Fred “Killer” Burke started his life of crime as a teenager in Kansas City. When he moved to St. Louis, he became a top member of Egan’s Rats, the city’s most notorious crime syndicate. Burke committed robberies and contract killings in St. Louis until a large number of his associates were jailed. He moved to Michigan, where he was an associate of Detroit’s Purple Gang and was a suspect in the murder of three men in 1927. He relocated to Chicago, where he hooked up with Al Capone.
When the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred on February 14, 1929, Burke was among the prime suspects. He went into hiding in rural Michigan. On December 14, 1929 — 10 months after the Massacre — he was involved in a car accident in St. Joseph, Michigan, where he was known as “Frederick Dane.”
When patrolman Charles Skelly tried to intervene, Burke shot him dead and took off. He wrecked his car on the edge of town but commandeered another and got away.
Police found papers in Burke’s wrecked car that led them to his house, where they found an arsenal that included two Thompson submachine guns. The guns and ammunition were delivered to Dr. Calvin Goddard’s crime lab in Chicago. Goddard fired test bullets from the Tommy guns and they matched those taken from the Massacre victims.
Chicago Police now had the murder weapons, but they still didn’t have any suspects in custody.
Burke, America’s most wanted man at the time, fled to a farm in Green City, Missouri. He posed as a prosperous businessman named “Richard F. White.” While hiding out there, Burke married a 20-year-old nurse named Bonnie Porter and they lived on her father’s farm.
A local man named Joe Hunsaker studied the newcomer and became convinced he was really Fred Burke, whose pictures he had seen in True Detective magazine. Local police initially ignored Hunsaker’s pleas to apprehend the fugitive cop killer, but finally in the early morning of March 26, 1931, they raided Burke’s house and found him in bed. Burke had weapons by his side but he did not resist arrest.
Burke was extradited to Berrien County, Michigan, where he was convicted of killing the police officer and sentenced to life in prison. He served nine years in Marquette State Prison before he died of a heart attack in 1940. He was strongly suspected of participating in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre but was never prosecuted.
The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of involvement; others have said that members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer's son played a part.
St. Valentine's Day Massacre, mass murder of a group of unarmed bootlegging gang members in Chicago on February 14, 1929. The bloody incident dramatized the intense rivalry for control of the illegal liquor traffic during the Prohibition era in the United States.
His wife left him and he was reduced to getting involved in small-time narcotics deals, which at the time was an activity the mob forbade its members to become involved in. On February 14, 1936, McGurn was in a Chicago bowling alley when he was cornered by five hitmen who opened fire on him, killing him instantly.
Officially, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre is an unsolved crime. The Chicago police were never able to identify the perpetrators and no one ever confessed.
THE COLDEST CASE: Since February 14, 1929, when seven men were gunned down inside a Clark Street garage, the mastermind behind the St. Valentine's Day Massacre has remained a mystery, though suspicions usually point to Al Capone.
Bullets removed from the bodies of the Massacre victims were collected in envelopes with notes on where the bullet was found. This envelope held a bullet (the larger of the two shown) removed from the lower right side of John May's back.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a particularly bloody chapter in organized crime history. On Valentine's Day 1929, Thompson submaching guns shot and murdered seven men from Chicago's North Side Gang, headed by George Clarence “Bugs” Moran.
Turns out, it was a pretty common name during Late Antiquity. As far as anyone can tell, the Saint Valentine of Valentine's Day was one of two guys preaching the good word in Rome in the third century. One of these two was martyred on February 14th 269, thus giving us the date for his eponymous day.
In I Corinthians 10:19-21, the apostle Paul compares mixing paganism with Christianity—syncretism—to worshipping demons. This principle includes giving one's time or interest to things of pagan origin. As an example, the Bible neither mentions nor espouses Valentine's Day or its practices.
Frank Nitti was Al Capone's right hand man, in charge of all his strong-arm operations. Nitti was only ever convicted of tax evasion and committed suicide in 1943.
Bodyguard of Al Capone, Nitti was in charge of all money flowing through the operation. Nitti later succeeded Capone as acting boss of the Chicago Outfit.
Aftermath. The massacre marked the beginning of an end to Moran's power. However, with the gang members he had left, Moran managed to keep control of his territory until the early 1930s. The event also brought the belated and full attention of the federal government to Capone and his criminal activities.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. George “Bugs” Moran was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s.
McGurn is associated with planning the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in 1929, though this association has not been proven. Although police charged McGurn in the case, he was never brought to trial largely due to his "blonde alibi" — girlfriend and later wife Louise Rolfe — who claimed they spent the whole day together.
The very brief vita of St Valentine states that he was executed for refusing to deny Christ by the order of the "Emperor Claudius" in the year 269. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a particularly bloody chapter in organized crime history. On Valentine's Day 1929, Thompson submaching guns shot and murdered seven men from Chicago's North Side Gang, headed by George Clarence “Bugs” Moran.
Police found papers in Burke's wrecked car that led them to his house, where they found an arsenal that included two Thompson submachine guns. The guns and ammunition were delivered to Dr. Calvin Goddard's crime lab in Chicago.
Turns out, it was a pretty common name during Late Antiquity. As far as anyone can tell, the Saint Valentine of Valentine's Day was one of two guys preaching the good word in Rome in the third century. One of these two was martyred on February 14th 269, thus giving us the date for his eponymous day.
Introduction: My name is Terence Hammes MD, I am a inexpensive, energetic, jolly, faithful, cheerful, proud, rich person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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