Chicago Police Department Homicide Record

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer, an optometrist, was one of the seven killed in a gangland execution on Chicago's north side on February 14, 1929. The others killed were members of the George "Bugs" Moran gang. The Moran gang members killed include: Frank Gusenberg, Peter Gusenberg, Adam Heyer, Albert Kachellek (alias James Clarke), John May and Albert Weinshank. All seven deaths were meticulously described in the Chicago Police Department Homicide Record.

The gangland executions were ordered by rival gang leader, Al "Scarface" Capone. Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn organized the hit. These infamous murders were soon referred to as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The murders lead to public outcry for an end of the corruption caused by Prohibition. Below is the entry in the homicide record for Reinhardt Schwimmer with a transcription following.
 

 

Transcription
 
1929 Schwimmer,
Feb.
14
 

 

 

 

  3845-6
"The Massacre"

 Reinhardt–Age 29–One of the seven Moran gangsters who
were lined up facing a brick wall and mowed down
with machine guns and shotguns in a garage at 2122 N.
Clark Street at 10:40 A.M., 2/14/29. When the killers left
two of them had their hands in the air and the other two
followed pointing the machine guns at their backs. They
all got into an auto disguised as a police squad car and escaped.
2/22/29 Sam Loverde and Michael Favia were booked.
2/27/29 John McGurn and Rocco Fanelli were booked and
held without bail 3/16/29 by Judge Schwaba. On 3/6/29
John Scalise was booked and indicted; he was found
murdered 5/7/29 with Anselmi and Guinta in Hammond, Ind.
5/29/29–Scalise cause abated–dead–Hopkins
12/2/29–McGurn case Nolle Prossed–Trude
Fred Burke captured 3/26/31 near Milan, Mo. 3/29/31
brought to St. Joseph, Mich. from St. Joseph Mo. for
the murder there of Officer Charles Skelly on 12/14/29. On 4/27/31
he was sentenced to the Michigan State Pen. for life.
Following Skelly's murder the massacre machine guns were found
in Burkes S. Joseph Mich. home.





36
Dist.

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