While most of the world celebrates true love on February 14th, the holiday has a more sinister meaning in Chicago since 1929.
Gangsters dominated the city during the era of Prohibition (1920-1933). The two most powerful groups in early 1929 were Al Capone's South Side gang and "Bugs" Moran's North Side mob. While each controlled the illegal booze market in their respective sections, there was always tension between the two groups as each would try to edge into the other's territory, hijacking liquor shipments or destroying rival brewerys and distilleries, often with loss of life. Despite occasional attempts to broker a truce, the conflict slowly escalated, resulting in greater losses of men and equipment as well as collateral damage of civilian property and deaths of innocents caught in the crossfire.
What happened next inspired a multitude of movies, radio and tv series episodes, novels, and even comic book stories, like the one at left from Headline Comics #23 (1947), written and illustrated by the legendary team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Remember, when this story was published, the massacre was less than twenty years earlier, and the incident wasn't history, but news the authors read and heard as kids and now presented in four-color form. It's not totally historically-accurate, but then, what dramatization is?
Enjoy, and Happy Valentine's Day!
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