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Al Capone — Part 36

62 pages · May 08, 2026 · Broad topic: Organized Crime · Topic: Al Capone · 62 pages OCR'd
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WILLIAM ALOISIO. Ducked under pool table ef shooting. Yalentine Massacre hted MecGurn' —_—.. . Spotlig il the @t. Valentine's mamactre = ab dimgraged Chicago and msde ~. ~ ‘achine Gun” Jack McGhirm « = \ cred February 14, 102%, Ib a rage at 2171 N. Clark st. . Seven. members of the ~ in mob, mpposedly awaiting i es own, but apparentiy the fake licemen Hned the mets up as a raid, whereupen other mach- - Funners who came in the back ow shot them down as mood ry f > seveh men bring in the itlered room, is the high spot we the histary of prohibition law- . ness in Chicago. GUEN SHOT BEFORE 3ix of thé victims were dead #n police arrived. The seventh, ~~ ——— nk Gusenberg, died within an uooafler mentioning “police. jusenberg and his brother, #r, also killed in the massacre, 1 been accused « year before ae athe shootlng of McGurn, Mt- nm head been shot through the k when ambushed in Als car 2 had been taken supposedly - as to Alexian Hrothera Hos- al. Te ralied and Hved and his OW gangsters spirited him away the hospital while he was in precarious conditlen. "WANTED FOR MASSACRE The massacre started a furore Chicage. Rewards totalling 600 were offered and the po- listed seventeen men m4 want- for the killings. the most tangible lead came ut ten days Jater when an omoblte was found in » burn- : garage at 1723 N. Wood at. 5 + 24 bPparent an effort had b o inade to destroy the auto- sole ape. Police named Claude ro-"dox, @ Capone hood?um, as the oa 7 oer of the car. —tremt excitement was occasioned the arrest of Mchurn February ot S—“'two weeks after the murder. was found the machine gun- had been living in the Btevens 41 with Louise Rolfe as Mr. I Mrs, Vincent Doro. OND ALIBI ENTEES. n the face of reported poai- evidence was belng uncovered. In the meantime Scalise was as- aassinated in a geng killing gen- erally laid to the Capone moh, M’GURN'S CASE ETRICKEN, | McGurn Wiimately was admit- ted te bail and finally, in Decem- ber of 1839, the indictment against biti was stricken when, for the fourth consecutive term af court, he appeared ready for trian] and the state was not. No one was ever tried far the crime. So ended the prosecution of Mc- Gum for the Valentine's Day Thasgacre Without the “blond alibi” ever appesring in court. Several months later came the Prosecution of McGurn and Lou- ive on federal Mano act charges. resulting from thelr trip to Florida together, which dragged on for years until the United Siates Bu- 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 trime annals as an unsolved crime. In the passing rears there hag been # genera] opinion among lice and other investigator: that) accepted theory ie that the head man in the execution of the seven Moran waogsters owes Fred Killer") Burke. alms s Capone ally, who ls serving a life sentence in Mich- igen for the murder of & police. Mean at Bt Joseph. a . “Things could atill be worse, yor entine addreseed to Jack MeGurn and know,” was the ironic phrase on the val- tossed on the floor ten feet from his body. LAW, GUNS CHEATED FOR 12 YEARS Jack McGurn for J@ years bare & charmed iife. The law never quite caught up with him. The gangs almost got him in 1928: then he survived eight years more during which. in hotel lob- bles. on gotf tinks, im Plorida and elsewhere, he wae the most con- epicuous charatter of Chicago's underworld. The blond Louise Rolfe, whom he married in hi attempt to beat = Mann act cose, wes aimost constantly with him, made him even more conspicuous, but somehow the dapper gun- man escaped during ol) these years the assassination that over- took so many of his contempo- raries. His career was almost cut short before the St. Valentine's Day massacre that made him @ ha- tional criminal celebrity. He was ambushed in hu car in 1928 and po- |ehot through the lung. SPECTACULAR ESCAPES. His cacapes from the law were More Numerous and even more spectacuiar, His firs. big brush with the law came in 1927 when he was graobed in @ police roundup when Gunmen were seized on disorderly conduct charges and subjected ta sanity tests. After many con- tinuances. during which the dap- per Jack demonstrated his men- tal miterness, he was finally ac- quitted, And in bis behalf the then} Alderman A. J. Prignano eppeared to testify a5 to the good character of MecGurn. That waz the same Prigmano who was a state repre- sentative when he was shot down and killed in front of his Twen- tleth Ward home the night of December 28, 1935. The next year im Municipal Court McGurn beat a charge of carrying concealed Weapons when Judge Rooney was convinced the wun he was charged with carrying Waa not conorsled but was iying bbeeide hitn on the seal of an autc- mobile. ST. VALENTINES NEXT. McGurn's neat big claah with the law was the St. Valentine's Massacre. There was great excite- ment when he was arrested two weeks after the killing of seven Moran mobsters In a N. Clark at. €atege and the police announced he hed been positively identified by two witnesses, one = myster- lows soclety equesirienne whose