The St. Valentine’s Day massacre was a killing of seven people on St. Valentine’s Day. Al Capone was responsible for these deaths. He sent a team of four men to kill his rival “Bugs” Moran and his men. Two of the four dressed as cops and lined the men up against the wall of a warehouse. Then the other two came in with machine guns and shot and killed all of them. Moran was not there; however, Capone’s men had believed he was. Six of the people killed were Moran’s men, the seventh was a mechanic who happened to be there fixing cars. So what was the result of this horrific gang shooting?
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre has several results. First, it marked the beginning of the end to Moran's power. Moran suffered a heavy blow losing his men, however, he still managed to keep control of his territory until the early 1930s. It then passed to Frank Nitti, a Chicago crime boss.
The St. Valentine’s Day massacre also brought the full attention of the federal government to bear on Capone and his criminal activities. This was long in coming, but it was like the straw that broke the camel's back and caused them to look at him harder and start taking efforts to stop him.
Police eventually charged Capone gunmen Jack McGurn and John Scalise with the massacre. However, they both kind of got off, Scalise was murdered before he went to trial and the charges against McGurn were downgraded to a violation of the Mann Act, because he married his girlfriend, and she was the main witness against him. By marrying her, it became spouse privilege and so her testimony did not work very well. However, ironically, although he beat the charges, he was murdered himself on Valentine’s Day in 1936.