06x03 - The Valentine's Day m*ssacre

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, one of the most
shocking murders in mob history,

The Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

On February 14th, 1929,

seven men from "Bugs"
Moran's infamous g*ng

are lined up against
a wall and ex*cuted.

There's 70 shots fired.

"Bugs" Moran was supposed
to be in that meeting,

and he never came.

And then he sat back in the
wings and watched what happened.

This level of violence
was off the charts.

The 1920s and 30s are
full of gangland murders,

but The Valentine's Day
m*ssacre will go down

as both the most brutal
and toughest to solve.

They published
incredibly gruesome images

of this violence,

and there's this immediate
public outcry for justice.

People want to know who did
this and to see them brought in,

but no one can
really figure it out.

Now, we explore the
top theories surrounding

the Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

The person with the most to gain

when it comes to
the death of Moran

and the gutting of his g*ng

is obviously Al Capone.

He's quite direct.

He says gangsters
did not do this.

Cops did it.

If this were a revenge k*lling

over the son of
a police officer,

it would make sense why officers

would then look the other way.

Even though we're
approaching a century

since the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre,

it is still one of
the coldest cases

in American history.

Who carried out The
Valentine's Day m*ssacre,

and why did they do it?

January 16th, 1920,
Chicago, Illinois.

It's a Saturday night,

and as midnight draws near

bar patrons take their
last sips of legal alcohol.

When the calendar flips

America is officially going dry.

The Volstead Act, the
dreaded 18th Amendment,

which has been brewing since
the Industrial Revolution

hit the United States.

And suddenly, everybody's
working a 40-hour work week,

and alcohol is being blamed

for absenteeism, t*rd.

It's also more importantly
being blamed for violence

that men rain down on women.

Prohibition is seen
as a Christian cure all

for American bad behavior.

They believe that this
can end domestic violence.

It can end poverty.

This is something they believe

will make the nation healthier,
wealthier, and safer.

So as the clock winds
down on prohibition,

you have kind of two energies

taking hold of the
American populace.

You both have temperance
advocates who are so excited

that this new more moral age
in America is about to dawn.

Then you have people
who are ruing the fact

that alcohol will no longer
be available legally,

and they're basically getting
drunk on that last night.

People talk about it
as America's last call.

There's no better
way to create demand

than to tell someone they
can't have something.

And essentially what
the government did

is they immediately created
a demand for alcohol

that could not be
satisfied any other way

than through ill*gal means.

And that was what the
mob was built for.

They were able to slip in

and immediately start
putting together networks

of buying and selling alcohol

and providing it to people.

In this prohibition era,

Chicago finds itself
as a real hub.

It's a big city.

It's centrally located
for distribution purposes.

There's already a kind

of notoriously corrupt
law enforcement system.

And so all of this is
kind of the perfect storm

for it to be the place that
Al Capone makes his name.

Al Capone becomes the
most important mob boss

and the most important
bootlegger in Chicago.

He's actually Brooklyn born.

He moves to Chicago around 1920,

and he takes what is already
a pretty well run g*ng,

and he turns it into

a million-dollar
moneymaking powerhouse.

By some accounts,

Al Capone's operation brings
in $100 million a year,

about 1.7 billion
in today's money.

There were actually two
rival gangs at this time

that were really vying
for everyone's attention.

There was the Chicago
outfit run by Al Capone

and the North Side crew,

which was run by
George "Bugs" Moran.

"Bugs" Moran earned
the nickname "Bugs"

because he was very violent,
he was very volatile,

and they kind of thought
he wasn't all there.

He was just kind of buggy.

While Capone
rules Chicago's South Side,

Moran maintains a stronghold
on the North Side,

and by 1926, their rivalry
turns into an all-out w*r.

"Bugs" Moran and Al
Capone couldn't stand

that one might be growing
faster than the other,

and before long,

we see Al Capone looking
over his shoulder.

In fact, he has a $50,000
bounty on his head

that's bringing people
from out of state in,

trying to k*ll Al Capone.

One of the tactics

that was exclusively
a Chicago thing

was created by the North Siders,

the marriage of the
Thompson submachine g*n

to an eight-cylinder automobile.

Absolutely devastating.

So with this bounty on his head,

Al Capone had an entourage

of people who would
travel with him,

whose sole responsibility
was to look out for something

that would place him in danger.

