The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone

by William J. Helmer, Arthur J. Bilek

A Case of Bad Timing and Poor Judgment The machine-gun murders of seven men on the morning of February 14, 1929, by killers dressed as cops became the gangland “crime of the century.” Or so the story went. Since then it has been featured in countless histories, biographies, movies, and television specials. The St.  Valentine’s Day Massacre, however, is the first book-length treatment of the subject. Challenging the commonly held assumption that Al Capone ordered the wholesale slayings to gain supremacy in the Chicago underworld, authors William J. Helmer and Arthur J. Bilek assert the crime was a case of bad timing and poor judgment by a secret crew from St. Louis known to Capone’s mostly Italian mob as the “American boys.” The target of the murder squad was indeed Bugs Moran, but the American boys, who were dressed as policemen and arrived in two bogus police cars, entered the garage where the massacre took place before Moran arrived. Not knowing who Moran was or what he looked like, the counterfeit cops stupidly killed everyone to make sure they got their man. Based on a careful review of reliable evidence, a critical reading of news accounts of the time, a 1935 manuscript written by the widow of one of the gunmen, and  a lookout’s long-suppressed confession, The St. Valentine’s Day  Massacre is a fresh new look at the crime that captured the nation’s imagination. In the end, the machine-gun bullets heard ’round the world marked the beginning of the end for Al Capone.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Crime, Historical, American History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Family: Born March 6, 1936, in Iowa City, IA to Albert Joseph and Myrtle (Curl) Helmer; He left Iowa City before age one, grew up in the Mexican border town of Pharr, TX, and prefers to celebrate March 6 as one hundred years to the day after the Fall of the Alamo.) He married Pat Thompson, September, 1958 (divorced, 1966); married Jean Brockman (a free-lance illustrator), August 6, 1971; Children: Marc & Jan; Granddaughter Jessie.

Education: University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Journalism, 1959, MA in History, 1968.

Politics: "Formerly an FDR Democrat turned fanatically moderate libertarian."

Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1953-61; became Radioman First Class.

Memberships: Amateur Radio operator W5AJR (retired), Discordian Society, Bavarian Illuminati. Founding Member of The John Dillinger Died for You Society.

Residence: Currently lives in Boerne, TX.

CAREER

Editor of the following:The Texas Caver, The Texas Ranger, Escapade, Aramco World, True West,1955-1995

University of Texas at Austin: Supervisor of Student Magazines, 1965-66

National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence: Staff Member, Washington, DC, 1968-69

Playboy (in Chicago): Senior Editor, 1969-1995.

Harper's, Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, other magazines, 1955-present:Contributor of articles (including humor, under pseudonym Horace Naismith)

Reviews

[Chriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing tale told in an unobscure light, slightly different than what Hollywood and the media has portrayed in the past. Good research and follow up with sources who seem to have not been validated at the time lead to a different set of key characters. This version seemed more logical and it really was disappointing to see how much corruption really was taking place during this time period in all the wrong places.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. After that it got a bit messy. I never really have problems with multiple names in books. But when you refer to people by nicknames, aliases and their true names multiple times, and you do that with about 20 different people, it starts to get tough to remember who is who. Plus the author jumps forward or backwards throughout. I've read books with more people involved and never had so much trouble keeping track. Not the best writing style in my opinion. One thing is for sure, Chi-town was a shotty place to be in the 1920s and 30s. Mobsters, major corruption, HH Holmes.... Seems half the historical true crime books I've read happened in Chicago. Not hard to see why, crimewise, Chicago has the problems it has today. I wouldn't say it's a bad book, just could have been easier to follow if written a little better

[Michelle Cajigal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written data dump with unusual chronology.

[TE · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started researching this event for a creative writing project, I was simultaneously stunned by the persistent fascination with it, which has endured for nearly a century, now... and the dearth of good books on the subject. Notwithstanding some of the book's problems, which several other reviewers have noted, this fairly comprehensive volume is probably the most detailed I've come across to date. That is not to say that information regarding this shocking massacre, which still looms large in the annals of violent crime in a city which certainly has no shortage of it, is not accessible. However, this notable event, particularly concerning the key players, is frequently featured in books (and some films) on various other subjects, rather than being a subject of inquiry itself.

Those which predominate include especially biographies of the luminaries of Chicago crime, most notably Al Capone, his cronies, and their rivals (George "Bugs" Moran chief among them); and writings on the various gangs which wreaked havoc on the city in the tumultuous period known as Prohibition, such as the Chicago Outfit itself, focusing on "bootlegging" illicit alcohol: "Beer Wars," "bootlegging," bathtub gin, and the like. Books which comprehensively detail the St. Valentine's Day Massacre itself are rare birds, indeed.

Perhaps partly, if not primarily, to blame, as the authors note in the Introduction, is simply the paucity of actual surviving evidence. As the book states, extant documentation includes little more than brief statements of officers on-scene, partial interviews with local residents, some eyewitness accounts of the aftermath, vague descriptions of the purported killers, two of which were dressed in police uniforms, and catalogs of the scene, such as the number of shell casings found and vehicles in the garage. Vital investigative records from detectives and the state attorney's office have apparently vanished, as has, lamentably, almost all the information derived from the coroner's inquest, including most of the interviews with the victims' relatives and associates, aside from ballistic evidence. Nearly all documents from the sessions which generated witness testimony have been lost, and can be reconstructed only from newspaper accounts which featured short statements of those being interviewed.

One bright light in near-darkness, however: in 2016, a Cook County Medical Examiner's Office executive official, James Sledge, went searching for the original records, and struck gold. He uncovered the original handwritten autopsy reports, including diagrams of the horrific wounds incurred by the seven men who were brutally murdered nearly nine decades before. The records were apparently found in a metal file cabinet in a government warehouse. The information contained therein is priceless. The reports are graphic, to say the least, and describe in intimate (medical) detail the carnage the seven men were subjected to. Also included, apparently, are some inquest transcripts long thought to be missing, so perhaps additional information will be forthcoming, which didn't make it into this 2004 volume.

Perhaps the most overt destruction is that of the scene itself: the old brick building, the actual site of the massacre, with its bullet-pocked wall, was demolished in 1967 to make way for a retirement home, built by the Chicago Housing Authority. However, the actual site of the massacre to this day remains nothing more than a vacant lot, now a parking lot and a grassy area adjacent to the housing structure. No plaque or memorial marks the site: it is almost as if the city wanted to erase any memory of this event, including place memory. In fact, subsequent owners of the building likewise attempted to obscure any association with the structure, even plastering over the wall (which, in hindsight, protected it). Eventually, the last owner even constructed a "partition" wall with sliding metal doors which completely obscured the actual section from view for decades. Most subsequent tenants and owners bristled as curious sightseers frequently stopped by and asked to see the bullet-riddled wall. Reportedly, more than one owner stated that if they had known the building's dark past, they never would have purchased or occupied it. The steady stream of visitors continued unabated, however, and, depending on their mood, owners either turned them away or occasionally admitted them, allowing them to see the plastered-over wall against which seven men had met their tragic end.

As in the case of other evidence, only fragments of the original brick building remain ... in this case, in the form of the actual brick wall against which the men once stood. The city, begrudgingly acknowledging the history of the site, at least undertook some measures to preserve it for posterity ... but not in Chicago. The six-foot-by-ten-foot, bullet-riddled section where the murder victims were shot down in cold blood was auctioned off by the city: the high bidder was one George Patey, a businessman from Canada. He had the brick wall meticulously dismantled, the bricks numbered and a diagram drawn so that he could reconstruct the wall in its original form, and shipped to Canada. He first reassembled the wall in the men's restroom at a nightclub he owned, but when that closed in the 1970s, he stored the bricks for nearly two decades, then attempted to sell them piecemeal for $1000 each in the late 1990s. About 70 were eventually sold, but some 300 remained with the original owner. When he died in Honolulu in 2004, his daughter inherited them, and subsequently sold them to the Mob Museum in Las Vegas for a reported $300,000, where they can be seen today, reassembled more or less in their original configuration. Some of the individual bricks pop up for sale on occasion, and are now worth a small fortune if they can be proven to be genuine.

