The Valentine Day Massacre - Research Paper Example

Schwinger and John May, along with five other members of the North Side Irish gang were lined up against a wall and were executed using Thompson sub-machine guns.3 The Victims were executed against the inside rear of a wall belonging to SMC Cartage Company garage at 2122 North Clark street on Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago, later the wall became famous as the Massacre wall. The Wall remains the most important artifact of the event. The infamous wall received world wide press coverage because photos depicting the bloody aftermath of the massacre were published world wide.

4 According to the coroner’s report, seven machine gun bullets and two shot gun blasts were fired on the seven victims lined against the Massacre Wall. Out of seven, one victim managed to survive for several hours in the hospital but, he refused to name his killers.5 The murders were committed by gangsters, handpicked by Al Capone, who hired them outside the city to minimize the chances of being recognized by the North Side Irish gang victims. The case still remains officially unsolved because no one was ever convicted of the crime.

Al Capone was a very powerful gangster and the event of Valentine Massacre took place at the height of his power in Chicago. The influence of Al Capone on Chicago can be analyzed from the following quote: “At the height of his power Al Capone carried everyone- from the mayor of Chicago, police captains and judges, to the bell-boys at his luxurious hotel residence – around his pockets like loose change, and used his power to exploit society’s ubiquitously puissant blend of fear and greed.

” 6 Jack McGurn was the right hand man of Al Capone and it was him, who was the master mind behind the Valentine Massacre.7 Jack McGurn was a perfect example of archetypal good- boy-gone-bad, who harbored a vicious criminality which was perfectly mirrored by the gruesome events of Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Jack McGurn was paradoxical and his actions left an indelible impression in the history of America. Jack McGurn and Al Capone staged the murders meticulously in an attempt to eliminate George Bugs Moran.

The groundwork devised by Jack McGurn was not only devilishly spectacular but was meticulous as well.8 Jack and Al Capone planned that their hired killers will lure George Moran and his favorite men to warehouse of SMC Cartage Company, by offering them an irresistible deal, which in the case was, a load of hijacked whiskey.9 According to Jack’s plan, Once Moran and his men enter the warehouse, killers disguised as policemen will arrive at the scene, pretending to arrest them, but will kill them instead.

Al Capone and Jack McGurn knew that they both would be suspected so they conveniently went out of town, when the massacre took place. Al Capone went on vacation to Florida while Jack went safely elsewhere. Unfortunately, the timing went wrong and the plan misfired because Moran arrived late at the warehouse and saw the disguised killers getting out of the police car. Moran was scared and he fled. Therefore, the killers executed seven men that were already there at the warehouse garage.10 Then the two killers disguised as uniformed police officers led the other men at gunpoint, out of the garage after successfully carrying out the shooting. John