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; Spotlighted » The St. Valentine’s massacre i that disgraced Chicago and made “Machine Gun" Jack McGurn & nationally known desperado o¢- (curred February 14, 1928, im a ‘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 place. , What happened was never ‘known, but apparently the fake Policemen lined the men up 4s in a raid, whereupon other mach- ine gunners who came in the back door shot them down as they stood against a wall. The scene later, the seven men lying in the blood- spattered room, is the high spot in the history of prohibition law- ilessness in Chicago. | M"GUEN SHOT BEFORE, Six of the victims weTe dead jmnen police arrived. The seventh, ‘ank Gusenberg, died within an har after mentioning “police- men,’ | Gusenberg and his brother, | Peter, also killed in the massacre, had been accused a 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- j mobile. 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- er had been living in the Stevens Motel with Louise Rolfe as Mr. ind Mrs. Vincent D'oro. BLOND ALIBI ENTERS. | MeGurn 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 gahgsters were rounded up. Eventi iaiy NMeGurn and sonn Scalise were indicted for murder and Roceo 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 additionai evidence was being uncevered. 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 192%, 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 Mc- Gurn for the Valentine's Dav: massacre without the “blond alibi", ever appearing in court. Several months later came the | prosecution of McGurn and Lou-! ise on federal Mann act charges. resulting from their trip to Florida | 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 erime 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, whit is serving a life sentence in Mich- igan for the murder of & police “In the face of reported posl- man at St. sir iman at St. Joseph T ¥ a AD