The Life Of Al Capone: Valentine's Day Massacre

Al Capone It could be said that Al Capone unknowingly started the cosplay craze. During his reign over Chicago’s criminal network, Capone would sometimes have his henchmen disguise themselves while doing a job. Al Capone was a powerful and dangerous gangster because at a young age, he joined his first gang; he caused the Valentine's Day Massacre; and after being found guilty for other crimes, was sent to Alcatraz. One of the things that made Al Capone was dangerous, was the fact that he spent most of his young adult years in the life of crime. When Capone was a teenager he joined a gang that was known for forcing business owners to pay them so they wouldn’t rob their stores. The gang was called the Five Points Gang. (Woog, 2000) He was known

The crime as it was named, occured on Valentine’s Day, 1929. While Capone was rising to the top, he managed to make himself some rivals, like George “Bugs” Moran. Al Capone and Moran were rivals in the bootlegging business and weren't afraid to try to kill each other if necessary. Capone had already had most of his other competitors killed. (Cannon, Forsyth, 1999) Moran was the target and the reason for the massacre. Moran's place was raided by a couple of Capone's lackey's who were disguised as police officers on February 14th. (Cannon, 1999) Moran was the owner of a garage. (Cannon, 1999) Gangsters dressed up as police had stormed into Moran's garage and began a raid. The boys from Moran's crew had thrown away their weapons and stood next to one of the walls, thinking they were going to be searched. Then the "police" shot them all while their backs were turned. They only one to survive had been a German Shepherd. (Burdick Harmon, 2001) Capone had painted a target on Moran’s back and had his boys try to kill the bootlegger. It was sheer luck that Moran hadn't been at the garage at the time of the shooting. (Burdick Harmon, 2001) Moran may have escaped, but several of his men weren’t that lucky. Seven men were killed that day after Capone's lackeys shot them using a submachine gun. (Cannon, 1999) It was a very tragic event. To keep himself away from the blame, Capone had made plans to keep himself busy throughout the day as his men went through with the plan to knock off another of Capone's competitors, the most recent having been Frankie Yale. (Burdick Harmon, 2001) Before the events of the Valentine's Day Massacre occurred, the countries idea of gangsters was idealized and twisted into the hot bad boy image most people thought/think is cool. After news of the tragedy got out, it was like a slap to the face for most of America. (Cannon, 1999) Capone was killing the