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Valentine Massacre. | Spotlighted MeGurn The St, Valentine’s massacre that disgraced Chicago and made “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn & \ garage at 2122 N. Clark st, + Seven members of the “Bugs” _Moran mob, supposedly awaiting ‘a shipment of booze, were in the garage when two men dressed in Police uniforms walked into the What happened “known, but apparently the fake policemen lined the men up as in a raid, whereupon other mach- ine gunners who came in the back door shot them down as they stood against @ wall. The scene later, the seven men lying in the blood- spattered room, is the high spot in the history of prohibition law- ,lessness in Chicago. M’GURN SHOT BEFORE, Six of the victims were dead jpnen police arrived. The seventh, Fyank Gusenberg, died within an inure after mentioning “police- Gusenberg snd his brother, Peter. also Killed in the massacre, had been accused @ year before in the shooting of McGurn. Mc- Gurn had been shot through the lung when ambushed in his car and had been taken supposedly dying to Alexian Brothers Hos- pital. He rallied and lived and his fellow gangsters spirited him away from the hospital while he was still in precarious condition. 17 WANTED FOR MASSACRE. The massacre started a furore in Chicago, Rewards totalling $40,000 were offered and the po- lice listed seventeen men as want- ed for the killings. The most tangible lead came about ten days later when an automobile was found in a burn- ing garage at 1723 N. Wood st. It was apparent an effort had been made to destroy the auto- jmobile. Police named Claude Maddox, a Capone hoodlum, as the ;owner of the car. Great excitement was occasioned by the arrest of McGurn February 28, two weeks after the murder. It was found the machine gun- jer had been living in the Stevens Motel with Louise Rolfe as Mr. ind Mrs. Vincent D'Oro. ‘LOND ALIBI’ ENTERS, In the face of reported posi- tive identification of McGurn by two witnesses, Jack insisted it was “a bum rap” and that at the time of the killing he was in the hotel with the fair Louise. That ‘was where ahe got her name, “the ; blond alibi.” There was much hubbub as oth- | er gafgsters were rounded up. Eventually MeGum and John Scalise were indicted for murder and Rocco Fanelli as accessory after the fact. McGurn's lawyers, Nash and Ahern, repeatedly pressed for trial, but the state kept taking continu- ances, claiming that additiona’ evidence was being uncovered. In the meantime Scalise was as- Sassinated in a gang killing gen- erally laid to the Capone mob. M’GURN’S CASE STRICKEN. ‘ McGurn ultimately was admit-' ted to bail and finally, in Decem- ber of 1929, the indictment against him was stricken when. for the fourth consecutive term of court, he appeared ready for trial and the state was not, No one was ever tried for tne crime. So ended the prosecution of Mi Gurn for the Valentine's Day’ Massacre without the “blond alo", ever appearing in court. Several months later came the! Prosecution of McGurn and Lou- tse on federal Mann act charges. resulting from their trip to Plorida together, which dragged on for years until the United States Su- preme Court finally upset his con- viction by Federal Judge Lindley which had twice been upheld by the Court of Appeals. AN “UNSOLVED CRIME.” ‘The massacre of N. Clark st. ultimately went down in Chicago crime annals as an unsolved crime. In the passing years there has been ® general opinion among po- lice and other investigators that} McGurn was certainly not the: leader in the plot, The most generally accepted. theory is that the head man in the execution of the seven Morart gangsters was Fred “Killer” Burke, also a Capone ally, whi is serving a life sentence in Mich: igan for the murder of & police man at St. Joseph. TY - Aes