Was there ever a time when Chicago's crime problem wasn't completely out of control? That seems dubious, to judge from the content of this book, which does an admirable job of describing it. It appears that warring factions of some form or another have plagued the city nearly from its founding, with a particularly nasty flare-up occurring during Prohibition, as demonstrated by this well-researched book, and then again in later decades after the Great Depression. In fact, the city was founded on a place which bore a dubious and rather inauspicious moniker: the native Potawatomi name for the site, "shikaakwa," means "stinking onion," so-called for the native leek-type plant which populated the area. That may have been an ominous portent and an incentive for would-be inhabitants to settle elsewhere!

If you think Chicago has a violent crime problem now, consider what it was a century ago: "pineapple primaries" (as in pineapple grenades, so named for the violent attempts by warring factions of "hoodlums" to interfere with voting by every means imaginable); corrupt officials, nearly all of whom, it seems, were on the take, unscrupulously and sometimes openly funded by the gangs who operated in their respective territories; cops who brazenly bragged that they put their kids through college by accepting bribes to look the other way; and daily violence associated with a seemingly endless parade of speakeasies and brothels located throughout the city, were all just a part of life in 1920s Chicago. The stage was certainly set for what was ostensibly the culmination of typical gang violence: the massacre of seven men in what would become known to the world as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

In a nutshell: on February 14, 1929, at about 10:30 in the morning, six well-dressed men, known gangsters all, as well as one of their orbiters - and one mechanic were slaughtered in a garage located at 2122 N. Clark Street, on the north side of Chicago, in what became known as the worst gang killing in the nation's history. Two men dressed as police officers entered the garage, a long, narrow, brick warehouse-type building which had been rented by one of the gang members, known as the S.M.C. Cartage Company, which served as a kind of headquarters for the North Side gang under the dominion of one George "Bugs" Moran, a rival of Al Capone. The "cops" quickly rounded up all seven men, who believed them to be performing a raid looking for bootlegged liquor, lined them up facing a whitewashed brick wall, and disarmed them.

One of the "cops" then ushered in two or three (accounts differ) additional men in plainclothes... who concealed Thompson submachine guns under their coats. The four men then opened fire on the seven against the wall, spraying them in the backs with .45 caliber bullets fired from the Tommyguns, in addition to two shotguns. According to forensic evidence, seventy rounds were expended in about ten seconds, with each of the victims incurring multiple horrific wounds. Six were killed outright, but one survived long enough to be taken to a local hospital and questioned. Despite entreaties from even a police officer he knew, Frank Gusenburg refused to provide useful information about who had been responsible, repeatedly stating to cops, "I won't talk." Accounts likewise differ, but he did apparently either state at one point, "cops did it," or answer "yes" shortly before his death, when one of the officers at the hospital asked him whether police in uniform were involved. He died shortly after, with seven slugs still in his body.

Although the killers were eventually tentatively identified, no one was ever arrested, charged or brought to trial for the crime, let alone convicted. However, of the four men thought responsible, three were themselves murdered shortly thereafter... possibly even by their own, who were enraged that the event had brought about so much negative publicity and renewed efforts to stamp out organized crime in Chicago, as this watershed event was substantive to the degree that not even paid-off public officials could ignore it.

In short: following the massacre, a firestorm ensued. Public outcry over the shocking event, photos of which were plastered over the front page of newspapers throughout the country for weeks, was tremendous, and public officials, even those on the take, had to take notice. For the first time, the general public turned on the gangs who supplied them with illicit alcohol, and the seemingly-ever-escalating violence associated with them, which had become a tragic aspect of daily life in Chicago. This event, although handing him a short-lived victory, is also largely credited with bringing about the downfall of Al Capone, and even perhaps hastened the end of Prohibition (officially in December, 1933), which both the public and officials alike had to acknowledge had done nothing to decrease vice. Instead, it had simply added fuel to the fire and provided gangs throughout US cities with yet another source of lucrative revenue, increasing their power and influence like never before.