Identity was closely puarded. Folled in their efforta to ton- wict him of the massacre, the preaecuiors moved emainat the charges and federal charges under the Mann act based on their irips te Florida and other acuthern re- sorta, The state case dragged theooch many continuances end # ts Turore over a bond forfeiture: but bt got nowhere. Incidentally McGumm was one gangster who never faced income tax prosecution. While he was stu fightine ihe Mann act conviction in 1930 he was tried by Judge Frankhauser-: on charges of carrying concealed Weapons and sentenced to @ year. in Jail and e 8300 fine. FLED TO FLORIDA. MeGuin tried to avoid the sun trial by jumping bond and flce-: ing to Florida. But eventualiy he Was caught there on Al Capone's j Paintial estate and Drury end: Howe went down and brought him back. COUET AID TO HOODLUMS. Altomeya Thomas Nash and Michaee!l Ahern, who fought mos! ef McCrurn’s court battles carried the case te the Ihnois Supreme Court and won reversal on the eTound that the detectives had n starch warrant when they so... 0 McGurn. The decision nat ons freed Rim but other hoodlums fac - pair in state courte on statutory! ing similar prosecutions. * Vivste When Police Arrive, Continued from First Page. ered by a sheet. Hin black heir i ruftled. There was s mnudge nis forehead and blood on hia or Just a moment pretty Loulse ered her handkerchief. hen Sergt, Donohue had to ty her back to the anteroom. ie offered her water, but she 1 “I don't want any.” ‘arlier, Weeping softly al the ‘ine st. police station, where was questioned by Sergt. Don- le, Capt. Martin Mullen, De- ive Lieut. Richard Barry, et. Kyran Thelan and Patrol- O Richard P. Broehl, she had ed or. peatedly for water and aspirin. NTS DRINK EN ROUTE, ym the way to the station with gi. Donohue, ber eecart_an her fidow Fully Dressed! y Call Tells ‘Blond Alibi’ of “Machine Gun Jack's” bullet-torn body. There was nothing now. She didn't want anything. Not even @ plans of water. That was Louise Gebardi. in her happier days the senszatio witness for the defense of "Ma- chine Gun Jack” when the heat wes on him for the infamous Bt. Valentine's Day massacre. perpe- trated exactly seven years before Jack Himself was massacred. GAVE "JACK AN ALIBL She testified then that she was with Jack at the tlme the seven were slain In the N. Clark st. ga- tage. He “beat the rap.” Later they were arrested to- gether in the Stevens Hotel and convicted under the Mann act, but the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction. Allbls today Were needless. And, Perhaps, it wat just as well for Loulse that they were. She in- sisted she knew of no reason for Jack's assassination, that she didn’t even know what he did for hours before his death. STORY OF LAST HOURS, Here, eh. according to the police @—Be yo know bowied? A—No. Q—Was any one with him when ne left the Rouse? A—No, where he Q Of your own knowledge do ‘after you know if he had any trouble with any one lately? A—No, TOLD BY REPORTER. @_Do you know he was ahot and killed Inst evening. A—Yas. A reporter came to my hous and told me, Earlier Loulae had told Sergt. Donohue of mw mystery phone call telling her “something had hap- Q.—Do you khow of any rea- son why he should have been Killed? A—Na. Q—Do you know if he belonged to apy Secret or labor organiza- tions? A--Nane. Q-Has he been out of town lately? A—Noe. Q—How did he leave home last night? A—He left in hls own Ford coupe. Loulse was taken to the station for questioning by Sergt Donohue. SWAYE IN WALK TO CAR. “Take me to him: Take ime t him:” When Bergt. Denohue rang her doorbell early today she answered & delay, She wea fully: dressed, sobbing byt not hyster- ical. Bergt. Donohue ssked: “De you know abel JackT Bhe seid: “Yes! My Ged! Hew bad bet” “Well, he's gene.” And Louise threw on her fur cost, a Jjmunty black hat and walked down the path with Sergt. Donohue. TELLS OF FHONE CALL, She told of the phone call as they drove t the station, but did not mention it during the of- flelal questioning. Shortly after the shooting, she anid, & voice told her over the phone: “Something bas happened to deck!" But she insisted that was all. Ironically, ahe revealed, Jack head gone to a wakes Thursday night Yesterday morning he hed some to the funeral whish 1 time Louise saw him alive. 1 She said she didn't know what dack bad been doing for a hiring lately, but she thought— : “He owned a picce of a book ; al Melrose Park.” | When Sergt. Donohye and ree Porters approached = MrcGuim's, home it wae evident that bad news| had arrived first. NIGRT LAMP BURNING, 1 Through a window they could, see the master bedroom on tiie , first Floor, A ought lamp burned dimly between Louis XVI twin! beds of aspen wood. But ihe bed«! were deserted. They peered through another window into # Living room. car- pelted in dark coffee color like the bedroom. It, tog, waa lighted by a dim lamp. But the tamp threw its raya Oh upholstered furniture which was. vacant. Two bedrooms on the second floor also were empty. It is be-|[ lieved one was used by McGarn‘sh 1é-year-old daughter, a dark-eyed. |. auburn-haired beauty. Bul i ttl. wea, the daughter had flown, |. aN * if f,
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