The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone

William J. Helmer & Arthur J. Bilek
Cumberland House Publishing (2004)
ISBN 1581823290
Reviewed by Kathleen Dowdell for Reader Views (3/07)

Authors William J. Helmer and Arthur J. Bilek present new information about Chicago’s infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre that is sure to throw a twist in people’s thinking and spark new research for many historians about life in Chicago during the 1920’s prohibition era. They contend that the massacre was a mistake stemming from the fact that the killers showed up too early and slaughtered the wrong group of people, missing the intended victim, Bugs Moran. Instead, six of Moran’s gangsters and their friend Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer were gunned down in a dimly lit garage in bloodbath fashion. In an effort to quickly report the news, much speculation and guesswork by both the police and the press was reported and accepted as gospel to this day.

After sifting through pages of Chicago politics, facts about misguided law enforcement officials, and data about the origin of the Thompson machine gun, it remains crystal clear that the February 14, 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre had a huge impact on Chicago’s reputation and branding as the gangster capital of the world. New evidence about Al Capone is examined and presented that shows how the misguided political reform movement helped him rise to power in the early 1920’s without much effort on his part, yet leaving his name synonymous with Chicago.

In the authors’ attempt to examine the massacre itself, they uncover revised and contradictory information that sheds new light on this old story. Accompanying all these facts is a wonderful chronology compendium that summarizes Chicago’s vice, crime and corruption. As stated in the bibliography, much of the information in this book was obtained through books, booklets, and newspapers as well as personal memoirs of Georgette Winkler, widow of one of the gunman, Gus Winkler. The authors do a good job guiding the readers’ thinking, forcing the reader to look at this information in a new way and perhaps rethink the traditional reported accounts of the incident as bogus. This in itself causes critical thinking that may lead to further research on the subject.

This book is truly an in-depth look at Chicago’s prohibition era that discloses pages of information about this great city. I would recommend “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” to any collector of books on Chicago as well as someone just interested in the massacre itself. Even if you don’t agree with the point the authors are trying to make, the book itself has many historical facts and information about Chicago politicians and gangsters, the very people who had a critical role in shaping the climate of the city.

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