Valentine’s Day, but soon after his people arrived, so did Capone’s torpedoes, two of them in police uniform. Six of Moran’s men died in what became known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, along with an unfortunate optometrist who liked hanging out with hoods; Moran himself only escaped because he was late for the appointment. As for Capone, he was on holiday that day in Biscayne Bay, Florida and at the actual time of the slaughter at the SMC Cartage Company garage, was on the phone to the Miami DA.
Capone in jovial mood
The St Valentine’s Day Massacre, said to have been carried out on Capone’s orders
In the end Capone was brought to book, not by the cops, but by the internal revenue service. In 1931, he was tried for tax evasion and sentenced to jail for eleven years. By the time he came out eight years later, the Mafia had moved on, had become more sophisticated; and he himself was not only old hat but half mad from tertiary syphilis. He died in his bed eight years later on his Florida estate. ‘Bugs’ Moran outlived him by ten years.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
B utch Cassidy, whose parents were both British Mormons, was born George Leroy Parker in Beaver, Utah in the spring of 1865. As a teenager, he hung out with a cowboy called Mike Cassidy at a ranch his mother was working on; he began calling himself George Cassidy after getting in trouble with the law at 18. A few years later, after joining a cattle-drive, he robbed his first bank at Telluride, Colorado on June 24th 1889, perhaps in company with a twenty-one-year old Pennsylvanian called Harry Longabaugh – already known to the law as the Sundance Kid.
At the age of about 18, looking for adventure, Longabaugh had travelled with relatives by covered wagon to Colorado; his first nickname-cum-alias had been Kid Chicago. But in 1888, he’d been arrested for rustling near Sundance, Wyoming and forever after he was known as the Sundance Kid. As for Butch, he seems to have worked briefly as a butcher in Rock Springs between bank- and railroad-heists – and the name stuck.
Butch was a charmer; the Kid, more aloof; both were accomplished escape artists. They each served just one prison stretch, the Kid after the 1888 rustling, and Butch in 1894 for – of all things – stealing a horse. For a while they went their separate ways. The Kid seems to have worked solo. But that was not Butch’s way: when he came out of Laramie State Penitentiary after a two-year sentence, he formed a gang which soon became famous as the Wild Bunch. He and a shifting membership, which included Elzy Lay and Harry ‘Kid Curry’ Logan, went after banks and mine payrolls – and between jobs holed up, first in Robbers’ Roost, Utah and then in the more celebrated Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming, a hideaway that had been used by Jesse and Frank James, among others.
It was at Hole-in-the-Wall that Butch and the Kid seem to have joined forces again. In 1899 and 1900, with a series of brilliantly planned hold-ups – beginning with a train robbery at Wilcox, Wyoming which netted between thirty- and sixty-thousand dollars – they became both celebrities and very much wanted men. At some point Butch tried to make a deal with both the law and the Union Pacific Railroad – his freedom in return for future good conduct. But when negotiations broke down, the Wild Bunch promptly struck again: they held up another train in Tipton, Wyoming in August 1900, followed swiftly by a bank hold-up in Winnemucca, Nevada, which yielded another $32,000.
To celebrate, the Bunch went south, to Fort Worth, Texas – and made the big mistake of having a group photograph taken there. For detectives from the Wells Fargo Company and the Pinkerton Agency soon seized on it and had it published both all over the country and as far away, ultimately, as Britain and Tahiti. Bounty hunters pursued them, and to escape the heat, Butch, the Kid and the Kid’s lover Etta Place, made their way, first to
Capone in jovial mood
The St Valentine’s Day Massacre, said to have been carried out on Capone’s orders
In the end Capone was brought to book, not by the cops, but by the internal revenue service. In 1931, he was tried for tax evasion and sentenced to jail for eleven years. By the time he came out eight years later, the Mafia had moved on, had become more sophisticated; and he himself was not only old hat but half mad from tertiary syphilis. He died in his bed eight years later on his Florida estate. ‘Bugs’ Moran outlived him by ten years.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
B utch Cassidy, whose parents were both British Mormons, was born George Leroy Parker in Beaver, Utah in the spring of 1865. As a teenager, he hung out with a cowboy called Mike Cassidy at a ranch his mother was working on; he began calling himself George Cassidy after getting in trouble with the law at 18. A few years later, after joining a cattle-drive, he robbed his first bank at Telluride, Colorado on June 24th 1889, perhaps in company with a twenty-one-year old Pennsylvanian called Harry Longabaugh – already known to the law as the Sundance Kid.
At the age of about 18, looking for adventure, Longabaugh had travelled with relatives by covered wagon to Colorado; his first nickname-cum-alias had been Kid Chicago. But in 1888, he’d been arrested for rustling near Sundance, Wyoming and forever after he was known as the Sundance Kid. As for Butch, he seems to have worked briefly as a butcher in Rock Springs between bank- and railroad-heists – and the name stuck.
Butch was a charmer; the Kid, more aloof; both were accomplished escape artists. They each served just one prison stretch, the Kid after the 1888 rustling, and Butch in 1894 for – of all things – stealing a horse. For a while they went their separate ways. The Kid seems to have worked solo. But that was not Butch’s way: when he came out of Laramie State Penitentiary after a two-year sentence, he formed a gang which soon became famous as the Wild Bunch. He and a shifting membership, which included Elzy Lay and Harry ‘Kid Curry’ Logan, went after banks and mine payrolls – and between jobs holed up, first in Robbers’ Roost, Utah and then in the more celebrated Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming, a hideaway that had been used by Jesse and Frank James, among others.
It was at Hole-in-the-Wall that Butch and the Kid seem to have joined forces again. In 1899 and 1900, with a series of brilliantly planned hold-ups – beginning with a train robbery at Wilcox, Wyoming which netted between thirty- and sixty-thousand dollars – they became both celebrities and very much wanted men. At some point Butch tried to make a deal with both the law and the Union Pacific Railroad – his freedom in return for future good conduct. But when negotiations broke down, the Wild Bunch promptly struck again: they held up another train in Tipton, Wyoming in August 1900, followed swiftly by a bank hold-up in Winnemucca, Nevada, which yielded another $32,000.
To celebrate, the Bunch went south, to Fort Worth, Texas – and made the big mistake of having a group photograph taken there. For detectives from the Wells Fargo Company and the Pinkerton Agency soon seized on it and had it published both all over the country and as far away, ultimately, as Britain and Tahiti. Bounty hunters pursued them, and to escape the heat, Butch, the Kid and the Kid’s lover Etta Place, made their way, first to
Similar Books