The book does a capable job of setting the scene, and then recounting the labyrinthine nexus of events and individuals involved in or somehow connected to the crime, the foundations of which had begun years earlier, with the succession of various gang figures and an endless stream of assassinations and takeovers. The most famous mob figure of the day, Al Capone, is still a household name, some seven decades after his death. He was still something of a young pup back in the day, however, and hadn't yet reached his full "potential" or influence. With the demise of several "Chicago Outfit" figures, however, Capone seemed poised to take over - which, indeed, he did, much to the chagrin of rival gangs. His outfit grew exponentially and profited from a variety of criminal enterprises over the course of the 1920s, earning him the unwanted attention of the likes of well-established groups like the "North Side Gang," headlined by "Bugs" Moran, who, like Capone, rose to prominence as the result of the power vacuum which ensued following the murder of his predecessors.

On account of the scant nature of surviving documentary evidence, a book like this is definitely years in the making. After having done some primary research on the subject myself, I'm suitably impressed with its depth and breadth. It also includes a number of subjects peripherally related to the Massacre itself, which enriches the overall narrative, as it paints a detailed portrait of the time period and what daily life was like, tragic though it was.

Topics include the various gangs and their endless machinations (the most impressive aspect of the book, for me, because it clearly involved some deep research on the (mis)deeds of these various characters, who often attempted to prevent their illicit activities from coming to light); their armorers, specifically the introduction of what would become the gangster's weapon of choice, the Thompson submachine gun, which made its debut in the mid-1920s; the political wrangling behind the scenes, which often entailed the misdeeds of various larger-than-life (and corrupt) public officials who were no less infamous than the gangsters themselves; and the aftermath, which ushered in at least some effort to "clean up this town," including the advent of "crime labs" and the development of what is today called ballistic science, which was founded at Northwest University. Clearly, those efforts were less than successful in stemming the tide of violence, however, at least long-term.

The one element which is noticeably absent: the Feds. J. Edgar Hoover, FBI front man at the time, wanted absolutely nothing to do with Chicago's organized crime problem, and, ostensibly, its official corruption problem in general, so he either declined to allow agents to get involved, citing a lack of jurisdiction, or kept under wraps any information which was compiled by the FBI, until he was strongly encouraged to release at least some of it by the US Justice Department. It seems that both law enforcement, administrators, and civic officials alike just wanted all this to go away and disappear, which is apparently why much of the evidence did just that.

The book is comprehensive and replete with detail, but it's not overwhelming. Its engaging prose and dry wit make it a pleasant read, despite the dark subject matter. There are a number of factual errors throughout, however, as well as several stark contradictions, some forgivable, some not, so take the details with a grain of salt. Example: footnote 8 states that "some press accounts mention one Sergeant Clarence Sweeney... His role in the Massacre supposedly includes conversations with Pete Gusenberg both at the garage and later at the hospital..."

Ostensibly, the authors mean instead Pete's younger brother, Frank Gusenberg, who survived the massacre for about three hours before dying at the local Alexian Brothers Hospital. Pete was found dead at the scene, as Officer Loftus, the first officer on scene (whom Frank knew), notes; Pete's the one who appears in photos slumped over a chair. Whether Sgt. Sweeney was present or not (and there's certainly a controversy about that, as he seemed to embellish the story, increasingly insinuating himself into the account as time went on) - he's the one who reports that he asked Frank who had shot him, to which Frank reportedly replied, "Nobody... nobody shot me," but there's no corroborating evidence that he ever actually made that statement, or that Sweeney was ever even at the hospital - he certainly wasn't talking with Pete Gusenberg, who was dead on a chair at the garage.

