didn't kill that guy later but I guess the guy was a made man. He had mob ties. The dude's name was Frank Galucho and the New York crime bosses told Component like, hey man, don't

fucking retaliate. You said some shit, what happened happened? So by 1920, Torio's business in Chicago is expanding, he brings Capone out to help him run the brothels, he also was up-wrought out, and all likely to kill, you know, Kaleesamo. So Torio could run the show. And then by 1925, he was running the show and getting really fucking sick of bugs, Moran. And when Moran put a $50,000 bounty on Capone's head, in 1929, he decided that Moran had to die. And he ordered a hit on Valentine's Day. So now we're at the massacre itself.

Let's get into it. Final showdown between Capone, Moran, Southside versus Northside. The battle for essentially all of Chicago's bootlegging. Early 1929, Moran, longtime Ali Joe Aiello, that fucking name, delivered yet another attack against Capone. They took the two guys reportedly gunned down, Pasquilliano, Lordo, one of Capone's men,

and Capone then vowed that he would have him wiped out on February 14th. He was staying in his estate outside of Miami the time, and he put a call into Chicago. Capone had a very special valentine that he wanted delivered to Moran. Through a contact in Chicago, Capone had a very special valentine that he wanted delivered to Moran. Through a contact in Detroit, Capone arranged for someone to call Moran

and tell him that a special ship in a hijack whiskey was gonna be delivered to one of Moran's garages on the north side. Adam Hire, a friend of Moran on the garage, and it was used as a distribution point for Northside liquor. Signed in the front of the building at 2122 North Clark Street,

read SMC Cartage company shipping and packing, long distance hauling. Moran received the call at the garage on the morning on February 13th and arranged to be meeting the truck the next day. So now we have the morning, February 14th Valentine's Day, group of Moran's men, gather at the Clark Street garage. One of the guys is Johnny May, ex-safe cracker who had once been hired by Moran as an auto mechanic.

He was working on truck that morning with his dog, a German shepherd named Hybal, what a great fucking name for a dog. Hybal, get over here. Hybal's tied to the bumper in addition to six other men, wait for the truck of the hijack whiskey to arrive. We got Frank and Pete Goosenberg. We're supposed to meet Moran and pick up two empty trucks to drive to Detroit, pick up Smuggle, Canadian whiskey, got James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law, Adam Hire, Al Winshank, Ryan Hart Schwimmer, a young optometrist

who would be friend in Moran and hung out around liquor warehouse just for the thrill of rubbing shoulders with gangsters. All right, you're an optometrist who wants to fucking be a gangster, fair enough. Okay, so George Bugs Moran, he's late for the meeting that morning. He was due to arrive at 10.30, but he didn't leave for the rendezvous

in, you know, until several minutes after that. And as now as he's seven men are waiting outside inside the warehouse, they have no idea but he didn't leave for the rendezvous until several minutes after that. And now, as he's seven men are waiting outside inside the warehouse, they have no idea that a police car has just pulled up outside. Or the Moran spots the car. Moran, just him being late saved his life.

He saved his life. He spots this police car pulling up in front of this garage. And he's like, uh-uh. And he just fucking just, you know, head zone down. I'm gonna fucking get out of here. I'm not gonna go in there. Well, five men get out of the police car.

Two of them in uniforms, three and civilian clothing. They enter the building in a few months, my moments later, the clatter of machine gun fire breaks the stillness that's snowy morning. Soon after, five figures emerge and they drive away. Maze dog inside of the warehouse begins barking and howling. Cold blooded as Capone's men were.

I do find it interesting that they were like, now, leave the dog alone, don't shoot the dog. Well, they shot the shit out of the other guys. More than 160 machine gun casings would litter the crime scene. And I'll post a picture to open the crime scene at timesecpodcast.com for those curious enough to look. It's pretty grisly. I mean, these guys got shot a lot of times.

