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HE old adage that truth, _ is stranger tha fiction was | never more grimly brought out than : in the cold-blooded, premeditated ‘ massacre of seven men eight years | ago this St. Valentine’s Day and the * coincidental fiction story that pre- £ ceded it by only 12 days. - The atory, “Hooch,” written by Charles! Francis Coe, dealt with exactly the same | situation that existed among the rival gangs and politicians of the time. The part: referred to here appeared as the last in- 7 ataliment in the Saturday Evening Post, F of Feb. 2, 1929, a little more than a week :, feet’ the fiction | so coincidentally became / ac . The mind of the author conceived what! he thought waa sheer fiction but less than}. a week after his story was nrinted Gano- | metry Tee POS WeeH +. land proved that they had minds with; more imagination, capable of bigger and. better things. \ ae Te Where Coe, in fiction, had dared to! murder four men, Gangiand, in reality, ‘ went him three better, slicing down seven - in their mad lust for power, two of whom - were innocent. * * * r TE subject is that red stain on Chi- cago’s map knowa to the world as the | BC. Valentine's Day massacre. The time mon tf stale on + ee Eaeey rh em WSs ay OCi0CKh OF Loe cold JLOCIMELE of ren. 14, 1929, in a grease-grimed garage at 2122 N, Clark at. Seven. men lounged about in the N. | Clark at. garage, headquarters of the “Bugs” Moran gang’s iliicit beer running activities. Five of them were hoodlums, yoemen of George “Bugs” Moran. They were Peter and Frank Gusenberg, Albert Weinshank, Adam Heyer and James Clark. The sixth was the garage mechanic, John May, The seventh was Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwim- ~ dentist wha far 4 re mer, a dentist, who, for some strange rea- fon enjoyed the company of these rum run- ners. Suddenly a long car drove up, stopped at the curb outside the garage. It looked like # detective bureau squad car, Five men got out—one in 4 policeman's uniform. Leisurely they lifted two wicked looking soachine guns from the ear, and leisurely they croased the walk to th Inside, the seven ig, the Farage, dor their feet, tense, frightened, PPh 2k ot eo vercd COEL faces as the lim psed in’ the uniform of a Heep een” the man they thought, the boys from the bureau CECT rT maT emit TY Tt ene “face the wall INE up » against that wan aay were were ordered. St They Hned--up. “Put your 3 hands up?” came a second vorder. ¢ * "Fourteen hands reached for the ceiling. ‘Probably a few of the hoodlums smiled. They apparently expected to be frisked for sunt, ag they had been so many times be- "The ‘third. order ‘came, “Turn around and wall!" . - ‘Those were the fast words those seven men ever heard. A second later a stinging hail of machine gun slugs cut them down. Blood splashed on the wall, gathered in pools on the ftoor, flowed in long thin streams from seven corpses toward the drain. The executioners strolled out non- chalgntly, hopped into their car and sped away. * . . | arered and newspapermen were stunned at the sight that met their eyes in the dim light of the garage. The whole world was stunned later when news services flashed the story around the globe. Head- lines screamed “GANGLAND GRADU- ATES FROM MURDER TO MASSACRE.” The case climaxed Chicago’s reputation as a hoodlum stamping ground. Two blocks away “Bugs” Moran almcst choked over his breakfast when he heard the news. “Only Capone would do a thing like that!” he muttered aa he hastily packed his bag to blow town. ‘Capone was blamed. Capone was al- ways blamed for everything. Many of his Wea ys prsissssuns are ve —s men were named, three, John Scalise, Al- bert Anselmi and “Machine Gun” Jack Mc- Gurn, were formally accused but were never brought to trial. The coroner's jury re- turned a verdict after long deliberation and investigation of “Murder by persons un- ern nee | ano wii. Of all the strange angles and aspects of the Valentine massacre, perhaps the strangest is that the story, called “Hooch,’ _ appeared only 12 days before and describe} the massacre eo accurately it might havp been written after Feb. 14. —_———, 4 : 7] THE(CHICAGO)SUNDAY TIMES FEERUARY14,1937