Capone’s Message Goes Too Far
Capone sent his men dressed as officers to raid one of Bugs Moran’s warehouses on Valentine’s Day, 1929. They got the seven men inside to line up against a wall when the “officers” opened fire, causing a massive blood bath. It was dubbed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the news, accompanied by gruesome images, flooded the city.
The people who once loved Capone and saw him as a celebrity icon now were slowly becoming afraid of him, perhaps even disgusted. Though Capone’s actions of opening soup kitchens and helping during the Great Depression had given him a “Robin Hood” reputation, the scene of the massacre was too gruesome to ignore, and even though Capone went into serious damage control mode after that day, people had grown tired of his killings and havoc.
