◆ SpookStack

Barker held on to that prize, too, lumphreys was no less successful ven formed one to combat the old ilk Wagon Drivers’ union, whose officials were too strong to be ousted, Legitimate organizations, in- cluding the American Federation of Labor, battled against the gangs, but the Jatter, with the potent name of Capone to fall back on, contin- | n seizing other teamster unions. He ued to progress in their campaign even up to 1932. Only a crystallized public senti- ment, tt now became certain, would, be able to halt the march of Ca-' one to a dictatorship so wide and! o strong that few businesses in Chi- ago would be able to refuse any emands he might make. That sentiment was being formed. America, the whole world, now saw Capone for what he was, a criminal, big only as he was evil. Good peo- ple everywhere recognized him as the symbol of all the raw lawless- ness that went to make up the pro- hibition era. Capone did not understand. He went ahead, He played desperately. He scattered moner, In two years qr? bet. and lost, two million dcl- [ars on race horses, He gave maj» ‘nificent Christmas presents to hig Yriends. Apparently he did not know 4vhat 10 do with his money. eed a eb, 14, 1929. In a garage pn North Clark street were gathertd seven men allied with the north sijie gang headed by George Moran. Stiii belligerent, still unafraid of Capone, that gang continued to serve jts ter- ritory with liquor. The seven had gathered to receive a truckload of imported stuff that had been offered to Moran by a supposed friend. At 10:30 a.m. an automobile with drawn curtains was halted at the curb néar the garage. Five men stepped from it, Three wore police uniforms and two were in civilian clothing. The uniformed trio, with pistols drawn, walked into the ga- rage. They collected the weapons of the seven, who made no resistance, hav- ing accepted the statement: “We're police officers.” All were Mned up facing a wall, with their backs to the door of the garage. Their hands were in the air, Frank and Peter Gusenberg, John May, Al Wein- shank, James Clark, Adam Heyer, and a young doctor named Schwim- mer—those were the names, and the Gusenbergs were notoriously haters of Capone. The supposed policemen stepped side. One of the other men caimly (sprayed the backs of the seven vic- yrs with machine gun bullets. Theyt ied, all of them. That was the St. Valentine’s day massacre. Nothing quite so fero- cious had ever been known before, even in the gang wars, At the moment Al Capone was in his stucco villa on Paim Island. tak- ing a lesson in etiquette, A young woman, expert in such matters, was instructing him how to rid himself of ‘his gloves and stick when he en- tered a drawing room. George Moran, he of the charmed life, had been late at the garage. Seeing the car at the curb, he drove pay, assuming that it belonged to {he police. By so narrow a margin (id he miss his own rendezvous with» xtinction. : “Only Capone kills like that,” he, asserted that same evening. . =~ €} RAS Beh: