Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. We know it as the day of romance and gifts. Some know it as a holiday celebrating St. Valentine, a Christian symbol of love.  But today, I’ll be teaching you about one specific, less sappy, Valentine’s Day. Much darker in nature, but maybe it can serve as an interesting, gruesome anecdote in American history. So without further ado, I present to you The Valentine’s Day Massacre.

1929, Chicago. The morning of Valentine’s Day, four men walked down North Clark St., in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago’s North Side. Two of the men were dressed in police uniforms, and the other two wore suits. Each held a sub-machine gun. Surprisingly, this wasn’t too odd of a sight in the prohibition age of Chicago. They entered the garage to find seven men, five of them being members of the Bugs Moran North Side gang, and the other two being associates. The four officers lined the men up against the wall under the pretense of an arrest. With their nose to the pavement, 70 rounds were fired into their backs. The two officers in uniform then led their two, now unarmed, colleagues at gunpoint out onto the street, and together they disappeared.

These four men would never be identified, due to the Mafia’s tight code of silence. Authorities were never to be told anything, under any circumstance. This code was so strictly followed, the one man to initially survive wouldn’t even admit to ever being shot, even while laying in a hospital bed with 14 bullet wounds. He died a few hours later. At first, it was believed that the officers had killed the gang members in an act of revenge for a local sheriff who’s son had been killed, but it was soon discovered that the four men were not officers at all, just in disguise. It is now thought that the attack had been orchestrated by America’s most dangerous gangster, Al Capone, who at the time was locked in a turf war with Moran. This theory was never proved however, and no one has ever been convicted in connection to the killings.

Bugs Moran was actually supposed to be at the fatal meeting, but he had been running late. The four gunmen had spotted one of the gang members enter the garage, and had mistaken him for Bugs. All though Bugs escaped death that day, his gang was crippled from the attack and he would fall out of power, with nothing but his one claim.

“Only Capone could kill like that.”

This story serves as a great example of how cruel organized crime was, not even taking a break on a day of love. It also offers a great piece of advice. If you’re ever laying in a hospital with 14 bullets rattling around your system, it’s probably not the best time to get tight-lipped.