NIU Shooting, Al Capone and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre

The current news is full of the senseless shooting murders and suicide that took place at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb on Valentine's Day. I have heard news commentators call the Chicago area tragedy the "Valentine's Day Massacre."

While the tragic shooting and deaths at University of Illinois were on Valentine's Day, I have some trouble equating the senseless slaughter of students in a university class to the Al Capone gangland shooting of mobsters.

Before the HBO television drama, The Sopranos, there were real life gangsters. Tony Soprano was rumored to be based on a mafia don from the New Jersey mob of many years ago.

Al Capone was a real life gangster in Chicago. Capone and his criminal gang prospered during the Prohibition years. The gang's many illegal activities included illegal liquor sales and gambling.

The FBI has updated information on their website about "The Valentine's Day Massacre," The infamous gangland shooting in Chicago is an event that occurred nearly 80 years ago, in 1929. In fact, the massacre occurred on Valentine's Day of that year.

The FBI File recounts information regarding the murders of seven members of the Bugsy Moran Gang on Valentine's Day. At the time of the multiple murders there was no Federal law permitting the FBI to investigate, leaving the Chicago Police Department to conduct the investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation website has copied pages of notes and newspaper clippings recounting the story of the ghastly crime as it unfolded to the public of the era..

The crime was called the ghastliest crime in the history of Chicago. On February 14, 1929, men posing as police officers entered a warehouse at 2122 N. Clark Street. The building was a warehouse used by "Bugs" Moran and his gang to store illegal liquor. The police impersonators lined up the six gang members, along with one hanger-on, against a wall and shot them down in a blaze of gunfire from machine guns. The warehouse where the crime took place has since been razed, but curiosity seekers still visit the site.