John May, he was shot 10 times, including a shotgun blast, and a 45-pistil to the head. Adam Hire shot 15 times, head, neck, chest, stomach, extremities, just human Swiss cheese. James Clark shot nine times, mostly in the chest and stomach. Weinstein shot nine times, seven times in the back. Goose and Berg takes dozen bullets. You know, Peter Goose and Berg Frank Goose and Berg takes 14, three glancing

warrants, 11 rounds entering his body, swimmer ends up with a total of 25 entrance and exit wounds. Now 16 of those were shot gun pellets, but nine extra fucking bullet wounds. They shot the fuck out of these guys. You know, they opened up on them with Thompson submachine guns. You know, one of them had a 20 round, you know, with clip, another had a 50 round drum. And they were thorough, man. They had some shotguns too. Spraying their victims left and right, continuing fire after all seven and hit the floor. Seven men were just ripped apart. Two shotgun blasts afterwards, all but obliterated the faces of

John May and James Clark. I guess they wanted to be real sure those guys were dead. Yeah, the murdered men included Moran's best killers Frank and Peter Goosenberg and Frank actually survived the attack for a little while. Reportedly Frank had dude who was shot 14 fucking times still alive when real police officers, not the fake ones who showed up to do the killing, made it to the scene. When he was asked to shot him, the mortally wounded Guseyberg kept his coat of silence, man. He said, quote, no one, nobody shot me. Gangster till the end.

And no one was ever brought to trial for these murders. No one to this day knows for absolute certain who did it. Not for certain. Everyone agrees Capone must have been behind it. You know, but he was never charged, never confessed. Police suspected him. Police suspected Capone must have been behind it. You know, but he was never charged, never confessed. Uh, police suspected him, uh, police suspected Capone associate, and known Hitman John Escalise. But he himself was murdered, not long afterwards May 8th, 1929,

in the gangland killing. Uh, Capone was suspected of ordering that hit too, by the way. It's all speculation. Jack McGurne, one of Capone's buddies and crime associates, I was suspected, but his girlfriend gave him an alibi. Uh, Chicago hitman named Fred Killer Burke. What a fucking nickname. one of the components of buddies and crime associates was suspected, but his girlfriend gave him an alibi. Chicago hit man named Fred Killer Burke. What a fucking nickname.

What was your nickname again? Killer. OK, I'm going to do it. I'm going to be very nice to you. Fred Killer Burke was suspected when the police investigating a sever crime in December, 1929, they found machine guns at his place. Early ballistics testing

Proved that they were the guns used in the Valentine's Day mask or however Burke fled by the time he was caught He was charged with a totally different murder and he was given life for that and he just never confessed to the Valentine's Day mask And he died in prison in 1940 so I'll never know Bugs Moran so let's talk about the aftermath because bugs Moran gets away He was a target for the hit and he didn't get killed but he might as well have been the key members of his gang are all dead now You know they're all gone Jack McGurran. He was killed in the burst of machine gun fire though on the seventh anniversary of the massacre Valentine's day 1936 Bugs he probably likely got him is a little bit of payback But the north side gang he ran by then had dissolved into a shadow its former self This is all pretty quickly after the massacre and Moran went back to his kind of pre-prohibition

ways of petty crime, fraud, robbery. 1939, he's convicted of conspiracy to make a cash $62,000 worth of American express checks. He's freed on appeal when he postponed, but he flees, captured, not released until 1943. By the 40s, only 17 years after being one of the richest gangers in Gangsters in Chicago, Moran was almost penniless. In July 1946, he sentenced 10 years in prison at the Ohio Penitentiary for Robin Bank Messenger of 10 grand. And then on January 11, 1957, shortly after his release, he's rested again, rested right away again on a council bank robbery sentenced to another 10 years. And then two weeks later, he dies along cancer at the age of 65.

So he must have known he was going to die and he's just like, fuck it, I'll just wrap some stuff robbery since to another 10 years. And then two weeks later he dies along cancer at the age of 65. So yeah, he mustn't know. And he was going to die and he just like, fuck it, I'll just rob some stuff again. At the time of his death, Bugs was only worth about $100. $100. This is one of the biggest prohibition gangsters there was for a while. Very quiet end for one of the loudest gangsters

in Chicago in the 20s. The Capone after math, not good either, didn't work out for him. He failed to appear before a federal grand jury, despite being subpoenaed on March 12, 1929 for involvement in Valentine's Day massacre. And he didn't show up. And now the police weren't gonna look the other way.

