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Al Capone — Part 8
Page 3
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brings him scrambling to his feet and he too takes his
place in line. High-ball is no longer barking. Now he
leaps ferociously at the intruders, his white teeth showing,
but alas Al Weinshank has tied that leash too securely.
It all happens in a few minutes and yet there has been
ample time for Pete Gusenberg, standing at the right of
the line, to realize that this is a mission of murder, and
that his only chance to beat back death is the little auto-
matic revolver in his hip pocket. With a fierce cry and an
oath his hand drops like a plummet to that hip pocket,
and his fingers are just closing upon the butt of it when
the address of the graduating ceremonies commences. It
is delivered quickly, artistically, and with masterful effec-
tiveness. Approximately 150 bullets pour from those ma-
chine guns and only a few fail to find lodgment in the
doomed men standing there against the white-washed wall
of brick. With the first outburst of fire the doomed men
begin to scream and curse, but the steady rattling stream of
lead plays upon them so expertly that only one moves out
of line in an effort to escape. The steel bullets tear into
the heads of these men, splintering skulls, splattering
brains. Except for the man on the end who had tried to
escape and collapsed on a chair in grotesque posture,
they fall to the floor in the order in which they had stood.
Now that all are lying on the blood and grease streaked
floor, a second stream of death plays over them, again
ing j e and fles
tearing into bone and flesh.
Six or seven minutes ago Arthur Brichet had been
ordered to move along. Now, standing against the wall
of the building two or three hundred feet away, he can
hear a iow rumble from within the garage. Presently
the group of “policemen and detectives” emerge casually
from the building, step into the automobile, and are driven
smoothly away towards North Avenue. He sees the
“squad” car weaving in and out of the traffic traveling
rapidly, but not too rapidly. He walks toward the garage.
He can hear the loud continuous barking of a dog. End of
scene two,
Mrs. Jeanette Landsman, who lives at 2124 North Clark
street which is just next door to the garage, hears rattling
gun-fire, voices of men screaming and swearing. She
rushed down stairs to the sidewalk and peers through the
window of the garage, but, because of the office cannot
see what has happened behind. She is afraid to enter. At
this moment a pedestrian passes. She turns to him, saying
that she heard shots in there. “I'll see if anything’s
wrong” save thea man emilingli Ana in an roe
Wrong, §ayS Lie MAN SMuINgIy. And, In a most un-
Chicagoan like manner, steps into the garage. A few
seconds later he bursts out again, shaking, his face ghostly
white. He can scarcely speak. “There's dead men all over
the place,” he finally cries as he runs away shouting “I'll
call the police.”
And the police come. In horror they pause before the
shambies. Both officers have seen service in the World
War but there is something about this sight that
is inexpressibly more awful than war. In the dim-
ness of the room their eyes fall upon the figure of a man
crawling upon his hands and knees across the floor. Re-
covering from their first shock they now rush to his aid.
It is Frank Gusenberg.
More dead than alive oes iu)
3 AN HUE
RRS
DlNY We
FLT TSN
he mumbles something
pretty strange for
UU
AOON00
him. It is that he
COON OO0R
hopes no one will ever
DARD CODINS.
suffer as he suffers.
EIOCHUN,
== ULN
The officers, realizing
St
S q
SONS Sn
aie wafers, Pees Zine
that Frank is dying,
ply him with questions
as they move him
carefully towards the
door, but Frank is
true to the code of
tne nali-worid in
which he has lived so
logg and he will say
nothing . . . Squads
of police and detec-
tives appear in auto-
mobiles, horns honk-
ing, gongs clanging.
Taxi-cabs draw up
a ere
Map showing route believed to have teen traveled by antomobile carrying
ee ee ee eee e.
FRISHTAOS SRBSSSRCTS SillisiG ITOH Farage, 4h -WHECK TAGs SUsCinGhus Wes
foand, to 2122 Morth Clark Street, scene of the slaying. (Insert) Front view
of glag North Clark Street.
[44]
and photographers and newspaper reporters pour out. The
street becomes jammed and the Clark and Broadway street
cars are stalled in long Hines in the narrow street: Up-
stairs behind the little frayed lace curtains the masters
of ceremonies sneak out and downstairs and, singly, dis-
appear into the surging crowd. Their job is done and done
well. The ceremonies are over. In a morning newspaper
office far away in the direction of the Loop District, a re-
write man who has heard the first story of this holocaust,
sits himself calmly at a typewriter and begins a matchless
story. He taps out the story in a single line, namely that
Gangland has graduated from murder to massacre.
AFTERMATH
<j
The whole world reeled before this one in horror and
unbelief, Newspapers everywhere published the amazing
crime and the Valentine Massacre of Chicago was discussed
in the far corners of the earth. Defenders of Chicago’s
reputation looked on the atrocity helplessly and in dismay.
Here was a crime which even the cynical Chicagoan could
not dismiss with a superficial gesture. It seemed absurd
now to say that since Gangland murdered only those who
belonged to Gangland why bother about it? George “Bugs”
Moran disappeared shortly after the crime but before he
left one newspaper obtained one crisp comment from him.
It was this: “Only one gang kills like that—the Capone
gang.” This line was carried over the wires to Al Capone
who was in Florida and he had one all ready for it. “They
don’t call that guy ‘Bugs’ for nothing,” was what the Big
Fellow said.
With each successive smoking edition of the Chicago
newspapers for a solution of the crime and punishment
for its perpetrators swelled in bitter intensity. Thoughtful
persons filled column after column with suggestions as to
how the said conditions which made such a thing possible
might be remedied. Not since the unsolved murder of
McSwiggin, the “hanging prosecutor” from the state's
attorney’s office, had public indignation developed such a
temperature. William E. Russell, commissioner of police,
commanded to run the murderers to earth, summoned
Deputy Commissioner of Detectives John Stege home from
a vacation to work on the case. Commissioner Stege at
that time was spending a vacation in Florida and Cuba
with a group of friends among whom was included Alfred
“Jake” Lingle, veteran Chicago Tribune police reporter,
who was later to be put on the spot by Gangland.
During the relent-
less series of investi-
gations instituted by
Commissioner Stege
every Capone gang-
ster in Chicago was,
at one time or another,
haled inte detective
bureau headquarters
and passed in review
before eye-witnesses
whose names were,
for a long time, with-
held from the public.
Three men were posi-
tively identified, Jack
McGurn, and John
Scalice. At the same
time one of the eye-
witnesses identified,
Fred Burke, notorious
criminal, from a pic-
ture in the rogues gal-
owe .
12
The
ZANE DD
Sninnllild
|
G00
ARAN
de eekedah thats eedeee nti, ae
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