Bullets, Bites And Al Capone Offer Perfect 'Anti-Valentine's' Date

SCHILLER PARK, IL — If the Feast of St. Valentine conjures up images of Al Capone instead of candy and teddy bears, come see Tony Szabelski’s presentation on Chicago’s most notorious unsolved crime.

Szabekski, a veteran tour guide, paranormal researcher and historian, will give the historical backstory behind the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and other Chicago romances gone awry, Saturday, Feb. 4. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Great Escape Restaurant, 9540 W. Irving Park Road, Schiller Park.

The evening also includes a séance around what Szabelski claims is a real brick from the S.M.C. Cartage Co. garage, where members of Bugs Moran’s gang met their fates in a fusillade of bullets. Although everyone assumed Capone ordered the hit and despite evidence uncovered over the years, Scarface was never charged with the mass murder.

“The whole story is just fascinating. The entire beer and alcohol wars hit a head on Valentine's Day 1929,” Szabelski said. “I give a brief history of gangsters and the rivalry between Al Capone, Dion O’Banion, Bugs Moran and John Tittorio. They all ended up obliterating each other.”

On a blustery, cold morning Feb. 14, 1929, a Chicago police car pulled up in front of the S.M.C. Cartage Co. garage at 2122 N. Clark Street around 10:30 a.m. A pair of men, dressed in Chicago police uniforms and carrying shotguns, got out and marched into the garage. Two men wearing suits and carrying guns entered through the back of the garage.

Dressed to the nines, members of Bugs Moran’s North Side gang were lounging around the garage, possibly preparing for a booze drop in Detroit. The motley gang included Moran's second in command and brother-in-law Albert Kachellek (alias James Clark), Adam Heyer, the gang's bookkeeper and business manager; Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; and gang enforcers Frank Gusenberg and Peter Gusenberg.

Two “civilians,” John May, an occasional mechanic for the Moran gang, and the witless Reinhart Schwimmer, an optician who thought it was cool to hang around professional gangsters, had also joined the gathering. The hoodlums were interrupted by the two police officers and the two suits. The seven men were lined up facing the brick wall.

“I think when they saw these guys dressed as cops, they thought it was just a routine liquor raid,” Szabelski said. “I really doubt the Moran gang thought they would be executed that day.”

When the real cops arrived to find the pile of bullet-riddled bodies, only one of the men, Frank Gusenberg, was alive. May’s German Shepherd, Highball, survived unscathed, but was never the same. Some say Highball was so traumatized that it was decided to put him down.

“One of the most fascinating details is the line Frank Gusenberg used when the real cops got there. He remained true to the gangster code of silence and told police that ‘nobody shot nobody,’ even though he had 14 bullet holes in him,” Szabelski said.

Gusenberg died at the hospital three hours later. Bugs Moran had been a block away from the garage when the massacre was unfolding. Capone was fishing off his boat in Florida.

When the shock wore off, the S.M.C. Cartage Co. garage because a tourist attraction, making it nearly impossible to conduct a legitimate business there. The building was demolished in 1967. Today, there is an empty grassy lot, with a nursing home immediately adjacent. The 19th century apartment building across the street, where witnesses said they saw the fake cops marching out the men in street clothes with their hands up, is still there.

The Great Escape Restaurant, which is hosting the event, is also said to have its own share of cold spots and weird occurrences, like a shadowy figure that walks around with a clipboard before disappearing in a closet.

Tickets to the bash, which includes appetizers, are $40 and can be purchased in advance on EventBrite, or $45 at the door. The restaurant would like to have a headcount. For more information, email Szabekski at tszabelski@yahoo.com.