Public, the public had finally had enough. There was a public outcry for law enforcement to put a permanent stop to Chicago gang violence, like seven dudes being gunned down with Tommy guns, they were like, all right, that's our limit. If you would have killed five, we would have been fucking cool. But no more. According to New York Times piece, they ran shortly after the Valentine's Day events, local law enforcement officers reacted by taking an aggressive stance on smothering gang activity, gaining control and restoring justice. So as a result of the massacre, federal authorities had reasons to begin investigating

Capone, and now he's a different jurisdiction, because he wasn't just in Chicago. He said, you know, he called him from Florida, let them be involved, they're at a different level. And then Capone begrudgingly appears before the grand jury in Chicago. On March 2019, 29, completes his testimony, and then as he leaves the courtroom, he's arrested on content of court. And, you know, they just wanted to get him on something and it was a fence which the penalty could be a year in prison and Thousand dollar fine he post post bond. He is released but now they're tracking his every move the FBI is up his ass and in March 17th 1929 Component his bodyguard were arrested in Philly for carrying concealed deadly weapons 16 hours

Later that each been sentenced to terms of one year each. The Pohn serves his time, released in nine months for good behavior on March 17, 1930. So now he has this big fucking, you know, crime empire he has control of all the Chicago but he can't stay out of jail now. That probably was his best year though, between March 17, 1930 to February 28, 1939. That was the length of time you got to enjoy his reign because now he's found guilty in federal court on contempt of court charge

he sent six months in the cook county jail and then while they're fucking hold him in for that the treasurer's treasurer departments they're cooking up these tax evasion charges i should say cookin up they're real but they're they're figuring it out and uh... and and and they they get him with it on on on june sixteenth nineteen thirty one he pleads guilty to tax evasion, prohibition charges, and that's fucking it for him.

On October 18, 1931, he's convicted. And November 24, he sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and the six months content of court sentence is supposed to be served concurrently. He's trying to appeal, he's waiting for appeal, and while he's waiting for appeal, he's he's putting the cook county jail. He gets denied appeal. And then he's moved to a US penitentiary in Atlanta. And then he serves the sentence there initially and then moves to the rock as we all know Alcatraz. That's where he finishes serving his term in November 16th 1939 Alcaton is finally released after having served seven years,

six months and 15 days, paid all his fines, all his back taxes. He was never arrested for murder, and he was still pretty young, and you might think, okay, well now he could go back to his life. Now he's got fucking syphilis. He's got late stage syphilis, and he's fucked. He's suffering from a parisus, a derived from syphilis, which is an inflammation of the brain,

leads to paralysis and dementia, and he just deteriorated to a shell of his former self. And he goes to Florida by the end, he had the mentality before he died, I guess, a 12-year-old, his brain is shot, and he dies of a stroke in pneumonia. On January 25th, 1947, he's only 48. Strange, strange end for the biggest gangster Chicago had ever seen. And man, Siflis is no joke, man.

If you don't get a fuck treated, it, uh, yeah, can like, paralyze and, uh, destroy your brain. And people didn't know how to treat it back then. Wow, so end of an era, man. So while Capone was in prison, prohibition goes away in 1933, and in the era of bootlegging all the gangland money that went along with it, there's actually more murders now than there were then, but it's different. It's like little ragtag neighborhood gangs primarily fighting over scraps. You know, in the Mafia, it didn't go away either, but it just never achieved the same

level of glamour and powers it did in the 20s. That all went away on that Valentine's Day. And so now, before we go away, it's time for some top five takeaways. Time, suck, top five takeaway. Number one, Al Capone's bootlegging operation alone made $60 million a year in liquor money alone in late 1920s Chicago when you could buy a house for six grand. And that doesn't count all the other vice income he had. That means if Capone kept half of his liquor money, which isn't a crazy stretch, considering he's the top guy and they're paying nothing in taxes, he could buy 5,000 homes outright in a year.

