Although now only the lawn of a nursing, this fenced in grassy spot contains five trees. On this spot on February 14, 1926, several individuals entered a garage where several of Bugs Moran’s men were hanging out waiting for a supposed shipment of alcohol. Two of these individuals were dressed as policemen. They lined up the seven men inside the garage along a brick wall near the back of the building. The middle tree on the lawn is planted where this brick wall was. Then machine gun fire erupted gunning down all seven in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

     Set up, Bugs Moran and his men had been waiting for a shipment of alcohol that never arrived. Instead of alcohol, Al Capone sent over several of his men instead, two dressed as police officers (even in a police car). The police hassled the seven inside and had them line up facing a brick wall. Upon doing so, two other men came in with tommy guns and executed every single one of them. As the men left, since they were in the company of two uniformed “police officers” those observing the incident assumed that everything was under control already, thus delaying the police’s reaction time to the massacre.

     Since Bugs Moran was late to the meeting, he lived, although his gang was forever shattered after that, thus ending the brutal war that was started by O’Banion and his racial slurs. After this brutal incident, the public and police decided they had had enough, and Eliot Ness was soon brought in to solve the crime problem.

     The location underwent several changes over the years, ranging from an antique store to a club, until the entire building was torn down. Supposedly the entire bullet-ridden brick wall consisting of over 400 bricks still exists in a private collection. It is also rumored to be available for sale. Other bricks from the building are said to exist as well, and legend states that these bricks bring bad luck and even occasionally death to those who own them. Now the location is simply the side lawn for a large nursing home. People are said to occasionally hear screams and machine gun far emenate from the lawn and the entire area is said to spook animals and cause people to feel uneasy.

     Parking was limited in the area, so I had to pull up to a traffic light near the location and snap a quick picture from my rental car.