Al Capone

===Saint Valentine's Day Massacre===
Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the 1929 [[Saint Valentine's Day Massacre]], despite being at his Florida home at the time of the massacre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-chicagodays-valentinesmassacre-story-story.html|title=The St. Valentine's Day Massacre|publisher=Chicago Tribune|date=February 14, 2014|access-date=February 26, 2021|archive-date=November 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126220921/https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/chi-chicagodays-valentinesmassacre-story-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The massacre was an attempt to eliminate [[Bugs Moran]], head of the [[North Side Gang]], and the motivation for the plan may have been the fact that some expensive whisky illegally imported from Canada via the [[Detroit River]] had been hijacked while it was being transported to Cook County, Illinois.<ref>{{cite book |date=1995 |title=Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition on the Michigan-Ontario Waterway |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FiZWrNjIPykC&q=al+capone+prohibition+smugglers+from+canada&pg=PA146 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |page=146 |isbn=0814325831 |access-date=October 15, 2020 |archive-date=June 7, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607163021/https://books.google.ca/books?id=FiZWrNjIPykC&pg=PA146 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors, Weiss and [[Vincent Drucci]], had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader [[Dean O'Banion]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bugsmoran.net/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903184250/http://www.bugsmoran.net/northsiders/drucci.html|url-status=dead|title=George 'Bugs' Moran|archive-date=September 3, 2015|website=Bugs Moran}}</ref><ref>[http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id111.htm ''My Al Capone Museum''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706215903/http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id111.htm |date=July 6, 2014 }} [http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id111.htm "Vincent 'The Schemer' Drucci"], Mario Gomes, accessed 2/7/14</ref>

To monitor their targets' habits and movements, Capone's men rented an apartment across from the trucking warehouse and garage at 2122 North Clark Street, which served as Moran's headquarters. On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929,<ref name=cdtsdim>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10609655/chicago_tribune/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |title=Slay doctor in massacre |date=February 15, 1929 |page=1 |access-date=October 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029012633/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10609655/chicago_tribune/ |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=tklocty>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14735930/st_valentunes_day/ |work=Chicago Daily Tribune |title=Trace killers; lid on city |date=February 16, 1929 |page=1 |access-date=October 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029012711/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14735930/st_valentunes_day/ |archive-date=October 29, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Capone's lookouts signaled four gunmen disguised as police officers to initiate a "police raid". The ''faux'' police lined the seven victims along a wall and signaled for accomplices armed with machine guns and shotguns. Moran was not among the victims. Photos of the slain victims shocked the public and damaged Capone's image. Within days, Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal Prohibition violations, but he claimed to be too unwell to attend.<ref>{{harvnb|Bergreen|1994|p=418}}</ref> In an effort to clean up his image, Capone donated to charities and sponsored a [[soup kitchen]] in Chicago during the Depression.<ref>[http://www.ssa.gov/history/acoffee.html "Soup Kitchens"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109112005/https://www.ssa.gov/history/acoffee.html |date=November 9, 2018 }} ''Social Security Online History Page''.</ref><ref name=vintage>{{cite web|url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/06/06/gangster-al-capone-started-one-of-the-first-soup-kitchens-during-the-great-depression-for-the-unemployed-2/|title=During the Great Depression Al Capone started one of the first "Soup Kitchens" for the unemployed|publisher=thevintagenews.com|date=June 6, 2016|access-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327151411/https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/06/06/gangster-al-capone-started-one-of-the-first-soup-kitchens-during-the-great-depression-for-the-unemployed-2/|archive-date=March 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre led to public disquiet about Thompson's alliance with Capone and was a factor in [[Anton J. Cermak]] winning the mayoral election on April 6, 1931.<ref name="articles.chicagotribune.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14735686/death_of_anton_cermak/|title=Cermak's death offers lesson in Chicago Way|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=March 7, 2013|author=Kass, John|access-date=October 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029012713/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14735686/death_of_anton_cermak/|archive-date=October 29, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>