In 29, a Model T cost 500 bucks. He could buy 60,000 Model T's for $30 million. He had so much money, he could just like literally just drive each of them, like every time he drives, he could just leave the car wherever he gets just you know to leave it there He just goes in the parks and instead of driving the car home. He's just like fucking buy me a new car And he could do that every fucking several times a day all year and still have plenty of plenty of money Number two in the Valentine's Day mask her seven different men were each shot at least nine separate times

And if you think that's too many times, one of them almost lived. Telling the police who showed up, you know, nobody shot him. Now you can't shoot a 1920 Chicago gangster once or twice if there's one thing I learned in this episode is that. You have to truly fill them full of lead to get rid of them. Number three, Chicago's criminal underworld literally rose up out of the mud. On the last day, 1855, newly created Chicago board of sewage commissioners finally came up with a plan to lift Chicago out of the ooze engineer

Chessbro of Boston whom the board had hired to study the problem recommended installing a storm sewer system. The first comprehensive sewage system in the entire nation, but since the city was only three or four feet above the level of Lake Michigan. Underground sewers would not drain properly. So they raised the city. They raised it from four to 14 feet man to raise larger buildings and enterprising newcomer to the city named George Pullman, right. The guy who would go on to a massive fortune with his Pullman sleeping car with the trains. He came up with a system using these jack screws. These enormous fucking screws up to three tons and weight, you know, attached to a metal

base, metal top, and he'd have like, you know, thousands of them. And you put them around all these parts of the foundation and then you just turn the screw, you'd have all kind of turn it once, like do one rotation and just slowly and surely lift these buildings. With people still in him, people still working the stuff as the building is slowly being raised,

it's a millimeter by millimeter, way up into the air and then just rebuilding the foundation. Incredible. Who knew that would lead to such massive criminal activity? Number four, by 1930, active destroying his rival gang in the Valentine's Day Massacre, 31-year-old Al Capone is now controls the entire Chicago criminal underworld. He's making over $100 million a year, but because of the heat, the Valentine's Day Masker brought from the Fed's 33-year-old Capone, would be serving time in Atlanta Penitentiary, soon to be moved to Alcatraz, where his mind would deteriorate from syphilis. He was apparently bullied by other inmates, proving that sometimes when you win, you lose. If they just could have divided up the spoils like Toria wanted and just fucking kept it,

if it never wouldn't have fucking stirred the hornet's nest, how long would those Chicago crime bosses kept running those rackets and making the millions? Who knows? You know, the lesson from that is, I think if you ever find yourself making what would be about $800 million a year in some sort of criminal racket, and everything's fucking smooth, be cool about it! Don't rock the boat! Number 5. If you get syphilis,

don't wait to get it treated. While it was very difficult to treat when Capone had it, doctors figured out that a healthy dose of penicillin would just cleared up long time ago. So, you know, you can ignore the sores on your weiner or and or vagina, you know, or you know, you can, I guess if you want to just slowly go insane or become paralyzed or both or you could just make a $20 copay and have a few uncomfortable moments with a doctor when you tell him that you have a sythless or her

you know, and then you can just find a new doctor because you probably don't want to go back to your doctor after they know you have syphilis because I imagine that'd be a tad embarrassing, but get a checked out. Time suck, tough, five, take away. Well, thank you for listing everybody. And thank you so much for the iTunes reviews. Keep pouring in, I really appreciate it. I hope you had fun with this little Valentine's mask episode.

You know, I felt like it was a little different, examining one little kind of event again. We haven't done that in a while. And if you want to know when the next episode of Time Suck will be, if you want to know what it's going to be, before it comes out on Monday at noon, Pacific time, please follow me on either Twitter at D underscore Cummins, Facebook at Dan Cummins Comedy or on Instagram at Dan Cummins Comedy. I also post tour dates at those places, such as Hyena's Comedy Club in Plano, Texas, February 23rd to 25th,

the Tacoma Comedy Club in Tacoma, Washington, March 2 through 4, Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh, North Carolina, March 9 through 11. Lots more places coming up after that. So please, keep writing the show, keep telling your friends, keep subscribing, we are building this thing, I really have some cool plans, I want to share a couple of months down the road to make this, you know, a lot more fun, more interactive. And we're getting there. It's growing, it's growing. And have a great Valentine's Day and Valentine's Week time suckers. I hope it is a lot less bloody than the one I just described. And find some solace in this episode because you know, even if your Valentine sucks,

be thankful that it's a very leashed, you didn't get lit up with 9-14 bullets from a Tommy gun. See you next week, everybody. you