The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
On this day · 14 February 1929
On a frigid Chicago morning, seven men were lined up against a garage wall and machine-gunned in Prohibition's most infamous hit.
On the morning of February 14, 1929, four men—two wearing police uniforms—walked into a garage at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago. Inside were seven men, most of them tied to George “Bugs” Moran’s North Side bootlegging gang. Believing they were being arrested, the men lined up facing the wall. The gunmen then opened up with Thompson submachine guns and a shotgun, firing roughly 70 rounds in seconds.
The slaughter was widely blamed on Al Capone, whose Chicago Outfit was battling Moran for control of the illegal liquor trade. Capone himself was in Florida, and no one was ever tried for the killings.
No arrest, no conviction—the bloodiest gangland hit in American history remains officially unsolved.
The massacre’s sheer brutality jolted the public and helped turn organized crime into a national priority, hardening resolve that would eventually bring Capone down—on tax charges.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