And that day came in a
little restaurant in Cicero

near South Side Chicago.

And Capone's eating,

when all of a sudden a
bunch of cars pull up.

The windows come down and men
with Thompson submachine g*ns

start spraying the
building with b*ll*ts.

More than a thousand b*ll*ts
were fired at Capone that day,

and miraculously, this guy
is able to escape unharmed.

It's important to realize

that even though these
two men loomed so large,

this was an era where petty
criminality was everywhere.

Everybody in Chicago seemed to
be on the take at this time.

The city's police force

was notoriously corrupt.

Even Chicago mayor,
William Hale Thompson

was rumored to be in
Al Capone's pocket.

The public is kind of willing

to turn a blind eye
to some of this stuff.

A lot of people
felt that, you know,

these guys can k*ll
each other off.

We don't really care.

Just keep our booze flowing,

and keep us out
of the crossfire.

All that changes

on the morning of February


There is a meeting in a
garage on the North Side,

and there's seven
members of the g*ng

that are waiting for their boss,

George "Bugs"
Moran, to meet them.

According to eyewitnesses
in the neighborhood,

they see a Cadillac pull up,

and four or five men jump
out of this Cadillac,

two dressed in police uniforms.

And they knock on the
door of the garage.

It's very likely

that the seven men
assembled in the garage

thought that this was just
a simple police shakedown.

This was something that gangs
were used to at that time,

and, frankly, if it's true
that they owned the police

through bribes and
other kinds of things,

it wasn't too stressful
to go through the process,

get arrested, and
get bailed out,

and the charges to be dropped.

But this time it
was much different.

So they are told,

"Get against the wall,
put your hands up."

The ones who had weapons

have their weapons
relieved of them.

The men from the Cadillac
unsheath their overcoats,

pull out Thompson submachine
g*ns and shotguns,

and then they open fire.

There's 70 shots fired.

According to eyewitnesses,

the perpetrators get
back into the Cadillac,

and they speed off.

People in the neighborhood
know something has gone on.

They've heard these shots.

So a few brave souls
go into the garage

and discover what is clearly
a horrific crime scene.

Newspapers across the country

pick up the story,

dubbing it The
Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

They published
incredibly gruesome images

of this violence.

And if you can imagine,

before this, people
knew about the crime

and the violence
of the underworld,

but it was very much
sort of below the radar

of what most people
had in their face.

Then, all of a sudden you have
this brutal act of violence

and pictures of it
in the newspaper.

The usual suspects
are rounded up,

but no arrests were
ever made that stuck.

Even though we're
approaching a century

since the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre,

it is still one of
the coldest cases,

one of the most
intriguing mysteries

when it comes to crime
in American history.

There's this immediate
public outcry for justice.

People want to know who did this

and to see them brought in,

but no one can
really figure it out.

The rivalry between "Bugs" Moran
and Al Capone is legendary.

So when a group of Moran's men

gets gunned down so violently,

minds immediately
go to one name.

The person with the most to gain

when it comes to
the death of Moran

and the gutting of his g*ng

is obviously Al Capone.

Many people are
certain that it's him

because he is rumored to
have already initiated,

if you will, the deaths of
maybe 200 people in Chicago,

including a handful of men

who have been "Bugs"
Moran's predecessors.

"Bugs" Moran is
truly the only man

standing in Al Capone's way

of taking full
control of Chicago.

Even though "Bugs" Moran
wasn't in the garage

during the morning
of the m*ssacre,

it completely hobbles
Moran's operation.

Moran himself
publicly accuses Capone

of orchestrating the m*ssacre.

As one would expect,

"Bugs" Moran blames Al Capone,

and says words to the effect
of only Capone kills like that.

Many politicians and
many people of note

around the United
States already believe

that Al Capone is capable
of doing anything,

and so they tend to
drift over into siding

with "Bugs" Moran's
interpretation of the events.

Herbert Hoover had just
been elected president.

In his campaign,

he spoke about
bringing law and order

back to the United States,

and there was a focus on Capone.

It was determined that
he was a public enemy.

In true Capone fashion,

the notorious mob boss

seems to have the perfect alibi.

On the morning of the m*ssacre.

Capone is in Florida.

He's living in his home
on Palm Island in Miami,

and that morning he has
a meeting with the DA

to talk about his involvement
with another m*rder,

something that had
happened the year before.

It's impossible to put Capone
at the scene of the m*ssacre

if he's clearly talking

to law enforcement
agents in Miami.

Just because his
alibi eliminates him

from pulling the trigger,

it doesn't eliminate
his involvement.

It's very possible he
still pulled the strings.

Some people believe the fact

that Al Capone has
such an airtight alibi

that this was part of the setup

and probably means more so

that he ordered
the hit at a time

when he knew he
would not be there.

So typically part
of the Capone plan

was for there to be nothing

that could tie him to the event,

no matter how many
layers he needed to use.

Even if he had shot someone

or beaten somebody's head in,

he was never there.

This was a highly
planned, organized hit

and that sort of
lends to the theory

that it was put together
by organized crime.

But even though a good
majority of people did think

that this was a Capone-
orchestrated hit,

it's not the only theory.

It's the morning
of February 14th, 1929.

Some Chicago residents
have just heard

a barrage of g*nf*re ring out

at 2122 North Clark Street

on gangster "Bugs" Moran's turf.

As crowds gather
outside the garage,

Sergeant Thomas J. Loftus

is the first policeman
on the scene.

Sergeant Loftus came in

and saw this incredibly
gruesome sight.

As he checked each of the bodies

to see if there was anyone alive

he came across one
particular individual

who'd been shot 14 times,

but was still clinging to life,

a guy named Frank Gusenberg.

Sergeant Loftus leaned down

and he whispered to him,
"Who did this to you?"

And Gusenberg said,
"The cops did it."

Sergeant Loftus does try
to get more information

out of Gusenberg,

and allegedly Gusenberg
says, you know,

"Take me to the hospital.

I need to be seen by a doctor."

And he never gives
away anything else.

Although a lot of people
immediately jumped

to the conclusion that
Capone was involved,

once stories about
Gusenberg's words

as well as the fact
that eyewitnesses

saw people dressed
in police uniforms

coming in a Cadillac

that looked like a
police-issued vehicle,

people start to question,

and there are theories

that maybe Chicago
police were involved.

There are real elements
of this crime scene

that support this
theory that cops did it.

Some of the guys that
ran out of the car

were wearing police uniforms,

and the Cadillac in
which these guys drove up

was of the sort that the
police would outfit for use.

It also had a weapons
rack on the back,

which was something
only the police had.

The accusation
that corrupt police

carried out The
Valentine's Day m*ssacre

also comes directly from a
member of law enforcement.

Frederick Silloway, who was the

Chicago Assistant Prohibition
Enforcement Administrator,

a very long title,

calls a press
conference the next day,

and he's quite direct.

He says, "Gangsters
did not do this.

Cops did it."

Which gets the press's
attention immediately.

And he said, "Later in the day,

we'll be giving you the
names of the cops involved."

One thing he stated
to emphasize this point

that it was easily rogue cops

is that they had
the perfect disguise

when it came to their misdeeds,

this very, very public w*r

between the Capone organization
and the Moran Organization.

This shocking
allegation makes headlines

across the country,

But there was no
second press conference

and the next day Silloway

has been moved to
another district.

There are so many corrupt
law enforcement officers

in Chicago during prohibition

that people don't find
this very hard to believe.

But Chicago police claim that
there is no proof of this.

They say that the
police uniforms

that eyewitnesses saw
were red herrings,

that these were
probably imposters.

And there are a number of
hitmen throughout the Midwest

that used police uniforms

in order to get away
with their crimes.

The idea that someone might
have gone to the lengths

to soup up a car

or make uniforms is
not as ridiculous

and as farfetched
as it might sound.

It would've been
pretty easy for someone

with the connections to come up

with really authentic
looking police uniforms.

Chicago police shut down

their internal investigation
almost immediately.

They are not
considering their own,

and they make it very
clear to the public

that they don't want them
considering police either.

By shutting down their internal
investigation so quickly,

it leaves people with a
bad taste in their mouth,

and there's a lot of
room for speculation.

Three months after

Chicago's notorious
Valentine's Day m*ssacre,

the investigation goes cold.

But then, 20 miles away in
the town of Hammond, Indiana,

there's a gruesome discovery.

Police come across
an abandoned car,

and they look inside,

there're two guys
horribly m*rder*d.

They weren't just shot.

They're completely d*sfigured.

Then, they found a third
guy lying on the ground.

Same thing.

If anything, it was
even more brutal

than the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre.

The investigators
are able to identify

who these three
butchered men were,

John Scalise, Alberto
Anselmi, and Joseph Guinta.

Even hardened coroners
are absolutely dumbstruck

by this scene because it
looks like these three men

have been bludgeoned with what
appear to be baseball bats.

Noses broken.

Eyes bludgeoned.

Faces going both
directions simultaneously.

They're almost unrecognizable.

The three men had
noted ties to Capone.

Guinta was one of his
henchmen, a hitman.

And Anselmi and Scalise

were known as the
Sicilian m*rder twins.

The m*rder twins were made
mafia men who came to Chicago,

and they were Al Capone's
favorite contractors.

They would rub the
b*ll*ts in garlic

so if the hole didn't k*ll
you, the infection would.

In 1925, both John
Scalise and Alberto Anselmi

had taken part in a failed
attempt on Moran's life.

So there's history there.

People had already connected
these men to the m*ssacre.

They were questioned
after the crime.

Scalise and Anselmi were
actually charged at one point,

although there just
isn't enough evidence

to pin the crime on them.

But now three
months after the m*ssacre,

these same gangsters
have turned up dead.

So these men turning up dead

in the way in which
they were k*lled,

it's so brutal.

It makes the authorities
in Chicago start

to say, "Hey, maybe these
people were involved

with the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre,

and they were actually
the perpetrators,

and this is the
retaliation for that."

Some newspaper reports indicated

that "Bugs" Moran believed
these were the men

who had carried out the
Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

And maybe this is
comeuppance for that.

Another theory is that
this was almost a sacrifice

that Capone made to
make peace with Moran.

In the months between the
Valentine's Day m*ssacre

and the Hammond murders,
there is this moment

where there are peace talks
between Moran and Capone,

and other organized
crime figures.

This much violence,

this much attention from
the police, from the press,

it is not good for business.

And so as bitter as the rivalry

between Capone and Moran is,

they know that it might
actually serve them

to kind of call a halt
to these hostilities.

Everybody wants peace,

but "Bugs" Moran won't
even come to the table

unless the South Siders

turn over Anselmi,
Scalise, and Guinta.

He won't even
attend any meetings.

And so there's not
gonna be any peace.

This is clearly personal
for "Bugs" Moran.

He wanted these guys gone

because he felt that they were
responsible for the m*ssacre.

So funny enough, just five days

after the Indiana murders,

we not only have a
peace conference,

we have a peace conference

that involves every big time
gangster in the United States,

including Capone and Moran.

So did Capone give
the green light

to k*ll these guys
to settle the score?

Possibly.

As Americans are sort of
getting used to the idea

that "Bugs" Moran had
called for the elimination

of these three men
outside Hammond, Indiana,

the Chicago Tribune
publishes an article

that says, no, it wasn't
Moran, it was Al Capone.

And according to the story,

Capone arranges for a dinner

at the Plantation restaurant

just outside Hammond, Indiana.

And Capone shows up
with two objects,

which most people think are
large decanters of champagne.

When he pulls away
the tissue paper,

it's two large clubs.

Capone used those clubs to
beat these men senseless

and then shot them in the head.

Capone k*lling
his own associates

is not all that uncommon
in gangland Chicago.

And there are these rumors

that Scalise, and
Anselmi, and Guinta

are starting to grow a little
too big for their britches.

Capone has been in
hiding for so long,

and he's living
primarily in Florida.

So there's this potential

that maybe these three men

are leading a revolt
back in Chicago.

They're trying to take
over the South Side g*ng.

And if that's the case,

Capone's not going
to let that happen.

It's also possible that he
was willing to sacrifice

a few of his men

in order to broker
peace with Moran.

In reality, all of these
things could be true.

If these three men were
involved in the m*ssacre,

that goes with them
to their graves.

But it's not long

before another mobster
comes under suspicion.

It's December, 1929.

Nearly a year since seven

of gangster "Bugs"
Moran's associates

were gunned down

in the Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

And the case is still unsolved.

By now, the tide is
turning against gangsters

and the rampant
violence they cause.

But without any hard evidence,

investigators still
can't crack the case.

Then, they get what might
be their biggest break yet.

In December, in the same year

of the Valentine's Day m*ssacre,

in Michigan, just about a
hundred miles north of Chicago,

a man was driving his vehicle

when he was involved
in a collision.

A patrol officer who
happened to be in the area

witnessed the accident

and ordered both
of the men to come

to the police station.

The policeman jumps
on the running board

of one of the vehicles,

and as they're approaching
the police station,

they come up to a stoplight.

And when they're fully stopped,

the driver of this vehicle
pulls out a revolver

and shoots the
policeman three times,

knocks him off
the running board,

and he takes off,
crashes his car,

and gets out, and runs away.

When the authorities go
through the abandoned vehicle,

they find documents
regarding the ownership,

and it is registered to
a guy named Fred Dane.

So using these documents,

they go to the
home of Fred Dane,

and they find something that
they've never seen before,

certainly not in the
small town of St. Joseph.

They discover a cache
of automatic weapons,

two Thompson submachine
g*ns, grenades, shotguns,

and along the way they recover
some physical evidence,

fingerprints that
they're able to compare.

And they learn at that point

that Fred Dane is actually

a man named Fred "k*ller" Burke.

Burke was actually kind
of a sole entrepreneur

working on his own,

sometimes for the mob,

sometimes for himself.

But he had a beef
with "Bugs" Moran

because it was Moran's
men who actually hijacked

some of his ill*gal
shipments of alcohol,

costing him a lot of money.

And with that came,
in his opinion,

a desire to commit homicide.

Not only did Burke have a
motive to strike back at Moran,

he clearly had the means.

He has a closet
full of weaponry,

including the same
kind of weapons

that were used in the m*ssacre.

The police enlisted the help

of this incredibly brilliant
scientist named Calvin Goddard.

They asked Goddard
if it was possible

to compare the b*ll*ts
recovered at the scene

of the Valentine's Day m*ssacre

with b*ll*ts fired through
the Thompson submachine g*ns

in Burke's house.

Inside of a barrel of a g*n

are these things called
lands and grooves

that create kind of
a circular motion.

Calvin Goddard wondered

if he could scientifically
examine b*ll*ts

and see if they came
from the same g*n,

thinking that those
lands and grooves

might actually be like a
fingerprint, so to speak,

that it would be
very characteristic

of just that weapon.

Calvin Goddard examines the g*ns

found at Fred "k*ller"
Burke's house,

along with b*ll*ts recovered

from the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre.

Goddard does his testing

and he reaches a
stunning conclusion.

All seven men k*lled in the
Valentine's Day m*ssacre

were shot with those two
Thompson submachine g*ns

found in the closet of
Fred "k*ller" Burke.

And this is really the
first significant use

of forensic ballistics,

and it'll become an
incredibly important science.

"k*ller" Burke goes on
the run for nearly a year,

so he kind of becomes
public enemy number one,

and he actually becomes
the subject of a lot

of true crime stories
that are being published.

And then a man in
Green City, Missouri

reads a story about
"k*ller" Burke

in one of these true
crime magazines.

And he realizes that one

of America's most wanted men

resembles a guy who's
living next door to him.

The neighbor phoned in a tip.

And he says, "I think
your guy is over here.

I think he's my neighbor.

Come take a look."

And officers did just that

and they found Fred "k*ller"
Burke hiding in a farmhouse.

And he was taken into
custody without incident.

So officers have
Burke in custody,

and they're very much concerned

about making sure
that the charge

of having k*lled one
of their own sticks.

And so they're much
more preoccupied

with those charges
than they really are

about who k*lled a
couple of gangsters.

And witnesses can't identify him

from the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre.

He's already serving life

for having k*lled
a police officer,

and you can't serve
life more than once.

And so it just kind of
really goes by the wayside.

Four years later, however,

more evidence emerges
connecting Fred "k*ller" Burke

to the m*ssacre.

A bank robber named Byron Bolton

says he's got new information

on the Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

He says Burke was the g*nman,

and that he knows because
he was a lookout there.

Most importantly,
Bolton says that the guy

who ordered the
hit was Al Capone.

Bolton's claim makes headlines,

but immediately it
has holes in it.

Two of these men
that Bolton fingers

both have airtight alibis.

And then J. Edgar Hoover
says, "This is not true.

Bolton is just making up a story

in order to look
like he's cooperating

to get a reduced sentence."

Ultimately, the authorities

don't act on
Bolton's allegation,

leaving Fred Burke's involvement

with the m*ssacre unresolved.

Burke dies in prison
without ever telling

what happened either
on Valentine's Day

or anything surrounding
the weapons.

And with everything Al
Capone is responsible for,

it's interesting
that in the end,

the only thing that Hoover

and his men can get are
tax evasion charges,

which ultimately
send him to prison

where his health
deteriorates so badly

that he finally is released

and returned to his home,

and he later dies.

In keeping with the
mob code of silence,

Al Capone took the
secret to the grave.

It remains a mystery

exactly why "Bugs"
Moran's men were gathered

in a Chicago garage
on the morning

of Valentine's Day 1929.

But there's at least one
clue that leads historians

to believe this was
an important meeting.

We may never know
exactly why Moran's men

were gathered in
the garage that day,

but we know that they
were all dressed well.

One even had a
carnation in his lapel.

It's Valentine's Day,

so maybe they're
dressed up for that,

but it's more likely

that they were there
dressed up for their boss,

believing that this is going

to be a business meeting.

But Moran does not show
up at the garage that day.

Moran's absence
and the lack of specifics

about the meeting's purpose

lead some to suggest an
unconventional theory.

The fact that Moran wasn't
at the garage that day

casts suspicion
in his direction.

There are questions that
he calls this meeting,

and yet he's so late
that he's not there.

Did he have ulterior motives?

The thing that's so intriguing

is "Bugs" Moran was supposed

to be in that meeting,

and he never came.

In fact, he later would only say

that he pulled up
a little bit late,

and he noticed the police car

and the police
officers walking in.

So he went and sat at
the nearby coffee shop

as the murders unfolded.

Essentially, he
called the meeting,

and then he sat
back in the wings

and watched what happened.

Many have theorized that
Moran may have done this

to do a little house cleaning,

that he might have had leaders
within his organization

that were starting to
carve a new pathway.

Maybe there was some
infighting that was going on,

or perhaps they were colluding

to take over the organization

and take it away
from "Bugs" Moran.

He had some rogue members
of his organization.

The Gusenberg brothers,
Frank and Peter,

were not always doing
what he told them to do.

They were his key hitmen,
his key muscle men.

But Peter, in particular,

had gotten into the habit

of pulling off what
really were petty crimes.

One example that the
press liked to write about

is that he robbed two
very well-dressed women

and stole their
jewelry worth $14,000,

which is an enormous amount
of money in in the 1920s.

And then a really bizarre case,

he tries to shake
down a stockbroker

unaware that this
fellow had a g*n,

and the guy began
sh**ting his g*n

at Peter Gusenberg,
this tough, tough

"Bugs" Moran hitman,
and he runs away.

And to Moran, this
is unacceptable.

All of these incidences
with Peter Gusenberg

make the North Side g*ng

look like a laughing stock.

And Moran might
have gotten fed up.

People who are critical
of this theory say

that it's unlikely that
he would've taken out

so many of his own men

just to send a message to two.

He's hobbled his
own organization

if you believe this theory.

After the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre,

Moran's organization started
to rapidly decompose.

Moran tried to hang on to
his position as a mob boss,

but he quickly was
being recognized

by others in the criminal world

as someone who couldn't
perform any longer.

He made attempts to join
other mob organizations,

and they simply said,
"Your time has passed,"

and kinda brushed him off.

By the 1940s,
Moran's nearly broke.

And after being arrested
for robbery and mail fraud,

he dies in prison in 1957.

We will never know if Moran
actually k*lled his own men,

but it definitely would
explain why he never showed up.

In 2010, Al Capone biographer,

Jonathan Eig discovers

a 75-year-old letter
in the FBI archives.

The document dated 1935,


Valentine's Day m*ssacre,

is addressed to the
agency's young director,

J. Edgar Hoover.

This is a letter
written by Frank Farrell.

In it he tells the director

that if he wants truly to solve

the St. Valentine's
Day m*ssacre,

he should look into the fatal
sh**ting of William Davern.

He says that in November
of 1928, William Davern,

the son of a police officer,

was in a North Side pub

that was known as
a gangster hangout.

And he got into a skirmish

with some people from
"Bugs" Moran's crew.

And he wound up beaten,
shot, and left for dead.

He's able to make it to
a firefighter's call box,

and he calls in this crime.

He's taken to the hospital,

and he lives for several weeks,

but he does not tell
anyone who shot him

with the exception,
according to this letter,

of his cousin, a man
named William White,

more commonly known as
"Three-Finger Jack."

"Three-Finger Jack" is a
lifelong criminal in Chicago.

He knows all of the
North Side gangsters.

He's been in a
number of stickups,

big heists of payrolls,

and things of this nature.

But he also has a hot temper,

and he's been known

to get really, really
violent when necessary,

particularly when it
comes to family pride.

When it came to his
cousin, he swore vengeance.

"Three-Finger Jack" had done
some work with Moran's men,

the Gusenberg brothers.

Back in 1926,
"Three-Finger Jack"

and this crew, including
the Gusenbergs,

had robbed a factory of $80,000.

When one of them snitched,

Jack and another guy
dressed up as policemen

and m*rder*d the
snitch in his sleep.

Of course, that detail
links directly back

to the Valentine's Day m*ssacre

when multiple people

saw the perpetrators
dressed up as police

before sh**ting up the place.

"Three-Finger Jack" knows
plenty of crooked cops,

including his uncle who
not only is a retired cop,

but also the father
of his m*rder*d cousin

who can easily put
him in touch with all

of the things they
need when it comes

to fake police
uniforms and the like.

And so the plan appears to be

that he will tell Moran
to send all of his guys

and himself over to the
garage for another job.

And the result is all of
these men being k*lled.

Coincidentally, the location

of the Valentine's Day m*ssacre,



is the exact same location

where "Three-Finger
Jack" had done business

with the Moran g*ng previously.

So if he summoned
them to that location,

they would not have
thought twice about it.

When you look at
the sheer brutality

of the Valentine's Day m*ssacre,

it doesn't feel random.

It feels very personal.

It feels like they were really
trying to send a message.

So if this were
a revenge k*lling

for someone having k*lled
the son of a police officer,

it would make sense why officers

would then look the other way.

Is there any evidence whatsoever

to link "Three-Finger
Jack" to this sh**ting?

Well, one of the witnesses said,

"You know, the driver
of the black Cadillac

looked like he was
missing a finger."

So maybe there is
some validity to this,

but there is no
genuine follow up

in part because "Three-Finger
Jack" had been arrested.

He was incarcerated on the day

of the Valentine's Day m*ssacre.

Maybe he bribed the
police to let him out.

That's highly unlikely.

So even this theory that
Frank Farrell comes up with,

like all the others,
has some holes in it.

Ultimately, Hoover doesn't act

on Farrell's tip.

Some believe it's because
"Three-Finger Jack"

was an informant for the FBI.

And it would make sense
that if "Three-Finger Jack"

is able to toss
them a bone or two,

bad activity by other gangsters,

that they might
look the other way.

I don't know how much value
they really put on the life

of somebody who was involved
in the kinds of things

that the North Side g*ng
members were involved in.

Maybe having them ex*cuted

wasn't really causing
any heartburn

for law enforcement
at that time.

When it comes to
"Three-Finger Jack,"

we'll never know, as
he was shot in 1934.

He took all of his secrets

to the grave with him.

The reason that so
many gangland secrets

have stayed secret and
probably always will,

is because there's
always the implication,

if not the out now
threat, of retaliation.

It is assumed and it is
demanded that one be silent.

It's so hard to get to
the bottom of this case

because this is a world
in which dishonesty

is part of everyday activity,

in which everybody's corrupt.

Everybody has a side deal.

People die very young.

Violence eliminates people

who might have shared
something later in their life.

And so I think that
it is really difficult

to ever really get a handle
on what happened that day.

The two principals
in this story,

"Bugs" Moran and Al
Capone lived several years

after the Valentine's
Day m*ssacre.

Capone, he would die at home

almost two decades
after this sh**ting.

And "Bugs" Moran survives
almost three decades

after what happened in
the garage that day.

And what's intriguing
about both these cases,

no one was curious enough to ask

either Capone or "Bugs" Moran

what really happened.

If they did ask them,

no one ever recorded
what the two men said.

So we're left with this
extraordinary mystery

about America's coldest
case almost a century later.

Chicago in 1929 was so
dominated by gangsters

and corrupt officials.

It's no wonder the truth about
the Valentine's Day m*ssacre

remains shrouded in
rumors and secrecy.

Everyone had an agenda,

one that often had nothing
to do with justice.

But interest in the
most famous gangland hit

of all time is still intense.

Perhaps new evidence will emerge

as we approach the m*ssacre's


For now, though it remains
America's coldest case.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."