Some of the errors and contradictory information are admittedly due to the nature of the evidence, which is likewise contradictory and incomplete. In addition, newspapers are notoriously problematic sources, and relying on them for reconstruction is often frowned upon, for that reason - reporters themselves like to embellish and fabricate, as it turns out - so it would have been helpful to know what information was derived from them as opposed to primary source documents. The area I am currently attempting to research involves material from the recent (2016) discovery of additional documents in archives, including some of the missing coroner's inquest testimony, which may clear up some unanswered questions about what occurred, but will likely offer little in the way of discovering who definitely committed the crime.

To that end, my one major problem with the book is the profound lack of source citations: some are included, but they are very few and far between, mostly used to expound on something in the text or to proffer additional information (as the one noted above regarding Sweeney). Stating from whence specific information was derived, whether from newspapers, actual primary sources like documents, reports, letters, etc., would also clear up some of the questions regarding the errors and omissions, illustrating that it's a problem of evidence rather than a lack of care on the part of the authors. For that reason, I would recommend cross-checking facts if you have a particular interest, as one source may well contradict another. Overall, however, this was a very good book, exhaustively researched, and highly recommended for those with an interest in the subject.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed my time reading this book even though reading is not something that I typically enjoy. The details of bootlegging and the story of Al Capone in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s was mindbongling to me being that everything in the story is true. The book highlights the effect of bootlegging and the violence along with it on the city of Chicago. It details the rise and fall of Al Capone and neighboring mobs. Perhaps most interesting to me was the way the authors described the brilliance of the schemes planned by Capone. The authors including the perspective of law enforcement and Chicago political leaders was a great idea as it showed both sides of the battleground in Prohibition Era Chicago.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and engrossing. I can’t imagine the amount of research that went into to this book. The corruption in Chicago was just mind-boggling. I’m not sure how anyone felt safe in that city. It certainly was a glory day for organized crime but it certainly came with a high price. A worthy read if you are at all interested in the crime gangs of the 1920’s.

[Brad Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book overall. I thought it was informative and well written, however, spellcheck is not a replacement for an editor. The grammar mistakes in this book have number in the hundreds. It really messes with your pace of reading.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to give it 3.5 but I'll round up. Lots of interesting information. Obviously well researched, but hard to follow with all the names, nicknames, alternate spelling of names, etc. Lots of typos as well.

[Gary Ingram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, always like reading about Capone and the boys!

[Danielle Mintzlaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book. It really showed the Chicago mob in a way that Chicagoans portray it. Aka: With a sense of humor.

[Alen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is very well written with tons of details and useful information. At times it may be a little overwhelming with all of the people it mentions but overall it was truly a great book. The way the authors use their words makes the book more elaborate. It is a great source for research and background information if you are writing a research paper or just want to know more about the Prohibition Era and the well know, never solved “crime of the century”. A great example from the book is “The grisly machine-gun murders of seven men on the morning of February 14, 1929, by the killers dressed as cops became the gangland “crime of the century”. It was the crime of the century because nobody saw it coming and it was never determined who the person behind it was. I highly recommend this book because it is well written, includes lots of details, useful information, and uses real life events that actually happened during the Prohibition Era.

[Danny Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was very informative and a GREAT source for research (used it for a presentation) and is very thorough on theories based around the StVM, but it does get complex with the gangster connections (yes i know mob syndicate connections are in fact complex) but i didn't expect so many different people and gangs all in one city and I got lost a few times. Only other complaint was the chronological order of the book and the information was given; for a story its a fantastic and attention grabbing, for research its a bit confusing and easy to get lost because youre trying to get all the names and all the dates and all the everything.

[Conor O'mahony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting account of how gangs proferred in the Prohibition period in Chicago. Interesting to hear how the different gangs were set and how they inter-linked. Fascinating and interesting to read how corrupt the police were. Reading this book reminded me how fortunate we are with the development of forensics and the media meaning law enforcement communication is so much better these days.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knew a bit about Al C and how he was taken down, but found this book to be a great filler-in of details. Interesting on its own, it is more so given the player involved.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very in depth story