Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

Capone was fed up with Moran's antics, and at the end of December, he went to Florida to mastermind what would become his most infamous crime.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre was one of the most fascinating and complicated hits in the history of gangland in this country, probably also the most celebrated.

On the morning of February 14th, 1929, Moran was late getting to his warehouse.

His men were there waiting for a shipment of whiskey.

The city and the country was sickened by this killing.

But the bloodshed wasn't over.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre was the most graphic show of violence yet.

Now, there was no escape for Capone.

So it's just kind of cool, you know, to think that one of the things I often talk about, Gene, is I like it when people walk down the street and a building sort of vibrates with a story for them.

Oh, I know that, you know, this is where the St. Valentine's Massacre happened or this is where part of Ferris Bueller was filmed or whatever it is.

And when you walk past this corner at Clark and Webster, there's this pioneering architect who could sort of vibrate that building for you.

I absolutely love the story and the photos that are in your story at chicagobusiness.com are a lovely accompaniment to this conversation.

Without a doubt, we're talking about an unprecedented, massive empire built on illegal gambling, bootlegging during prohibition, human trafficking, and extreme public violence.

Everyone knew about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Right.

Think of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Everyone in the country knew he was the architect of this empire.

The streets knew it.

Otherwise it would seem that at any point in the picture, they could simply remove their wigs and tell sugar cane, the band, sexy vocalist and ukulele player, um, that they both love her and hence are rivals for her affection, then take it from there.

Wilder continued, so we invented the fact that they witnessed a gangland killing and had to disguise themselves to protect their lives.

Then we set the story in the roaring 20s in order to make this element of the plot more believable, since mob warfare was rampant in the Prohibition era.

And so we brought in actual Gainland killing, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, as the killing that they witnessed.

Wilder then concluded, it was not that Mr. Diamond and I just sat down and said, we're going to do a satire on old gangster pictures.

That's just how the scenario developed.

all starting to ricochet off one another and there's no place left to go once they're all sort of in this tiny little net together yeah and holy shit and i remember watching this the first time and going i don't know how they get out of this

yeah it's or

Or do the...

Where did the St. Valentine's Day massacre happen? Chicago? Yes, I believe so.

Do that.

But just program it so that all the gangsters only hit themselves.

i think i'm gonna be sick

In the prohibition era at 1929 Chicago before the stock market crash, two stage musicians, Joe, played by Tony Curtis, and Jerry, played by Jack Lemmon, who are both struggling with debt, manage to book a show 100 miles away, and as they're going to borrow a car from a secretary Joe was flirting with, they witness the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

They manage to get away but are spotted by the mobsters, Spack Columbo and his men.

The only gig they know of going out of town is an all-girls band heading to Miami on the train, so they dress up as girls, Josephine and Daphne, On the train, as the bassist and saxophone player for Sweet Sue and her society, Syncopators, they meet Sugar Cane, played by Marilyn Monroe, a troubled girl who has run away from home, and both fall for her instantly.

don't know shit about like

the mafia and how shit works and it's doubly

interesting too because the 1932 Scarface also depicts the St. Valentine's Day massacre but it has a very different way which is yeah ripped from the headlines at that point and it's interesting to see it depicted you know as a narrative plot device here right like one that's like very firmly ensconced in the

Yeah, it's very daring, and that Wilder is taking two genres that don't go together, gangster films and screwball comedy, and smooshing them together, and it's so brilliantly done.

At one point two years ago, you had the most Italian players of heritage in the entire National Hockey League, and they have single-handedly.

This was like the St. Valentine's Day massacre all of a sudden.

We just wiped out every Italian there was.

This is worse than the Al Capone days, man.

It is the crime of the century, Dr. Andrew J. Toman, the coroner, said.

Wilson told a news conference that the terrible crime was the most shocking since the St. Valentine's Massacre.

Sorry, I just have to re-enlarge here.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14th, 1921, when seven hoodlums were machine gunned to death in a north side garage by gangsters believed to be under the wing of Al Capone.

Uh, and, uh, and so he's finally got his wish.

He defended the title twice, and then he Uh, he lost the title against Sugar Ray Robinson, February 14th, 1951, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

And, uh, and yeah, so, so that-- so the, the quote is, "You didn't get me down, Ray," when he was just standing up.

"You didn't get me down." So from '51 to '54, he's on, on the decline, moves up to light heavyweight, uh, losing to guys that he probably wouldn't have lost to in his, uh, in his prime.